Background
Adolphus Williamson Green was born on January 14, 1844 in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Adolphus Williamson Green was born on January 14, 1844 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Green was educated in Boston public schools, including the Boston Latin School, from which he graduated in 1859.
A year later, in 1898, he was the first person to sell packaged biscuits. He served as the President of the National Biscuit Company from 1905 to 1917. His ancestors had immigrated to the United States from Ireland.
He entered Harvard University in 1859, graduating in 1863.
Green started as the Principal of the Groton School in 1864. In 1865, he became second assistant librarian at the New York Mercantile Library.
From 1867 to 1869, he was promoted to full librarian. From 1869 to 1873, he worked for Evarts, Southmayd & Choate, a law firm co-founded by William M. Evarts, Charles Ferdinand Southmayd and Joseph Hodges Choate.
He was admitted to the New York State Bar Association in 1873.
Green moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1873, and began practising as an attorney in Chicago. In 1886, he became the attorney of the South Park Commissioners. Later, he was the attorney of the Chicago Board of Trade.
By 1898, Green merged both companies with the Chicago-based New York Biscuit Company, which owned twenty-three bakeries from ten states on the East Coast.
The merger of a hundred and fourteen bakeries led to the National Biscuit Company, co-founded by Green alongside Philip Danforth Armour, a meatpacking magnate, and Senator Frank Orren Lowden of Illinois. Green first served as the general counsel of the National Biscuit Company, and later as the Chairman of its Board of Directors.
In 1899, he was the first person to sell packaged biscuits instead of selling them in bulk. Green went on to serve as the President of the National Biscuit Company from 1905 to 1917.
Under his leadership, the company marketed Uneeda biscuits, animal crackers and Oreos.
Green encouraged his employees to buy stocks, refuse to hire children in his factories, and provided affordable meals. However, he was opposed to strikes and organized labor. Green was a delegate to the 1892 Democratic National Convention.
He supported Grover Cleveland in the 1892 United States presidential election.
Green died on March 8, 1917. He was seventy-three years old.
His funeral took place at Saint Mary"s Church in Greenwich, Connecticut on March 10, 1917. At the time of his death, he was worth United States$2,400,000.
The National Biscuit Company, now known as Nabisco, is a subsidiary owned by Mondelēz International.