John Portineus Greene was born on September 3, 1793, in Herkimer, New York, to John C. Greene and Ann Chapman. Married Rhoda Young on February 11, 1813. Served mission to eastern states in 1833. Was called to serve a mission to the Senecas with Amos Orton in May 1835. Member of Kirtland High Council in 1836. Branch president in New York City in 1839. Member of Nauvoo City Council in 1841 and served as city marshal in 1843. Died in Nauvoo on Septmber 10, 1844. [McLellin, s.v. "Green, J. P."]
The following articles appeared in the Cincinnati newspapers. [Republished in the New York American].
One of this wronged, abused, and much persecuted sect, a Mr. [John P.] Green[e], proposes, at Cincinnati, Ohio, to state to a public meeting, the story of the outrages and sufferings which have been heaped upon a community of unoffending men, women, and children, for no other conceivable reason, than the heterodoxy of their religious creed!
Mr. Green is furnished with documentary evidence of what he proposes to state, and when he shall have satisfied his hearers of the justness of his story, he will appeal to them for contributions to relieve the wants and privations of women and children— "wants," says the Cincinnati Gazette, "terrific even to contemplate, in a land of plenty, of Christian profession, and of established laws."
We have, from time to time, expressed our abhorrence of the black enormities to which these people have been opposed, and trust that the appeal making, and the story to be told, in Ohio, may be repealed upon the sea-board, that Americans may not any where be left in ignorance of the brutal intolerance of some of their own countrymen, nor without the opportunity of contributing such pecuniary aid, as may in some degree mitigate the lot of the victims of oppression.
New York American, (18 June 1839):2.
Again, under the date of 27 June 1839:
We alluded some days ago to the horrid outrages that had been perpetrated on this sect, and we now subjoin, from a Cincinnati paper, a brief notice of what transpired at a public meeting held in that city, to listen to the tale, supported by evidence, of these enormities. Mr. Morris, recently a Senator of the U. States from Ohio, states positively, it will be seen, as the result of his personal observation that the only offence of these unhappy people was, that "their religion gave offence to a mob"!
[From the Cincinnati Daily News, June 18 [1839].]
Agreeably to public notice, a meeting was held in the College Chapel last evening, which was opened by a few remarks from a gentleman accompanying Mr. Green; after which Mr. Green gave a statement of the early settlement of the Mormons in Missouri, and a history of their persecution, which has hardly a parallel even in the persecution of the primitive Christians. They were ruthlessly driven from their homes, their property destroyed, the women and children forced into the woods, without any shelter from the inclemency of the weather, (it being in the month of January,) where they roamed about till their feet became so sore that their enemies tracked them by foot-prints of blood. The men were in many instances cruelly murdered.
On one occasion the mob attacked a smith-shop, into which nine of the Mormons and two boys had taken refuge; it being a log house, the mob fired between the logs, and killed every individual of the nine men; they then entered and dragged the two boys from under the bellows, who begged for mercy in most piteous tones; one of the miscreants applying his rifle to the ear of the youngest, (who was but nine years old, said) "My lad, we have no time to quarter you, but we will halve you," and immediately shot away the whole upper portion of his head. The other boy was severely wounded in the hip, but had the presence of mind to fall and remain quiet, and so escaped: be is still living, and is at Quincy, Ill. Speaking of the massacre, he said, "they had killed my father and brother, and I was afraid if I moved they would kill me too."
To cap the climax, the villains plundered the dead bodies of their clothes, &c. In another instance, a part of the mob pursued an aged man, who, finding he could not escape, turned, and raising his hands to Heaven, begged for mercy; the reply he received was a shot from a rifle, and he fell mortally wounded; he still besought them to spare him, when one of the party picked up a scythe, or sickle, and literally hacked him to pieces as he lay on the ground. This man assisted in the achievement of our liberties in the revolutionary war. Mr. Green's narrative contained many such instances, and was indeed a tale of woe and suffering, at which the heart sickens.
Hon. Thomas Morris then addressed the meeting. He said he had been in the vicinity of these transactions, and had taken some pains to acquaint himself with the facts; and from all he could learn, the Mormons were an industrious and harmless people, that no specific charges had been brought against them by the executive of Missouri, but that their persecution was for no other reason than that their religion gave offence to a mob- for causes which May at any time induce the same persecution of any religious sect in our land. He said he believed the statements made by the gentlemen to be true, and that they were corroborated by those who resided in the vicinity of their occurrence.
On motion, a chairman and secretary were appointed, and resolutions passed condemning the conduct of the executive of Missouri; appointing a committee to prepare a statement of the treatment received by this distressed people, and re- commending them to the favorable notice of the people of Cincinnati.
We hope the statement to be prepared by the Cincinnati Committee, will be as brief as it can be made, consistently with a full exposition of the facts, and that it will be circulated throughout the United States, and lead to some general plan for relief and indemnity- so far as indemnity can be afforded- to the survivors of these shocking and brutal persecutions. In this way only may we hope to redeem ourselves as a nation from the stain and the crime.
New York American, (27 June 1839):2.