John was born in Alabama and grew up in Arkansas and Virginia before graduating from Yale University with an engineering degree.  He began his career with Carnegie’s U.S. Steel but left after a short time to see some action in the Spanish American War (1898-1901) with Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.  In the conflict he forged a close relationship with Theodore Roosevelt and Robert Ferguson.   He fought with distinction earning himself the a Silver Star after reaching the top of San Juan Hill before any other commissioned officer.  Teddy Roosevelt was quoted as saying, “A strapping fellow, entirely fearless, modest and quiet, with the ability to take care of men under him so as to bring them to the highest point of solderly perfection, to be counted upon with absolute certainty in every emergency; not only doing his duty, but always on the watch to find some new duty which he could construe to be his, ready to respond with eagerness to the slightest suggestion of doing something, whether it was dangerous or merely difficult and laborious.”  On his return from the war, he worked his way up to General Superintendent of the Mesabi range in Minnesota before moving on to Arizona and copper mining.  It was during this time in Arizona that Greenway renewed his friendship with Robert Ferguson and was captivated by Ferguson’s wife.  The entrance of the United States into World War I in 1917 prompted the 45-year-old Greenway to offer his services.  He went on to earn several commendations and returned home as a brevetted Brigadier General.  In 1923, one year after the death of Robert Ferguson, Greenway married the widow, Isabella.  The couple had a son, John Selmes Greenway (“Jack”), but their happiness was short-lived as Greenway died from complications following a gall-bladder surgery only three years after their wedding.  John was originally buried in Ajo, Arizona but later moved to the Dinsmore family graveyard.  To commemorate his life, the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, famously known for Mt. Rushmore and infamously known for mingling with the Ku Klux Klan, created a statue of John that was once part of the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

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