Norvin Green

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.[1] 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).[2]

Norvin Green
Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives
In office
1850–1853, 1867
Personal details
Born(1818-04-17)April 17, 1818
New Albany, Indiana
DiedFebruary 13, 1893(1893-02-13) (aged 74)
Louisville, Kentucky
Resting placeCave Hill Cemetery
Spouse(s)
Martha English
(m. 1840)
EducationUniversity of Louisville
OccupationPhysician, businessman, politician
Signature

Early life

Green was born in New Albany, Indiana on April 17, 1818, the son of Virginians Joseph Strother Green and Susan Ball.[3][4] The family moved to Breckenridge County, Kentucky when he was a child.[5] 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.[5] 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.[6] That same year he married Martha English of Carrollton, Kentucky. They had five children together.[3]

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.[7][6] In 1850 Green was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, where he served until 1853 (and again in 1867).[8] He was appointed to supervise the construction of a federal customs house and post office in Louisville in 1853.[6] 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.[5][7]

Career in New York

Green moved to New York City in 1857.[5] 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.[7] 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.[6] Upon the death of Western Union president William Orton in 1878, Green was named president of that company.[9] 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.[7]

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.[1] 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.[10]

References

  1. "Sacramento Daily Union 13 February 1893 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  2. "History of IEEE". www.ieee.org. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  3. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. XI. James T. White & Company. 1901. pp. 550–551. Retrieved August 6, 2020 via Google Books.
  4. Revolution, Daughters of the American (1919). Lineage Book - National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Daughters of the American Revolution.
  5. Kleber, John E. (2001). The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2100-0.
  6. "Dr. Norvin Green's Death". The New York Times. Louisville, Kentucky. February 13, 1893. p. 1. Retrieved August 7, 2020 via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Norvin Green - Engineering and Technology History Wiki". ethw.org. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  8. Johnson, Andrew (1967). The Papers of Andrew Johnson. Univ. of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-0-87049-946-3.
  9. Electrical World. McGraw-Hill. 1893.
  10. "Norvin Hewitt Green". Ringwood Manor. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
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