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Subject: Descendants of Andrew Livingston and Sara Elizabeth Ferrol Black
Date: 2 Sep 2004 08:23:17 -0600

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: Black, Teas (Tays, Tease)
Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/JNE.2ACIB/3230

Message Board Post:

I seek to pin down how "Black Bill" mentioned below got to TN and discover more about his parents listed below.

Great-Grandfather William F. Black (Billy) was the second son of William Black, (b. 11/13/1817 in VA; d. 2/7/1898 in Haywood County, TN.), "Black Bill," and Nancy Jane Teas, "Jane." He and Jane married in 1840 and moved from Humphreys County, Waverly, TN, to Fayette County, just south of the Haywood County line near what is now Stanton, TN. Goodspeed's history mentions them as being fairly well to do and known in the community. Four children were born of this marriage:

Robert J. b. 11/29/1841 d. 11/ 7/1910
William F.b. 6/ 6/1846 d. 1/14/1920
John T. b. 8/26/1848 d. 4/25/1879
Nancy (Nannie) b. /1850 d. 6/29/1894

Black Bill, (b. 11/13/1817 in VA?) who migrated to Humphreys County TN at a young age from Mecklenburg County, VA/possibly NC, was the son of Andrew Livingston Black and Sara Elizabeth Ferrol. [Cannot find these people.] Andrew is reported to have been a shipwright from Crenauch, Scotland, now a part of Glasgow. Andrew and Sara are reported to have had 12 children, including James W., William and Nelson, who came to TN from VA. (Nothing more is known about Andrew and Sara: missing dates of birth, death, and marriage. Possibly, Andrew and Sara brought family with them to Humphreys County TN died and may be buried there.) Census information from VA and TN have not yet turned them up. (Census information for VA and TN for 1790 and 1800 was burned by the British during the war of 1812.) Consequently, Andrew and Sara may have left "light tracks.")

Jane Teas and Black Bill married 1840 in Humphreys County and moved to Solomon Mill, Fayette County, just south of the Haywood County line, in the vicinity of Stanton, TN. Jane died soon after the birth of fourth child Nannie in 1850 at age 29. Birthing four children and dying at age 29 at or soon after the birth of Nannie is all we know about Jane. The exact date of Nannie's birth is unknown as is the exact cause and date of Jane's death. However, the 1850 Fayette Co. census, enumerated 9/24/1850, showed Jane alive, age 27?, living with Black Bill, age 31?; Robert J., 8; William F., 5; and John T., 2. This listed the value of Bill's real estate at $1,000. Nannie was born and Jane died between September 24, 1850 and April 19, 1851. (There is probably some information to be discovered in the Brownsville, TN, library about Jane.)

After Jane's death in childbirth, Black Bill married Arabella Ross (b. 1/2/1835, d. 8/27/1919 in Stanton, TN) on 4/19/1851, when she was 16 and he 33. That marriage produced 9 children--2 sons, 7 daughters--in order:

Mary Elizabeth, b. 10/19/1853
Sara Elizabeth, b. 1854
Annie Virginia, b. 1856
Rebecca, b. 1859
Emma, b. 1862
Charles P, b. 1867
Fanny, b. 1868
Andrew, b.?
Octavia b.?

Arabella lived on 'til 8/27/1919, dying at age 82. Nothing has been discovered of her background. Arabella and Black Bill are buried in the Methodist cemetery in Stanton TN, about 45 minutes from East Memphis.

Sons of William Black and Jane Teas

Robert Jones Black

b. 11/29/1841Fayette County, TN
d. 11/ 7/1910Memphis, TN -- buried in Elmwood

m. Fannie Madin Somerville, March, 1869.

b. 8/ 4/1846
d. 1/28/1906

Robert J. was 19 when the Civil War broke out in mid-1861. He enlisted May 31, 1861, in Tipton County in Hill's cavalry, which became a company of Logwood's battalion, and afterward merged into and was designated Company B of the 7th Tennessee Cavalry--Forrest's Cavalry. He was soon made orderly sergeant, and then elected lieutenant of the company November 23, 1863, and remained lieutenant throughout the war. His regiment served under Generals W. H. Jackson, James R. Chalmers, E. W. Rucker, and A. W. Campbell, who reported to General N. B. Forrest. His military records show that he received pay for his horse and himself. Records show that he was in Duckworth's Co. B. (Duckworth took over Jeffry Forrest's company after Jeffrey was killed at Okolona, MS.) (Joseph W. Somerville was Adjutant of Hill's Cavalry. This may have been Fannie's brother.)

