Rev. Joseph Green (1674-1715)
Rev. Joseph Green, Minister of Salem, Massachusetts
He was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, to John Green, Marshal-General of Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard (1695) and was ordained two years later (1697), replacing Samuel Parrish in the same year as the Minister at Salem following the infamous Witch Trials of 1692: "Green led the shaken community out of the shadow of the witchcraft delusion and into the light of the 18th century. He focused the community on building its first school, raising money for the poor for Thanksgiving, and building a meeting house". He left a personal diary that documents 17-years of community life in Salem at that period. In 1698, he married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Gerrish, of Cambridge, and had six children (listed above) who lived to adulthood.
