INTRODUCTION

I’m so pleased that you have chosen to learn about Levi and Marvin Green. There are several individuals you will meet as you read the transcripts of the letters, transcribed from the original personal letters that are in the custody of the great, great, great-grandchildren of Marvin Green.

The boys were born and raised in an areas of Willing, New York, part of Allegany county. It’s hard to call where the Green Family grew up a town or village. Their farm is located in Hallsport in the Town of Willing and southeast of Wellsville in Allegany County.

“Hallsport, the next in point of size, was named after Calvin Hall, who moved in from Independence and opened the first hotel in 1838. A settlement had been made there before (about 1831), by John Cline, on lot number 207, in the west part of the village. Cline has been a prominent resident. The first framed building, a hotel, was erected about 1840 by Calvin Hall.” (Source – pp 376)

In 2023, about 50 people lived in Hallsport, located at the headwaters of the Chenunda Creek, which spills into the Genesee River. At the turn of the twentieth century, Hallsport was the second largest hamlet in Willing, with a post office, general store, cheese factory, blacksmith shop, two wagon shops, a sawmill, a shingle mill, a feed mill, a school, and a population of 150 inhabitants.

As you read the Green Family Letters, linked below, use the context outlined above as a starting point for the journey that Levi, Marvin, and John Sterns take as they become soldiers and later veterans of the War of the Rebellion.

RESEARCHER’S NOTE: The photograph I have linked is what I CURRENTLY believe was the Green Family homestead during the time that the letters were written. The reasons that I believe that this is the correct location are as follows:

The cartographer marks the home’s location in the photograph as E. Green. In the 1855 census, the Green family was registered in the name of Erastus Green, not William Erastus Green. At the bottom of this page, I have both the link to the original census and a photo of the snapshot of the document.

Secondly, as was the law in 1855, the recorder was required to ensure that families were “Number[ed] in the order of their visitation.” If you examine the census and look at the larger map linked, you will see that the home of S. Burlingham is registered as Squire Burlingham. Furthermore, just two houses east of the Burlingham home were the home of a J. Cline. In the register was the 17th home visited that of John Cline Sr. List of visits in order:

14. Calvin Hall
15. Delight Seater (uncertain about the spelling of this name)
16. John Cline Sr.
17. John Cline Jr.
18. Squire Bartlingham
19. Samual V. Hallett
20. Blank Bartlingham
21. Erastus Greene (Lived in a frame-built home worth $300.00 view price in 1850 dollars)

Finally, the map and the census from 1855 have the name of Calvin Hall as being visited by the census taker as the 14th person visited. The home next to Calvin Hall was an E. Green. Since it makes perfect sense that the census taken would have walked to homes next to each other when the person would be home, I am almost certain that William Erastus Green lived next door to the Halls on the east of the post office to the west.

SKIP TO BEGIN READING HERE