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JUDGE WILLIAM P. GREEN.
Exercising, with marked distinction, and impartiality, high judicial functions as county judge of Washington county, and recognized as one of the able members of the bar of Southern Illinois, it is but fitting that a record should here be entered concerning the Hon. William P. Green, of Nashville. He was born in Nashville township, Washington county, June 4, 1874, his father being one of the farmer citizens of the county who was honored with

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public office. He left his farm to take the office of county treasurer, to which the Republicans had elected him, and the years following his retirement were passed on the Green homestead, three miles southwest of Nashville, where he died in 1890, at the early age of fifty-six years.

Hugh P. Green, father of Judge Green, was born in 1834, in St. Clair county, Illinois, from whence he came to Washington county. His father was Burget Green, who settled near Marissa, St. Clair county, as a pioneer and spent his life there as a farmer and school teacher. He had these children: Parker, who died in 1890, at Marissa, as a farmer and left a family; James, who passed away there in the same vocation and was the father of children; Polly, who married Abraham Teter and died near New Athens, Illinois, with issue; Robert, who died in Missouri; Isabel, who died at Marissa, unmarried; and Hugh P. In 1849 Hugh P. Green joined the throng moving on California, went out through Texas and Mexico, and sought his fortune in the gold fields. He engaged in prospecting at once, and during his absence of several years gathered together with pick and pan enough gold dust to pay for the Green homestead in Washington county, which he bought and settled on before the outbreak of the Civil war. He was educated limitedly, save for his varied experience in the affairs of men, and he applied himself to the popular features of farm life until elected to care for the public funds of his county. In political matters he was a stalwart Republican.

Hugh P. Green was married in Washington county, Illinois, to Miss Elizabeth Troutt, a daughter of the venerable Nashville patriarch, Elijah Troutt. Mr. Troutt came to Nashville in 1863 and resumed his trade of blacksmith, following it until old age ordered his retirement. He came from Elkton, Todd county, Kentucky, where he grew up from a lad of a dozen years and where his father, Joseph Troutt, had settled in 1833. The latter was a North Carolina man, was a schoolboy during the progress of the Revolutionary war, moved to Lebanon, Tennessee, and spent a few years just after his marriage, and there his son Elijah was born. His wife was a Miss Wall, and it is said that they brought their eleven children to years of maturity without the aid of a doctor. Joseph Troutt died at the age of one hundred and ten years, in Todd county, Kentucky.

Elijah Troutt and his sister, Polly Sneed, were the only members of the family to migrate to Illinois. While he was sparingly educated, he was fond of literature and possessed himself of a fund of general information by daily reading. He seems to have been a typical village blacksmith, with an active and well-balanced mind, and capable of defending his convictions in extemporaneous debate. He was an ardent Prohibitionist and anti-slavery man during war times and on the eve of the secession movement was challenged by a preacher of the community to debate with him publicly the question whether liquor or slavery were the greater evil. He was assigned the slavery end of the question, and although his was a pro-slavery community and he flayed the institution without mercy, the judges gave him the decision. While troops were being enlisted for the Mexican war about Elkton, Mr. Troutt was a fifer at the head of the column marching under martial music to arouse public interest in the cause. He was subsequently captain of a militia company and still later colonel of a militia regiment. He married his wife in the community where he grew up, she being Lucinda Carson, daughter of Samuel Carson, an Englishman, whose wife, a Miss Waggoner, was born in Germany, and Mrs. Troutt was the third of their six children.

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The issue of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh P. Green are as follows: Martha, the wife of W. E. Darrow, of O'Fallon, Illinois; Mary, who married O. H. Burman, and resides in Washington, D. C.; James, of Schaller, Iowa; William P., the subject of this sketch; Dr. G. A. Green, of Hoyleton, Illinois; Anna, the wife of H. J. Mueller, of Nashville, Illinois; Viola, now Mrs. George Ausmeyer of this city; and Hugh P., who completed his course in law in the Northwestern University, Chicago, in 1912.

William P. Green attended high school in Nashville, Illinois, and spent two years in the law department of McKendree College. After his admission to the bar he taught school two years in Washington county. He then engaged in law practice and was made city attorney of Nashville. He soon formed a partnership with Judge Louis Bernreuterin the real estate and loan business and was appointed manager of the Washington County Abstract Company, which business they are still carrying on as W. P. Green & Company. In 1910 Mr. Green became a candidate for the office of county judge before the Republican primaries and was nominated and subsequently elected. He took the office upon the retirement of Judge Bernreuter, and is giving a most excellent administration of the affairs of this important judicial office. Judge Green has established a thorough reputation for comprehensive legal knowledge and for ability to apply it. He is a logician as well as a close student, and is highly regarded by his fellow members of the bench and bar, and has the full confidence and respect of the public at large.

Judge Green was married May 21, 1907, in Washington county, to Miss Clara Becker, a daughter of William Becker, the oldest shoe merchant in Nashville, and three children have been born to this union, namely: William, Vera andPorter E.