William Cornell Greene

Businessman

On September 15, 1899, William founded the Greene Consolidated Copper Company to develop copper rich resources he discovered near Cananea. Greene Consolidated became in a very short time one of the richest sources of copper ore in the world, with an average output over 70 million pounds per year. Accordingly, Greene himself soon became one of the wealthiest businessmen in the United States and based on his success soon created a number of other ventures; the Pacific Coast Coal Company, Greene Consolidated Gold Company, the Cananea Railroad Company, the Sierra Madre Land and Lumber Company, as well as many others. None of his other ventures ever produced the wealth found in the copper mines of Cananea, though.

In 1903, Greene purchased the San Rafael Ranch near Lochiel, Arizona, and made it the headquarters for his cattle ranching empire. Greene was quite successful with his ranch and even attracted the attention of the Mexican raider Pancho Villa, who stole horses from him on more than one occasion. The San Rafael Ranch remained in the Greene family all the way up until 1998, when The Nature Conservancy and Arizona State Parks purchased it for use as a wildlife preserve. In 2008, the ranch headquarters was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the "San Rafael Ranch Historic District".

The Lawson Panic of 1904 and mining strikes two years later were the beginning of the end for Greene Consolidated. The panic, started by Thomas Lawson, a popular investor and writer of his day, created a selling frenzy on Wall Street that sent the price of shares spiraling down. There was some recovery to the share price but the situation worsened in May 1906 when the company was under siege by hostile miners unhappy about unequal pay. There was a call for help and Greene Consolidated was quickly supported by the local Sonoran Rurales and the Arizona Rangers, who entered Sonora against orders.

In addition to the trouble with the miners, many of Greene's backers in New York began to turn on him. They began to sell their shares which sent his stock price lower. Still, it was not until his own overspending in related businesses, combined with the aggressive business tactics of rival business men and competitors, forced Greene to succumb. In 1906, with dwindling finances and nowhere else to turn, he sold Greene Consolidated to Thomas F. Cole, John D. Ryan, and Amalgamated Copper.