This grave marker which is at Hackensack Cemetery Located at
289 Hackensack Avenue Hackensack, New Jersey reveals that Henry Green served in the U.S. Army during the Spanish American War as an Artificer for the state of
South Carolina and died at the age of five days short of 78.  Henry Green’s grave marker confirms his connection to Hackensack by being buried within its borders since passing and forevermore.

An “Artificer" is - The artificer was the man charged with the maintenance of a military unit's equipment (basically a mechanic and repair person). Usually one artificer was provided in each infantry company, each cavalry troop, and each artillery battery. Source from <Spanish-American war Centennial web site>. 

I do not know at the present time if there is any link between this Henry Green from Spanish-American War and Henry Green, Jr. from World War I at the present time.

Henry Green is buried in the African American section of Hackensack Cemetery. In the 1880’s a law was passed because of an incident concerning Hackensack Cemetery.

Click here to view.

It was a crime to refuse burial of African Americans in cemeteries with a fine of up to $500.00.  The cemetery was officially founded in the 1890’s and the segregation within its grounds went on for many years to follow with attitudes probably changing after World War II. Grave plots having been bought before a person died in the 1950’s, and many African Americans more comfortable resting their loved ones in a more traditional area among friends and family not much has changed.  Italians in Hackensack are much more highly represented in St. Joseph’s Cemetery for similar reasons they really were not welcome in the more Dutch and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery of Hackensack at the turn of the 1900th to the 20th century, so they created their own cemetery through St. Joseph’s Catholic ministries right next to Hackensack Cemetery. 

Written by:
Bob Meli
August 16, 2018

Background image of Recruiting Poster obtained from:

http://www.jcs-group.com/military/war1898.html