H. S. Greene   
 

Hubert Sydney Greene was born in St. Albans, Vermont on September 1, 1863. He spent his childhood in Schenectady, New York. At the age of 18, he left home for Kansas City, where he became a cowboy working for a rancher named Ike Morgan. After working several years on the open range, Hubert moved to Billings, Montana. There he was listed in an 1884 Montana Regional Directory as a house and sign painter. For a time in the mid 1880s, he lived in North Dakota where he operated a photography studio in Wahpeton, and lived with the Don Juan Clark family in Abercrombie. The 1885 Dakota Territory Census lists his occupation as an artist. Sometime after 1885 he returned to Billings where he opened a photography studio. The self-portrait to the right is from his studio in Billings (1.6.4).

During his time in Billings he met Johanna Augusta Nelson, and they were married July 7, 1890. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Fargo, where he obtained a job working for Samuel and James Logan. Around December 1893 he took over the Logan Studio.  His photographic work was displayed in the June 7, 1894 fire anniversary edition of The Argus newspaper.  Reports in the August 24, 1894 Fargo Forum & Daily Republican show that H. S. Greene had abandoned his business in July, and that a creditor was looking for him. In the same paper, it states that A. A. Bentley was moving into his abandoned space. On September 1, H. S. Greene's belongings were sold at public auction at the Cass County Courthouse. Following his time in Fargo, H. S. Green returned to Billings. In 1897, the family moved to Plattsburg, New York where Hubert secured a job in the George T. Woodward studio. By this time the Greene's had three sons, Don, Robert, and Albert. On October 17, 1900 a daughter was born to the couple, they named her Gladys Georgianna Greene. Gladys would go on to become the movie actress, Jean Arthur.

The family moved to Portland, Maine about 1908, where he worked in the Lamson Studio. During the summer of 1909, the Greenes went to Jacksonville, Florida on business. Hubert, who was prone to drinking, abandond the family for more than a year. The family returned to Portland, and Hubert returned to his family in 1910. In October 1912 he returned to Jacksonville, where he worked for his former boss George T. Woodward. In 1915 the family moved to New York City, where Hubert worked for Ira L. Hill on Fifth Avenue. The job seems to have not worked out, for Hubert once again abandoned the family around the time of World War I.

In 1923, Johanna and daughter Gladys moved to Hollywood, California to pursue her acting career. With his daughter's success, Hubert joined them in 1928.

In 1940, Hubert separated from his wife, and they were divorced on March 16, 1942. Hubert died February 12, 1944 in California.

1890s photographers

Photographers of Fargo, N.D.
Institute for Regional Studies,
North Dakota State University,
Fargo 2001