Doctor John Greenhalgh (Green)
From The Battle of Waterloo To Hampshire County, Va.
The First Resident Physician of Mineral County, W.Va.

Let it be known that the following information was taking from the West Virginia Advocate (vol. 8 issue 4) dated April 1989. Wilmer L. Kerns, PH. D., did the article. These journals and medical account records was in the possessing of Ervin C. Green at that time.

The records or journals of Dr. Green, physician and surgeon, consist of two large leather-bound volumes, about 10 inches wide by 15 inches long. Medical accounts reveal the illnesses and types of treatments and cures of the 19th century, such as bloodletting and various other archaic medical treatments. Green developed various formulae for medicines, ointments and pills he used to treat his patients.
A limited amount of data is contained in the medical accounts, especially from entries about sickness and deaths of patients. It is hoped that these original journals will find their way into the State Archives in Charleston, W Va, to be preserved for future generations. Some of the pages related to the early history of Elk Garden, W Va. are missing from the journals.
Not only did Dr. Green leave an autobiographical history but also he dealt with major events of his lifetime. His detailed account of the Civil War, in a handwritten journal, is of interest to local historians, especially in Hampshire, Hardy, Grant and Mineral Counties, W.Va. Although he relied on secondary sources, based on information giving by passing troops, this first-person account is rare and valuable, worthy to be studied, published and preserved.
The pilgrimage of John Green (1798-1875), from his birthplace in Lancashire County, England, to his final resting place in Mineral County, W.Va., is a fascinating story. It is a journey through history, including accounts of two wars, the Napoleanic (in Belgium) and the War Between the States in America. The following narrative was abstracted from two hand-written journals, which were loaned to me by Ervin C. Green.

Dr. Green died on December 21,1873 and was buried on the Green Mountain farm not far from the present-day Pinnacle Fire Tower. An historical marker by the State Of West Virginia has been placed along the road to mark the location of the grave.
Sulphur City, Mineral Co., West Virginia, USA

Dr. John Green was born John Greenhalgh . He change his last name to Green when he became a Doctor .

Death Record Detail...
Name: John Green
Note: doctor
Sex: Male
Death Date: 13 Nov 1872
Death Place: Mineral Co., West Virginia
Age at Death: 75y ( 74y ) ( CWH )
Birth Date: 13 Nov. 1798
Marital Status: M

Doctor John Greenhalgh (Green)
From The Battle of Waterloo To Hampshire County, Va.
The First Resident Physician of Mineral County, W.Va.

Notes for John Green:

Was born John Greenhalgh

Prior to 1830, the only medical aid available to the settlers was common sense, home remedies and liberal dosages of prayer. The first resident physician in what is now Mineral County was Dr. John Green, who was born in Bolton, England, in 1799, and immigrated to America in 1828. He lived on a farm, which he called Iceland, located near the ridge of the escarpment about three miles from Sulphur City. The area was later named for his son, Tom Green, and is known as Green Mountain.

Dr. Green acquired part of his medical training as a medic with the British army and served in this capacity at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The remainder of his training was the result of a short apprenticeship to another physician.

He kept a diary in which he recorded the particulars of his practice and a commentary of opinions and observations of life in general. In the journal, he also mentions that his father's name was Richard Greenhalgh, but that when he came to Virginia so few people could pronounce Greenhalgh correctly, the doctor shortened it to Green.

Standard medical practice of the day dictated treatments of bloodletting and emetics for most ailments and the good doctor describes these treatments in graphic detail. Potions and elixirs were made from herbs and roots and prescribed to his patients in large doses, hence, the term "yarb doctor." Being his own pharmacist, Dr. Green acquired a considerable knowledge of botany and chemistry.

Aside from his medical practice, his interest extended to agricultural methods (planting by the signs he decreed "superstitious tomfoolery") and religion (referring to a certain group of professed Christians as being "a set of hypocrites, or at the least divested of anything of humanity"). Though a great many of his remarks are uncomplimentary to his patients and neighbors ( in reference to one neighbor's purported cruelty, he says, "Oh, what a valuable acquisition he would have been in Spain during the days of the inquisition.") Dr. Green emerges as a strong willed, intelligent individual with only the best interests of humanity and his community at heart.

The following is a typical entry from Dr. Green's diary.

"January 9, 1856- Last night was the coldest night there has been since February 5, 1836, very nigh 20 years. This morning at 6, the thermometer at 16 degrees below, in 1836 it fell to 15 degrees below, in January 1834 to 18 degrees below. This fall there was great conjecture about this winter. A good many predicted for a mild winter and the fall was very beautiful and moderate. This puts me in mind of 1812 and 1813. I recollect it well for it was the winter that Bonapart invaded Russia and in England it was very fine till near Christmas, but the snow began to fall on December 6 and was very hard winter throughout all Europe. The winter of 1813 and 1814 was hardest and longest winter I have ever known and it set in on St. Thomas Day, December 21, and never was a thaw till April 15, 1814. So if there would be any conjecturing or predicting what kind of winter, a mild fall oftener brings a hard winter than a rough fall. But there is no rule for conjecturing a winter. Tonight at 6, the thermometer at 4 degrees below and the ink freezing as I write and only seven feet from a large hot fire.

The diary remains in the possession of Green descendants.

In later years when doctoring did not require his full attention, Dr. Green taught school at Claysville and at what later became known at Nethken Hill. They were the only schools in the area at the time, supported privately by the parents of the children who attended.

Dr. Green died on December 21,1873 and was buried in the Green Mountain farm not far from the present day Pinnacle Fire Tower. An historical marker has been placed along the road to mark the location of the grave.

John Green's children included James R. by his first wife, a Ridings, and Tom, Dick, Isaac. Edwin, Joseph, Mary Ann, George, Elizabeth and Ruth by his second wife, Ruth Bamhouse.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Elk District had become a close-knot fanning community dependent upon agriculture. The nearest store was at Claysville down the mountain by way of the Northwestern Turnpike completed in 1840. Piedmont could be reached by using the mountain road along the ridge of Green Mountain which led to Cross and then down the sheer face of the mountain which overlooks the Luke (Maryland) Mill. At Piedmont a traveler could board a Baltimore and Ohio train east to Baltimore or west to the Ohio River. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was completed between these points about December 1853.

The near Rommey, Hampshire Co., WV had little impact on the residents of the mountain. Their main concern appears to have been maintaining neutrality. Dr. Green's mention of the war was confined chiefly to his concern that young Jon Wiseman might get into trouble fooling around with the rebels.

Those fears were not shared by Bill Dettenburn and John Welch, however. Both men decided to enlist in the Confederate Army and walked the 50 miles to Romney then held by Confederate forces. Upon arrival they found the recruiting office closed. Disgruntled, they decided to walk an additional 30 miles to Cumberland and enlist in the Union Army. But, by the time they go to Cumberland, John Welch had decided he really preferred to join the Confederates, so he hiked another 80 miles to Harper's Ferry where he was accepted by the Stonewall Brigade, Dettenbum, as the story goes, had blisters on his heels which sapped any inspiration to walk further, so he signed up with the Union forces at Cumberland.

At Appomattox John Welch tossed his rifle into the woods to prevent its surrender to the Union. After he was mustered out he went back and got it. The smooth bore rifle is now the property of one of John Green's descendants (newspaper clipping) (Charles W. Harvey- great great grandson) https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Harvey-2679.

I have a copy of his records or journals of Dr. Green, physician and surgeon. His writing are from The Battle of Waterloo To Hampshire County, Va., The First Resident Physician of Mineral County, W.Va. If anyone would like a copy, E-mail me .