Background

Samuel Abbott Green was born on March 16, 1830 at Groton, Massachusetts, the fourth of the six children of Dr. Joshua and Eliza (Lawrence) Green. He was descended in the eighth generation from Percival and Ellen Green who came to Boston in 1635 and settled in Cambridge the next year.

Education

Samuel spent his boyhood in Groton where he was fitted for college at Lawrence Academy, an institution early endowed by his kinsmen of the Lawrence family. After his graduation from Harvard College in 1851 he studied medicine with Dr. Jonathan Mason Warren of Boston and graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1854. Meanwhile he attended a course of lectures in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia in 1851 and 1852 and was a surgical house pupil in the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1853.

Career

In 1854 he made a long voyage in a sailing vessel, necessitated by the state of his health, then resumed his medical studies in Vienna. On his return to the United States in 1855 he began the practise of medicine in Boston, where, excepting for the Civil War period, he spent the rest of his professional life. His war record, and he was the first physician in the state to enter the army medical service, began with his commission as assistant-surgeon of the 16t Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, May 25, 1861.

On September 2, 1861, he was commissioned surgeon of the 24th Regiment, and served as a staff officer under Generals Stevenson, Foster, Hawley, Terry, and Kautz. He organized and had charge of the hospital ship Recruit during the Burnside expedition against Roanoke Island, which left Annapolis in January 1862, was in charge of the hospital steamer Cosmopolitan on the coast of South Carolina, and was chief medical officer on Morris Island during the siege of Battery Wagner.

In October 1863 he was sent as a surgeon to St. Augustine and Jacksonville, Florida. Brevetted lieutenant-colonel of volunteers for distinguished services in the field during the campaign of 1864, he served finally, from April to July 1865, as acting staff-surgeon in Richmond. After the war Green again took up his medical practise in Boston and served the community in many capacities. He was city physician, 1871-82; trustee of the Boston Public Library, 186878, and acting-librarian, 1877-78; and mayor of Boston, 1882. Outside his medical practise his most absorbing interest was his connection with the Massachusetts Historical Society, in which his membership began in 1860. He was the “keeper of the cabinet” in 1861; a member of its council from 1860 to 1918; its librarian from 1868 to 1918; and its vice-president from 1895 to 1914. During his incumbency he found time to write several works on the history of his native town, Groton, and continued his interest in Lawrence Academy which he served for many years as a member of the board of trustees and to which he gave the bulk of his estate as residuary legatee.

Achievements

• He was a prominent person famous as 28th Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts and physician. He also wrote a large number of papers on scientific and historical subjects.

Works

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  • Early Church Records of Groton, Massachusetts, 1761-1830: Containing a List of Admissions to the Church, With Lists of Marriages and Baptisms; And Various Other Memoranda (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Early Church Records of Groton, Massachusett...)

  • Piracy off the Florida Coast and Elsewhere

    (Piracy off the Florida Coast and Elsewhere is presented h...)

  • Facts Relating to the History of Groton, Massachusetts, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Facts Relating to the History of Groton, Mas...)

  • Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Groton, Massachusetts

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Membership

He was a memeber of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Connections

He never married.

Father:

Joshua Green

Mother:

Eliza (Lawrence) Green