ABSTRACT
Asa Greene was born in Ashby, Massachusetts, on February 11, 1789. His father, Oliver was a farmer and a tanner. His mother, Dorothy, had already borne four children, three daughters and a son. The family moved to Westford, near Lowell, when Greene was ten. A few years later, they returned to Ashburnham in the Ashby area. After attending local schools, Greene prepared himself for entrance into the junior class of Williams College with the aid of the Ashburnham minister who was a Harvard graduate. Greene had some knowledge of Latin and a good command of Greek. Greene was well-read in English literature, with a special interest in Joseph Addison, Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Swift, and Oliver Goldsmith. Between 1822 and 1825, Greene was a physician in Lunenburg, Townsend, and North Adams, the Berkshires, then became a bookseller in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and published a weekly, The Berkshire American, with advertisements, general notices, an agricultural column, foreign and domestic news and humorous essays.
