HENRY CLAY GREER

Great-great-granddaughter, Linda Greer, transcribed the Service Record obtained from the Nation Archives: SERVICE RECORD

Linda also provided a genealogy file: DESCENDANTS OF HENRY C. GREER

He received a government pension, Certificate #979743, until his death at Wheeling on August 30, 1923. See PENSION INDEX CARD

Henry Clay Greer of Wheeling, West Virginia, a steamboat carpenter, was a resident of the city since the time of the Civil War. He was born January 18, 1842, in Newark, Licking County, Ohio, the son of William C. Greer and Ursula Hunt Greer. According to the 1850 U.S. Census, Henry's father, William, born in Pennsylvania, was farming in Reading Township, Perry County, Ohio. His mother was born in New York.

Upon moving to Wheeling, Henry's father worked as a molder. Henry's parents were living next door to his sister, Anna Greer Goodwin, her husband Captain Benjamin Goodwin and their family, according to the 1860 census record.

In the fall of 1861, Henry C. Greer volunteered as a private, fighting with the Union Army for a period of three years with Company A, First Regiment of the West Virginia Infantry. Henry was promoted to Corporal by July 1862. In October 1863, Henry was furloughed to Wheeling to attend his father's funeral. In May and June 1864, Henry detached from Company A to join the Pioneer Corps. He mustered-out of service on November 26, 1864, returning to his family in Wheeling.

He married Mary Ellen Shores, daughter of Stephen Shores and Mary Mayhew Shores of Belmont County, Ohio. Henry and Mary were married sometime between 1866 and 1867, before the birth of their first son, John, in 1871. Henry and Mary were blessed with four more children by 1886: William Henry, who married Nancy Elleanor Lunsford of Ohio, Bertha Jane, St. Lawrence, and Leander Pettit Greer all of Wheeling. According to the 1900 Census, Henry and Mary had five children, four of whom were living.

Henry made a living as a ship carpenter, as trade on the Ohio River and Wheeling's population grew in size. He remained in Wheeling until the time of his death, on August 30, 1923. He is buried in Weeks Cemetery, Bridgeport, Ohio with his wife of more than fifty years, Mary Ellen Greer.