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USGenealogy.NetCHAPTER II
RALPH MURRAY GREEN
31 Mar 1879 - 14 Aug 1931
One hundred years ago on 31 March 1879, Ralph Murray Green was born on the Iowa Indian Reservation near the little town of White Cloud, Kansas. He grew up in an atmosphere and environment that was becoming more and more civilized and strictly that of a white man's world. The lowas had been settled on their small reservation in northeast Kansas by treaties. drawn up in the late 1700s. By the time of Ralph's birth, the lowas had settled into the sedentary life of farmers. Most of the land on the Iowa Reservation was very poor, because the majority of the land was "bluff" and hill land. In today's world, the land abounds with various crops because of the utilization of scientific agricultural techniques and the use of chemical nutrients that assist in gaining luxurious plant growth.
Histories of the lowas tell us that the tribe originated in the Lake State area and that they were several thousand in number. At the coming of the white man, the tribe migrated south as far as the present state of Mississippi. In the course of subsequent migration, the tribe spent considerable time in the area which is now the state of Indiana. Subsequent travels carried the Iowas further west into the area now known as the state of Iowa. Coexistence with the white settlers in this particular area must have been on a very favorable basis, for when the settlers petitioned for statehood and a name, they were given the name Iowa for their new state. In the Iowa language, we learn that Iowa means “the sleepy ones". After more wandering up and down the eastern midwest area,, the tribe settled in the western Missouri area , near the present site of St. Joseph. After a series of treaties which were negotiated in the late 1700s and the early 1800s, the tribe was relegated to their present reservation in northeast Kansas, near White Cloud.
At the time of Ralph's birth, the reservation was owned by all of the tribal members. After the establishment of the Allotment Act by the federal government, Ralph was allotted 40 acres of land on the reservation, while the heads of families were allotted 160 acres. His allotment is that land upon which the Grandview Schoolhouse and the Community Building are presently located and is legally recorded as Allotment No. 126.
On 20 March 1901, Ralph, at the age of 21, married Christine Duey, a local non-Indian lady. The couple was married in Falls City, Nebraska by Mr. John Gagnon, a county judge. Ralph and Chris started their married life by living with Ralph's parents who had a small, modest frame house located near the eastern border of the reservation and just a few miles from White Cloud, Kansas. The couple's first owned home was a small frame house located about a quarter of a mile north of the present house which is located about an eighth of a mile west of the Community Building. For a number of years, this house has been occupied by the Murray Campbell family.
After their very humble start of married life, the couple purchased 80 additional acres of land - the 40 acre allotment of his deceased brother Jeff and the 40 acre allotment of his sister Eva, who moved to the Iowa Indian settlement near Red Rook, Oklahoma. This additional land was adjacent to Ralph's 40 acre allotment. By farming
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