The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-02-21

+ = = y y \ X \ \ \
The photograph was taken when he
was AZ years of age.
William Lowthian Green was by
profession merchant. His family for
two generations had been engaged in
commercial pursuits in the north of
England. The mechanical and scien-
tific propensities he developed very
early may nevertheless have been in
part hereditary.
William Lowthian Green was born
in Doughty street, London, September
18th, 1919, The family afterwards re-
moved to a small property called
Woodfield, near Swinton. This last
remnant of the old potters family be-
longings was sold about the year 1874
to railway company by w. L. Green
himself, who Enthusiastically invest
| ed the proceeds in mechanical toy.
screw steamer. His father, who in the
later years of his life had established
a commercial house in Liverpool, was
then dead. In that city William Green
received his early education, which
was completed at King Williams Col
Ilege in the Isle of Man.
There, at one of the annual college
examinations, curiously enough to
those who knew his apparently mat
ter-of-fact disposition, he took the
Iprize for English poem, the subject be-
ling Castle Ruthen," Danish ruin in
the neighborhood. Though full of
imagination, his mind seemed forcibly
bent by the very love of the
IOriZing towards those mechanical and
practical studies by means of which
he was aware he would eventually
L IN n ic vie Tn hi- ont
speculative geology, volcanic agencies
and cosmogonies were the rage. AS
a mere boy these things had occupied
his thoughts.
The accident of his birth and his
family interests threw him into mer-
Camille pursuits, with which he never
had any real sympathy; still he en-
ldeavored to follow them loyalty. He
entered a commercial firm in Liver
Ipool which still bore his deceased faith
er's name. In its employ he sailed tC
Buenos Ayres. He rode the cOnven
tional ride over the Pampas to Men
IdoZa and crossed the Andes into Chile
by the usual route, the Aspallata pass
From Valparaiso he took ship to Ii
- ma, where he remained some time il
the exercise of his duties in mer
chants Office.
1t was on his return to Liverpool
about 1843, that, already wearied wit
the drudgery of business, he conceive
the notion of building screw steam
er and trying his luck as a mercantil
free lance or Spanish Adelantado o
the coast of South America, betwee
Rio Grande do Sui and the Rio de
Plata. His little craft, the "Flecha,
~ was the first screw steamer that ma
~ reached those regions.
ID The adventure-like most other
n. somewhat premature in idea-was III
successful; yet soon after this failul
any position he might have desired
- hold in a large mercantile house, wit
branches in four different parts
South America, was placed at his oil
posal. He preferred to throw in q
" lot with the miscellaneous crowd tn
| in 1S4S made a rush to Californl
Il Some of his companions, including
Is. relative OF his own, were fortuna1
and in due time amassed wealt
of Green himself was soon reduced to
tremities, and chose to work his pa
ID sage before the mast in small ira
- ing vessel from San Francisco to h
- nolulu. The tradition is that his
periorfty was quickly recognized
y board and that he gave material asslE
ance in navigating the ship.
Those who remember W. l.. Gre
ok. will have no hesitation in deciding %
. the gold of California was TRIM
matter in his mind and that the It
N attractions which had originally lur
~ him westward were the volcanoes
Hawaii. He was then puzZling
head over theories which not I
]. years later took an early shape in
article in the Edinburgh New Phi
rs. lsophical Journal, on the outline OF