William Cornell Greene was born in Duck Creek, Wisconsin on August 26, 1853 to a Quaker family. The Greene's had come from New York to the fertile lands of Wisconsin to build a farm. Upon the death of the father Townsend Greene, the family moved back to New York State where William stayed until about 1872 when he headed out West. Little is know about his travels between 1872 and 1877 at which point he reached central Arizona and began prospecting for gold. In 1880, news of rich mineral strikes near Tombstone lured him to southern Arizona, where he would eventually build his mining and cattle empire. In 1884, Greene married Ella Moson and together they had two daughters, Ella and Eva. Ella also brought with her two children from her previous marriage, Frank and Virginia Moson. They lived together on a ranch in the San Pedro Valley where they raised cattle and farmed various crops. It was during this time that tragedy struck the Greene family. In 1897, his daughter Ella and her friend Katie Corcoran drowned in the river on the San Pedro Ranch. Jim Burnett, a local farmer, was suspected of blowing the river dam on Greene's property in order to divert more water to his land. The destruction of this dam led to the girls drowning. On July 1, 1897, Burnett had the unfortunate luck of visiting Tombstone at the same time as Greene. Upon seeing Burnett, Greene shot and killed him. Greene was acquitted of any wrongdoing but the incident drew much speculation as he became successful. Over the next decade Greene was a rancher in the San Pedro Valley but soon his interest returned to prospecting. In 1896 he incorporated the Cananea Copper Company, the first of many mining corporations. After the death of his first wife, Ella Moson Greene in 1899, Greene relocated to Cananea, Sonora, Mexico (although he spent much of his time in New York) and in 1901 he incorporated the Cananea Cattle Company and the Greene Cattle Company. That same year he married the daughter of a long-time acquaintance, Mary Proctor, a woman twenty-five years his junior. The union produced six children, William, Virginia, Frank, Charles, Florence, and Kirk. At the peak of his career, from 1899-1906, Greene was a man worth almost fifty million dollars. He owned a copper enterprise, a lumber business, and had accumulated almost one million acres of ranch land in both Arizona and Mexico. He gave himself the title of Colonel in order to impress investors back East. By 1908, due to financial woes including the dramatic drop in the price of copper, the events of the Mexican Revolution, and land disputes, Colonel Greene's mining and lumber empire collapsed. He returned to ranching and managed the Greene Cattle Company and the Cananea Cattle Company until his death on August 5, 1911 resulting from injuries sustained in a carriage accident. For a definitive history of Colonel W.C. Greene, see Colonel Greene and the Copper Skyrocket, by C.L. Sonnichsen.
From the description of Greene Cattle Company Collection, 1836-1970 1900's-1940's. (Scottsdale Public Library). WorldCat record id: 123915785
