Green was an American attorney and jurist who was appointed by Benjamin Harrison as the first chief justice of the Oklahoma Territory Supreme Court on May 4, 1890.
Other court officials included Charles H. Filson, as clerk, Warren G. Lurty, as marshal and Horace Speed, as United States Attorney.
Edward received a primary education in the public school of the county, then attended Reimersburg and Leatherwood Academies, preparing himself to become a teacher at age 17.
Governor Richard J. Oglesby, also a Republican, seeing Green as a potential winner for the party, appointed him to the state Revenue Commission in 1885.
[3] President Benjamin Harrison appointed Green as the first chief justice of the Supreme Court for the newly-created Oklahoma Territory, effective May 14, 1890.
[2] Associate Justice Seay presided over the Second District, which covered Canadian, Kingfisher and Beaver Counties and the rest of the Cherokee Outlet.
[2] Associate Justice Clark presided over the Third District, which included Cleveland and Oklahoma Counties and the southern portions of the Iowa, Kickapoo and Sac and Fox lands.
[2] One early biographer described Judge Green as "...a profound lawyer, eminent for his judicial bearing and scholarly attainments.
No other territory was opened to settlement in the same manner, and the conditions which confronted the courts at the very threshold of their work were sui generis; and the innumerable questions which arose were entirely without precedent.
Ultimately, the situation was resolved without bloodshed, although the use of military force was threatened on more than one occasion, as explained by Matthew Gilbert's book.