{{Short description|American soldier}} {{infobox person | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1854|09|28}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1923|03|08|1854|09|28}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | alma_mater = Columbia College<br>Columbia Law School | parents = Martin E. Greene<br>Matilda Zabriskie Greene | spouse = | children = | relatives = Eliot Zborowski (cousin)<br>Andrew C. Zabriskie (cousin) }}
'''Alister Greene''' (September 28, 1854 – March 8, 1923)<ref name="AGObit1923"/> was an American soldier and social leader during the Gilded Age.
==Early life== Greene was born in New York City on September 28, 1854.<ref name="ancestry">{{cite web |title=U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1174/USM1372_339-0604?pid=1366340&backurl=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D1174%26h%3D1366340%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3DxdT50%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=xdT50&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true |website=ancestry.com |publisher=W. Reid Gould, Law Blank Publisher and Stationer |access-date=21 November 2018}}</ref> He was the son of Martin E. Greene (1826–1907)<ref name="MEGObit1907">{{cite news |title=Died. Greene |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/11/05/106766427.pdf |access-date=21 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=November 5, 1907}}</ref> and Matilda Mary (née Zabriskie) Greene (d. 1898),<ref name="AGObit1923"/> who had been well known in the older New York society.<ref name="MMGObit1898">{{cite news |title=Mrs. Matilda Mary Greene |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/05/24/102562226.pdf |access-date=21 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=May 24, 1898}}</ref>
His maternal grandparents were Mary (née Ryerson) Zabriskie<ref name="Greene1892">{{cite book |last1=Greene |first1=Richard Henry |last2=Stiles |first2=Henry Reed |last3=Dwight |first3=Melatiah Everett |last4=Morrison |first4=George Austin |last5=Totten |first5=John Reynolds |last6=Mott |first6=Hopper Striker |last7=Pitman |first7=Harold Minot |last8=Forest |first8=Louis Effingham De |last9=Ditmas |first9=Charles Andrew |last10=Maynard |first10=Arthur S. |last11=Mann |first11=Conklin |title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record |date=1892 |publisher=New York Genealogical and Biographical Society |page=[https://archive.org/details/newyorkgenealog23gree/page/144 144] |url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkgenealog23gree |access-date=21 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref> and Andrew Christian Zabriskie,<ref name="VanValen1900">{{cite book |last1=Van Valen |first1=James M. |title=History of Bergen County, New Jersey |date=1900 |publisher=New Jersey pub. and engraving Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/historybergenco00valegoog/page/n177 157] |url=https://archive.org/details/historybergenco00valegoog |access-date=21 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref> and the Zabriskie family descended from Albrycht Zaborowski, a Polish immigrant from Angerburg (Węgorzewo) in Ducal Prussia, who settled in New Jersey in 1662 alongside a Dutch community.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12204c.htm| title=Poles in the United States| first=Felix| last=Seroczynski| work=The Catholic Encyclopedia| volume=12| year=1911| publisher=Robert Appleton Company}}</ref> His cousin, Andrew Christian Zabriskie was married to Frances Hunter in 1895, and Alister served as best man.<ref name="1895Wedding">{{cite news |title=Zabriskie--Hunter |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/06/07/102461052.pdf |access-date=21 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=June 7, 1895}}</ref> Another cousin, Eliot Zborowski, was married to Margaret Astor Carey, a niece of William Astor Jr., Caroline Astor, and granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. of the prominent Astor family.<ref name="1881CareyEstate">{{cite news|title=Wills of Mr. and Mrs. Carey.; How They Dispose of Two Large Estates.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1881/05/22/archives/wills-of-mr-and-mrs-carey-how-they-dispose-of-two-large-estates.html|access-date=20 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=22 May 1881}}</ref>
He was a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School.<ref name="AGNotice1923"/>
==Career== After Greene graduated from law school, he "devoted his life to study and research in law" but never actually practiced law.<ref name="AGNotice1923"/>
He was also a volunteer with the 10th company of New York's 7th Regiment,<ref name="7th1921">{{cite book |title=The Seventh Regiment Gazette, Vol. 36-37 |date=1921 |page=135 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z67lAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA135 |access-date=21 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref> which was referred to as the "silk stocking" regiment or "Blue-Bloods", due to the disproportionate number of its members who were part of New York City's social elite,<ref name="Lukasik2008">{{cite book |last1=Lukasik |first1=Sebastian Hubert |title=Military Service, Combat, and American Identity in the Progressive Era |date=2008 |publisher=Duke University, Ph.D. diss. |page=84 |url=https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/909/D_LUKASIK_SEBASTIAN_a_200812.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=21 November 2018}}</ref>
