William Semple Green (December 26, 1832, Kentucky – July 2, 1905) was a California pioneer, a steamboat captain, mail carrier, surveyor, newspaper publisher, writer, legislator, United States Surveyor General for California, California State Treasurer, and irrigationist. Private life He came to California during the California gold rush, arriving in San Francisco via the Panama Canal at the age of 17 on October 10, 1849, although he never tried his hand at gold mining. His uncle, C.D. Semple, purchased of land from John Bidwell in then-Colusi County (now Colusa County). On July 1, 1850, Green piloted a steamboat up the Sacramento River, taking his uncle and cousin to their land, where they founded the town of Colusa. Over the next several years, Green held a number of different jobs, such as hotel keeper, joint founder of a bakery, selling fresh vegetables and writing magazine articles. He married his first wife Josephine Davis in 1862, and they had a daughter (Lucy) in 1864. Josephine died in 1881, and Green was remarried ten years later to Sally Morgan whom he had met at an irrigation meeting there a few years before in Salt Lake City. Newspaperman On September 26, 1863, he and a partner purchased the Colusa Sun newspaper. As editor-publisher of the Sun, he concentrated on representing his local area. Largely self-taught (as a youth, he received no formal education beyond the old backwoods field school), he was interested in practical education. His view of editorship was that a newspaperman should teach his community social responsibilities and educate men to live happily together. He also became known as an advocate of states' rights, although he was clear to distinguish that from slavery. On June 1, 1865 he wrote, "There could be such a thing as a Republic in this country without slavery, but there can never be such a thing as a Republic in America without the acknowledgement of States Rights." In 1899, Green was the elected first president of The Central and Northern California Press Association. He saw it as an opportunity to discuss problems common to newspaper editors, and to broaden their horizons beyond just their localities. He also saw it as means to resist advertisers who sought articles putting them in favorable light in return for vague promises of future business, in addition to local bodies that demanded free newspaper space for material they were required to publish by