Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Margaret Green, 1849-1928
By Brenden Barco, Ph.D., Raleigh, N.C.
Margaret/Marguerite Vida Stanley Green nee Lane was born in Madras, British India on August 29, 1849. Her parents were George Eben Lane and Vida Morphett. A Lieutantant-Adjutant in the 25th Regiment at Fort St George, George died in 1852 from apoplexy. By 1867, the family had relocated a long way to Tipperary, Ireland and Margaret married James Ellis Green in the town of Clonmel. In the mid-1870s, the Green family relocated to the United States and by 1880 was residing in Baltimore, Maryland.
James Green was a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and had training in mathematics and law. Initially a city schoolteacher, James later became a clerk and rose to the level of Deputy Insurance Commissioner of Maryland, a position he held for nearly 10 years until his death in 1913. The "Professor" was well-regarded in the Baltimore area and built up enough funds to move the family to Mornington, a 15-room country estate near Towson.
Margaret was the mother of nine children, five of whom lived to adulthood, and had no listed occupation throughout her time in America. However, she was an active member of the Baltimore County Woman's Christian Temperance Union (BC-WCTU), for a time serving as its president. As part of this group, she led several social purity initiatives to spread religious and moral discourse in prisons. She also took part in broader political movements within the BC-WCTU such as their demands for a raised age of consent for girls, repeal of divorce laws, and suppression of child labor.
As part of the BC-WCTU, Margaret backed an 1890 endorsement of women's suffrage as "the means by which to secure the removal of the saloons." Margaret also admired women with prominent roles in politics, notably Mary Risteau, the first woman to serve in the state General Assembly. Additionally, along with fellow BC-WCTU members Elizabeth Herring and Ethel Crosby, she represented Baltimore in numerous state suffrage conventions. An active member of BC-WCTU into the 1920s, Margaret died in Towson on August 24, 1928 and is buried at Baltimore's Govans Presbyterian Churchyard.
Sources:
The Baltimore County Christian Temperance Union. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Sep 12, 1890, 4. Proquest.
Baltimore County W.C.T.U. Holds Annual Meeting. The Union (Towson, MD), Sep 26, 1908, 1. Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
Celebration of Towson Woman's Temperance Union. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Apr 28, 1894, 10. Proquest.
Demand The Right To Vote. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Jan 7, 1906, 8. Proquest.
Executor's Sale of "Mornington," Valuable Country Place of the late Professor James E. Green, Near Towson. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Apr 29, 1914, 15. Proquest.
Flowers for Prisoners. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Jun 11, 1895, 7. Proquest.
The Funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth A. Seipp Largely Attended at Towson. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Mar 29, 1897, 6. Proquest.
Funeral Of Prof. James E. Green Is Held At Towson. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Nov 19, 1913, 10. Proquest.
Ireland, Civil Registration Marriages Index, Clonmel, 1867, Vol 14, Pg 281, 101250.
Ireland, Select Marriages, 1867, Pg 281, No. 18, 101516.
Local Affairs. The Aegis & Intelligencer (Bel Air, MD), Dec 6, 1901, 3. Newspapers.com.
Margaret V. Lane Green (1849-1928), Find a Grave Memorial no. 92417584, Govans Presbyterian Churchyard, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, USA.
Maryland Manual, 1908-1909: A Compendium of Legal, Historical, and Statistical Information Relating to the Stat of Maryland. Comp. NW Williams, 120.
Maryland Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1876, 90. Ancestry.com.
Miscellany. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Nov 29, 1897, 7. Proquest.
Miscellany. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Sep 9, 1899, 7. Proquest.
The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; War Office: Officers' Birth Certificates, Wills and Personal Papers. British Officers And Their Families; Class: WO 42; Piece 027: L. 31. 1848-1852. Ancestry.com.
National Mission To Meet In Brown Memorial Church. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), May 28, 1907, 12. Proquest.
Party At Mornington. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Aug 31, 1910, 8. Proquest.
Prisoners Given Treat. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Dec 31, 1915, 5. Proquest.
Prisoners Receive Flowers. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Apr 1, 1918, 5. Proquest.
Proceedings of the National Convention of Insurance Commissioners. The State Company, Columbia, SC, 1914, 69.
Prof. J.E. Green Is Stricken. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Nov 14, 1913, 12. Proquest.
Prof. James Ellis Green Dead From Stroke Of Paralysis. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Nov 16, 1913, 8. Proquest.
Reform Legislation. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Jan 20, 1896, 10. Proquest.
Report of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union Annual Meeting. Comp. Woman's Temperance Publishing Ass'n, 1895, 304.
State W.C.T.U. The Midland Journal (Rising Sun, MD), Oct 9, 1903, 1. Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
State W.C.T.U. Meet to open Wednesday. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Sep 29, 1924, 3. Proquest.
Towson Branch W.C.T.U. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Jan 5, 1899, 6. Proquest.
Towson W.C.T.U. Elects. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Jul 31, 1920, 6. Proquest.
Towson W.C.T.U. Entertained. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Aug 1, 1910, 4. Proquest.
United States Census, 1880. Supervisor's District 1, Enumeration District 236, Sixth District, Baltimore County, MD, 8. Ancestry.com.
United States Census, 1900. Supervisor's District 9, Enumeration District 42, Precinct 3, Baltimore County, MD, 14. Ancestry.com.
United States Census, 1910. Supervisor's District 2, Enumeration District 31, Precinct 3, Baltimore County, MD, 16. Ancestry.com.
United States Census, 1920. Supervisor's District 2, Enumeration District 31, Precinct 4, Towson, Baltimore County, MD, 3. Ancestry.com.
W.C.T.U. Convention Disapproves Of Mrs. Carrie Nation. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Sep 13, 1901, 8. Proquest.
W.C.T.U. Elects Officers. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Oct 5, 1917, 6. Proquest.
Weaver DE, 1992. Maryland women and the transformation of politics, 1890s-1930. (Doctoral dissertation), 275, 290.
Woman's Christian Temperance Union Meets. The Sun (Baltimore, MD), Sep 19, 1902, 7. Proquest.