Norvin Green
{{short description|American politician (1818–1893)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Norvin Green
| image = Norvin Green.png
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1818|04|17}}
| birth_place = New Albany, Indiana, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1893|02|13|1818|04|17}}
| death_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
| resting_place = Cave Hill Cemetery
Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
| occupation = {{hlist|Physician|businessman|politician}}
| employer =
| spouse = {{Marriage|Martha English|1840}}
| children = 5
| relatives =
| awards =
| education = University of Louisville
| party =
| office = Member of the
Kentucky House of Representatives
| constituency = Louisville's 4th district
| term_start = August 5, 1867
| term_end = January 25, 1869
| predecessor = Joseph B. Read
| successor = B. F. Camp
| constituency1 = Henry County
| term_start1 = August 5, 1850
| term_end1 = August 1, 1853
| predecessor1 = Thomas Brown Jr.
| successor1 = Charles H. Allen
| signature = Signature of Norvin Green.png
}}
Norvin Green (April 17, 1818 – February 13, 1893) was an American businessman, physician and politician. He served as president of the Western Union Telegraph Company from 1878 until his death in 1893.{{Cite web|title=Sacramento Daily Union 13 February 1893 — California Digital Newspaper Collection|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDU18930213.2.7&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|website=cdnc.ucr.edu|access-date=2020-05-10}} He was a founding member and the first president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), which later became part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).{{Cite web|title=History of IEEE|url=https://www.ieee.org/about/ieee-history.html|website=IEEE|access-date=2020-05-10}}
Early life
Green was born in New Albany, Indiana, on April 17, 1818, the son of Virginians Joseph Strother Green and Susan Ball.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w-4pAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA550 |title=The National Cyclopedia of American Biography |volume=XI |publisher=James T. White & Company |pages=550–551 |year=1901 |access-date=2020-08-06 |via=Google Books}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BW0ZAQAAIAAJ&q=joseph+strother+green&pg=PA393|title=Lineage Book - National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution|date=1919|publisher=Daughters of the American Revolution|language=en}} The family moved to Breckinridge County, Kentucky, when he was a child.{{Cite book|last=Kleber|first=John E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pXbYITw4ZesC&q=norvin+green+kentuckian&pg=PA357|title=The Encyclopedia of Louisville|date=2001|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-2100-0|language=en}} As a young man he operated a flatboat grocery on the Ohio River, then ran a business that cut and sold cord wood to steamboat operators. He was able to earn enough money from these ventures to finance his medical education at the University of Louisville, where he earned his degree in 1840.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56901163/dr-norvin-greens-death/ |title=Dr. Norvin Green's Death |newspaper=The New York Times |location=Louisville, Kentucky |page=1 |date=1893-02-13 |access-date=2020-08-07 |via=Newspapers.com}} That same year he married Martha English of Carrollton, Kentucky. They had five children together.
Career in Kentucky
Following his graduation, Dr. Green practiced medicine in Louisville and Carrollton, Kentucky. He served as a doctor at the Western Military Institute, where he became friends with future presidential candidate James Blaine, who was an instructor there.{{Cite web|title=Norvin Green - Engineering and Technology History Wiki|url=https://ethw.org/Norvin_Green|website=ethw.org|date=July 2018 |access-date=2020-05-10}} In 1850 Green was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, where he served until 1853 (and again in 1867).{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Andrew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZ7_B382eu0C&q=norvin+green+kentucky+legislature&pg=PA312|title=The Papers of Andrew Johnson|date=1967|publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press|isbn=978-0-87049-946-3|language=en}} He was appointed to supervise the construction of a federal customs house and post office in Louisville in 1853. At that time he became interested in telegraphy, and invested in telegraph lines that connected Louisville and New Orleans. He formed, and became president of, the Southwestern Telegraph Company.
Career in New York
Green moved to New York City in 1857. There he worked on the consolidation of many telegraph companies, culminating with the formation of Western Union in 1866, where he was named vice president. He stayed at Western Union for the rest of his life, except for three years when he returned to politics in Kentucky, being nominated to run for U.S. Senator. Upon the death of Western Union president William Orton in 1878, Green was named president of that company.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=81pPJyOD7dwC&q=norvin+green+ky+senator+nomination&pg=PA118|title=Electrical World|date=1893|publisher=McGraw-Hill|language=en}} He, along with others including Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, formed the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1884; he was its first president.
Death
Norvin Green died on February 13, 1893, at his home in Louisville, Kentucky. He had been in ill health, and died from complications of intestinal disease. He was buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.
His grandson, Norvin Hewitt Green, donated the land that became Norvin Green State Forest in New Jersey.{{Cite web|title=Norvin Hewitt Green|url=http://www.ringwoodmanor.org/norvin-hewitt-green.html|website=Ringwood Manor|language=en|access-date=2020-05-27}}
References
External links
- {{Find a Grave|96099649}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Norvin}}
Category:19th-century American businesspeople
Category:Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
Category:Democratic Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives
Category:People from New Albany, Indiana
Category:University of Louisville School of Medicine alumni
Category:19th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly