Mrs. Caroline Z. Greenman was the daughter of Elijah and Polly Goodrich, and was born July 3, 1826, in 'Goodrich Hollow,' town of Hancock, Berkshire Co., Mass. She came with her parents to Milton, Wis. around 1849, via the Erie canal; around the Great Lakes to Milwaukee; and then out through the woods, the oak openings, and over the wild prairie to Milton, Wisconsin, by team and lumber wagon.
In 1850, her brother Elijah E. Goodrich died with that great scourge the cholera; in 1851 her only remaining brother William Henry died; and in 1853 her father followed., leaving her with her mother 'Aunt Polly Goodrich,' as she was universally known, to struggle on in the wild West alone. Her only sister, Mrs. Mary A. Conklin, remained on the old homestead in Massachusetts, where she died in 1869.
She was married to Charles H. Greenman Aug. 27, 1853, and to them were born four children: Mrs. Carrie M. Rice of Milton, Wis., Mrs. S. Anna Vancampin of Cannon Falls, Minn., Wm. Henry Greenman of Milton, Wis., and Mrs. Lucy A. Lane of Milwaukee, Wis. She experienced religion in her youth and united with the First-day Baptist Church of New Lebanon Springs, N. Y. She embraced the Bible Sabbath soon after coming to Milton, Wis., and upon the organization of the Seventh-day Baptist church at Milton Junction she became one of the constituent members there, where she remained in faithful Christian fellowship until her death April 24, 1900.
She endured much deep sorrow and affliction, and was nearly blind the last twenty years of her life. She was a devoted Christian woman, wife, and mother; and she cared for her darling children, through their infancy, childhood and youth, unto womanhood and manhood, with a love and devotion that a mother only can fully feel. She lived to see them all married and settled for life, and her grandchildren growing up around her, respected, devoted, contented and happy, and some of them even ready to branch out and begin the battle of life. She passed away suddenly, painlessly, peacefully and unexpectedly, with apoplexy, being fully prepared and ready and willing and waiting to go.
She was the most frail, but yet the last surviving member of her family, living longer than the allotted life of man. She won the respect, the confidence and the esteem of those who knew her; and, by her going another family is reunited on the other shore.
Her pastor, the Rev. Geo. J. Crandall, assisted by her former pastor, Rev. Geo. W. Burdick, officiated at her funeral, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Carrie M. Rice. Words of comfort were spoken from the text, 'But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Her cousins Ezra Goodrich, Chas H. Goodrich, Solomon C. Carr and Joseph G. Carr were the pallbearers. She was buried with her family and kindred by the 'Goodrich Monument' in that most beautiful Milton cemetery just as all nature was springing into newness of life.
