George Gill Green


George Gill Green was a patent medicine entrepreneur, and Union surgeon in the American Civil War.

Biography

George Gill Green was born in Clarksboro, East Greenwich Township, New Jersey, to Mary Ann and Lewis M. Green. George Green's mother was from Pennsylvania, and his father worked as a butcher.
Green attended the University of Pennsylvania medical school for two years, but left in 1864 before he graduated.
He enlisted in the 142nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. In 1867 he started a wholesale drug business in Baltimore, Maryland but the factory was destroyed by a fire. He moved to Ohio, married Angie Brown, and they had their first child there.
Green bought the rights to "Green's August Flower" and "Dr. Boschee's German Syrup" from his father, Lewis, who sold the elixir under the name "L.M. Green". George created a marketing campaign involving mass mailings of free samples, and the distribution of thousands of his almanacs. Both elixirs were mostly laudanum. He became a millionaire and in 1880 he built Woodbury's Opera House.
The family moved to Woodbury, New Jersey on November 23, 1872.
The Greens had a son, George Gill Green II, born January 17, 1883 and died in January 1971.
In 1893 Green acquired an uncompleted hotel in Pasadena, California, and in 1894 completed and opened it as the Hotel Green.
Green completed a summer home, "Kil Kare Castle," in 1895 at Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey.
In 1898 Green built an annex west of the Hotel Green, the "Central Annex" building or "Castle Green" on the block across Raymond Avenue. "Castle Green" is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Pasadena, the California State Historic Landmark Register, and the City of Pasadena Register of City Treasures.
In 1903 Green added a third annex to the Hotel Green, known as the "Wooster Block." His patent medicine business declined after the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, and by 1916 his company's products were discontinued.
George Gill Green died on February 26, 1925 in Woodbury, New Jersey.

Publications by Green