Eliza Turner Green.
Harry, thirty-nine, and Eliza, twenty-eight, were married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 8, 1906. Taking on the task of raising five lively children, she was a remarkable woman. To add to her burden, there were always additional friends and relatives living at their home.
The children liked their new mother, but as they grew older, they rebelled at having to do so much housework as she was a hard worker. Eliza was an excellent cook. The girls remember bushels of vegetables and fruits that she canned. Every Monday, without fail, holiday or not, she boiled large loads of washing over a coal stove on the back porch. The ironing came on Tuesday. Harry’s brothers and sisters at times came to visit them. Eliza’s sisters, Sophie and Leah, lived there while they went to school and worked for Harry. Also living with them were hired girls: Hattie Breedon, Louie (Hattie’s sister who didn’t help as much as she could), and Jenny Griggs from England.
Eliza came from a strict religious home. Her father was a bishop and a polygamist. She insisted that her children go to church. They also had family prayer every morning without fail, kneeling at chairs turned outward around the table. As Harry left for work, he would go around the breakfast table and kiss the children twice, once for him and once for their mother. They called him “Papa” and dearly loved him.
Harry and Eliza’s first baby, Anna, was born May 7, 1908. She lived only a day. This loss surely was hard for them to take. Another tragedy hit when Will, the oldest son, died of rheumatic fever on September 17, 1909. He had been sick off and on. Lucille remembers him hemorrhaging from his nose at different times. He was at Uncle Jack’s ranch in Crowden, near Morgan, when he passed away. Will was buried on his seventeenth birthday.
A month later, on October 13, 1909, a son, Charles Albert, was born to them. As their family was growing, they decided to enlarge their home. Since Harry was in the plumbing and heating business, he installed indoor plumbing and central heating, unusual in those days. They had a parlor, library, sitting room, dining room, kitchen, four small bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, and a bedroom and bath downstairs. They even had a telephone. Harry’s home was considered one of the nicest homes in the ward. North of the house was a clay tennis court. In back they had a red barn for their two horses and surrey. The girls remember painting it with feathers and water as children. Will had prize chickens and pigeons in some big chicken coops. Their household animals included a dog, Maud, a pet donkey, Teddy, and two cows. Teddy used to go to the fence and bray when Harry came home from work.
Leone and Lucile Green with family pets.
On Sundays, Harry took his family riding in the surrey up West Temple to Brigham Street and on to Liberty Park. They got ice cream sodas on the ride. Another fun thing they did for recreation was to go out to Great Salt Lake. Also, they had season tickets to the Orpheum Theater (Promised Valley Playhouse), where they went every Saturday.
Harry was meticulous in his dress, a typical English gentleman. He always wore a well-pressed suit, vest, white shirt, and tie. His children remember him always shining his shoes as he went out the door.
L to R: Henry Green, Will Green, Jack Reeves.
In the next few years, Harry did very well in his business. Jack Reeves and his brother Will were partners with him in the “Green and Reeves Plumbing Company.” He was supervisor of plumbing and heating installations for the Salt Lake Temple, LDS Hospital, Hotel Utah, and Walker Bank Building, among others. Also, he was in charge of construction of sidewalks in the city. Harry’s office was on the corner of West Temple and South Temple. May, his sister, was his bookkeeper, and Lucille was his typist and general office girl.
A mention of Green & Reeves in Domestic Engineering and the Journal of Mechanical Contracting, 1905.
Around 1912, he bought the Riverside Dairy and Stock Farm in Jordan, south of 33rd South and east of Redwood Road, by the Jordan River. Harry obtained many expensive pure-bred Guernsey cattle from the Isle of Guernsey. He had the biggest and only silo in the county. Part of the dairy was a big long barn and a milk house where milk was strained through cheese cloths. They were delivered to most of the hospitals in the city and were the first to have metal caps over their bottles. Except for Leone who didn’t like the smell and the bed bugs, the children used to spend time in the barn. Unluckily, the arsenic poisoning from the nearby Murray Smelter affected the feed which in turn killed his purebred cattle. Along with other dairies, he sued the smelter but lost the lawsuit. Eventually, he lost the business as well as much money.
To be continued...
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