===Society life=== In 1892, Greene, who was well known in the "New York club and society worlds,"<ref name="MMGObit1898"/> was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in ''The New York Times''.<ref name="McAllister1892">{{cite news|last1=McAllister|first1=Ward|title=THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED {{!}} WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1892/02/16/108210917.pdf|access-date=26 March 2017|work=The New York Times|date=16 February 1892|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Patterson2000">{{cite book |last1=Patterson |first1=Jerry E. |title=The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age |date=2000 |publisher=Random House Incorporated |isbn=9780847822089 |page=217 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLwMAAAAYAAJ |access-date=13 June 2018 |language=en}}</ref> Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.<ref name="Keister2005">{{cite book|last1=Keister|first1=Lisa A.|title=Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521536677|page=36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5dAtJf1hmAUC&pg=PA36|access-date=20 October 2017|language=en}}</ref>
He was a member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, serving on its executive committee,<ref name="Greene1870">{{cite book |last1=Greene |first1=Richard Henry |last2=Stiles |first2=Henry Reed |last3=Dwight |first3=Melatiah Everett |last4=Morrison |first4=George Austin |last5=Mott |first5=Hopper Striker |last6=Totten |first6=John Reynolds |last7=Pitman |first7=H. Minot (Harold Minot) |last8=Ditmas |first8=Charles Andrew |last9=De Forest |first9=Louis Effingham |last10=Mann |first10=Conklin |last11=Maynard |first11=Arthur S. |title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical record |date=1870 |publisher=New York Genealogical and Biographical Society |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkgenealog00mayngoog/page/n108 |access-date=21 November 2018}}</ref> a life member of the New-York Historical Society (since 1896),<ref name="NYHS1922">{{cite book |title=New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin |date=1922 |publisher=New-York Historical Society |page=[https://archive.org/details/newyorkhistoric00socigoog/page/n35 27] |url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkhistoric00socigoog |access-date=21 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref> and was a member of the Union Club of the City of New York, the Metropolitan Club, the University Club, the Army and Navy Club, the New York Yacht Club, and the American Bar Association.<ref name="AGNotice1923"/>
==Personal life== Greene, who did not marry, lived at 65 East 72nd Street in New York City, one of two four story (and basement) dwellings, covering a plot 40 ft. by 102 ft along with 63 East 72nd Street which was owned by his father.<ref name="1923RealEstate"/>
Greene died of pneumonia at his New York residence on March 8, 1923.<ref name="AGNotice1923">{{cite news |title=Alister Greene |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/03/10/105852609.pdf |access-date=21 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=March 10, 1923 |language=en}}</ref> His funeral was held at the Church of the Incarnation on Madison Avenue.<ref name="AGObit1923">{{cite news |title=DIED. Greene |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/03/10/105852629.pdf |access-date=21 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=March 10, 1923 |language=en}}</ref> A month after his death, the heirs of his and his later father's estates sold the East 72nd Street properties.<ref name="1923RealEstate">{{cite news |title=LATEST DEALINGS IN REALTY FIELD; $6,500,000 Lease to 'Schraffts' for Building Site in Times Square Section. A HUNDRED-YEAR TERM Ralph A. Gushee Exercises Option to Purchase Turbell Property for $300,000. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/04/11/105991411.pdf |access-date=21 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=April 11, 1923 |language=en}}</ref> In November 1923, his estate sold additional property owned by Greene at 102 Franklin Street (in the modern neighborhood of Tribeca) which consisted of a five-story and basement building on a lot of 25 by 100 feet.<ref name="1923FranklinSale">{{cite news |title=LATEST DEALINGS IN REALTY FIELD; The Vanderbilt Avenue Building Sold by J. Clarence Davies to Robert M. Catts. DEAL INVOLVES $3,000,000 Buyer Will Add Twelve Stories to Structure -- J.H. Eagle Also Buys in Central Zone. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/11/14/106019633.pdf |access-date=21 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=November 14, 1923 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{find a Grave|40141441}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Alister}} Category:1854 births Category:1923 deaths Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Columbia Law School alumni Category:Social leaders