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Photo taken by Capt. Carl E. Henry from the pilothouse of the towboat DENNIS COLLINS
JAMES BROWN GREENE FAMILY HOME
Newport, Ohio
Written by William V. Torner
James Brown Greene was born in 1832 and died in 1910. He married Melissa Wood on March 27, 1856. Melissa was born Dec. 21, 1832, and died Dec. 28, 1860. They had two children, Alice M. born Jan. 30, 1857, and Francis R. born June 8, 1859.
James Brown Greene married Mary Rebecca Adkins on Dec. 4, 1861. She was born May 31, 1840, and died Dec. 27, 1929. They had seven children, Jane Amanda (Jennie) born Sept. 7, 1863, Perly A. born Oct. 24, 1865, Mary G. (May) Aug. 3, 1868, Harriet R. (Hattie) born Oct. 1, 1871, George C. born April 14, 1877, Ralph born May 7, 1879, and Carl B. born Jan. 22, 1882.
Three sisters in one family who did not like their given names and changed them while retaining their initials.
Jennie married William Victor Torner, son of Victor Hugo Torner and Charlotte Weiss Torner. William and Jennie’s first child was James Victor Hugo Torner born April 24, 1884, in the J. B. Greene home where Jennie was born in 1863.
The 1884 Ohio River flood had driven William and Jennie out of their home, and they had taken refuge in the Adkins home with Jennie’s grandparents Isaac and Sara Jane Adkins. The flood continued to rise, surrounding the Adkins house. Jennie was pregnant and nearing the time to deliver her baby. William put Jennie in a skiff and they rode the flood water down to the J. B. Greene home high enough to be above flood level on the west edge of Newport. It was while the river was still above flood stage that Jennie delivered James Victor Hugo Torner.
The J. B. Greene home is a farm house on the land owned by J. B. Greene, extending north from the Ohio River over a high ridge. On the east it adjoins the Greenwood farm which is part of the village of Newport. On the west side the property line is in the hilly land between the river and the ridge on the north side of the farm. Near the southwest corner of the farm on the river bank is the Gordon Greene Light at Mile 157.2 Ohio River. This light is part of the Aids to Navigation System on inland rivers.
The J. B. Greene house is built square with the compass and faces south. There was a north/south line on the floor inside of the center of the front door. Outside was a slender pole on the grass directly in line with the line on the floor. On sunny days, with the door open when the shadow of the pole fell on the line on the floor, the sun was exactly due south. The clocks would be set at twelve o’clock, noon sun time.
In the kitchen was a huge stone fireplace and mantle. In the fireplace were cranes on which iron kettles were hung for cooking and hot water. A built-in oven on one side for baking. A large backlog kept the fire burning continuously for a warm oven and slow cooking in kettles.
Jennie learned to cook in the open fireplace and in her lifetime she cooked on cast iron wood and coal fired ranges, kerosene stoves and electric stoves.
The J. B. Greene farm was on mostly steep hillside land with a small flat area of land where Dana’s Run flows into the Ohio River. The hillsides were not suitable for crop farming so James B. Greene was a gentleman farmer who did not til the land. He was more interested in serving in the Ohio State Legislature and leasing his land to oil speculators on a royalty basis that produced income without physical involvement on his part.
In hill country most ravines have streams of water that are named for the land owners and sometimes for animals or other creatures of nature. On the north slope of the ridge back of the farm were ravines with streams flowing north into the Little Muskingum River. There was Bull Run, Cow Run, Calf Run and Duck Creek that found its way through a valley to the Ohio River. In the bottom land where Cow Run flowed toward the Little Muskingum River gas bubbles could be seen in the water and would flare up when ignited. Sometimes the was an oily sheen on the water of Cow Run. Geological exploration revealed this was coming from oil and soon the Cow Run Oil Field was developed as wells were drilled to pump the crude oil from the stratum of sand underlying the area. These same surveys showed that the Cow Run sand extended under the J. B. Greene farm, under the Ohio River and into areas of West Virginia.
Over the hill from the house was a small cave where Carl B. Greene and J. V. Hugo Torner played together when they were little boys. As a young man Hugo worked as a tool dresser on some of the standard rig derricks drilling for oil on the Greene farm. The last oil well drilled there was on the flat land beside Dana’s Run in 1931. It turned out to be a dry hole and today there is no evidence there ever were any oil wells drilled on the J. B. Greene farm or at Cow Run. Incidentally, the covered wooden Sitka Bridge at Cow Run has been replaced with a modern steel beam and concrete bridge.
This narrative written by William Victor Torner II, son of James Victor Hugo Torner and Elsie Gertrude Stocking Torner using information compiled from Greene and Torner family records by J. V. H. Torner and from having lived in Newport and knowing some of the people and places first hand.
September 2, 2005
Wm. V. Torner
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