Robert was more than a competent cavalryman. He was with Forrest throughout the war, serving in the elite "Forrest Escort." He was wounded three times in battle--cut at Lockridge's Mill, TN, 5/5/62; shot through the left leg in a cavalry charge near Hernando, MS 6/16/63; and shot through the left arm while preparing to capture Union City, TN, 4/24/64. He, with "Black's Tennessee Scouts," was first to encounter the federal troops at what historian's consider to be Forrest's best victory at Brices Cross Road, MS, June, 1864.

Robert survived the bloody defeat at Franklin, TN, 11/30/64. Lindsley reports that November 29, 1864, the "brigade . . . took part . . . with the infantry under Cleburne in the attack at Spring Hill. . . . On the 30th the brigade was dispatched west to Carter's Creek turnpike to guard the Confederate left flank, and that afternoon drove in the federal pickets on the extreme left at Franklin, maintaining a hot fight with their outer lines until night." Robert was paroled with the 7th Cavalry in Gainesville, Alabama, May 11, 1865. (Lindsley and Young state that the Seventh was not at Fort Pillow in April 1864, where black federal troops and "home grown Yankees" were mostly all killed in a vicious episode.)

After the war Robert located in Memphis, served as Clerk and Master of the Chancery Court from 1878 to 1884, was President of the Security Bank of Memphis, Vice-President of the Memphis Abstract Company, a member of the firm R. J. Black and Co., Real Estate, vice-president of the Woodruff Lumber Company, and a director in the following boards: Mercantile Bank, Phoenix Insurance Co., Workingmen's Building and Loan Association, the Memphis Bethel. Robert was successful and a leader in Memphis business.

Robert was prominent in Veterans activities after the war, being a charter member and Secretary of the Confederate Historical Society, which was formed in 1875. He read the minutes of the first meeting at the second meeting, which occurred in Covington, TN, September 21, 1876. As the convened West Tennessee veterans were parading from the Covington Square to the fairgrounds, General Forrest's train arrived and he rode his horse in among his veterans, who "lauded him with three rousing cheers."

"The band struck up Dixie, . . . , at which time were heard loud and enthusiastic calls from the crowd for General Forrest. The General, with hat removed, rode through the assemblage in order to be closer to his audience and while still mounted delivered a speech." (We have a copy of the speech for interested readers.)

General Forrest died October 29, 1876, about 40 days following this convention. The October 31, 1876, Memphis Avalanche reported that the City was closed. A funeral procession was held from Court Square at 9:30 in the morning. The committee in charge of preparations for the funeral were: M.C. Galloway, W. F. Taylor, R. J. Black, and R. Dudley Frayber.

Pall Bearers were:

Jefferson DavisRobert J. Black
Jacob ThompsonThomas Baron
M. C. GallowayS. J. Donelson
G. V. RambaultR. J. Morgan
S. W. SmithR. A. Burton
Charles M. CarrollGovernor James D. Porter

Robert was instrumental in securing the land that subsequently became Forrest Park, and in erecting the bronze statue, which cost $30,000. The Confederate Historical Association (CHA), which Robert and others founded, became the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), which held reunions until the last veterans were dead.

Robert died at his residence, 236 South Fourth Street, Memphis November 7, 1910, having been ill only a few days and not thought in danger of death. Heart failure was the cause of death. He was buried from First Methodist Church, Poplar and Second St, and interred at Elmwood Cemetery next to his wife. He left a son, Robert, Jr., living (btb) in Nashville, and Brother, William F. His wife, Fannie had died nearly four years earlier, January 28, 1906, of pneumonia. Three of his children had pre-deceased him.

Robert's Pall Bearers were:

Sam PepperJohn E. Bell
E. F. WillsJudge W. M. Smith
A. B. DuncanCol. W. F. Taylor
W. W. CollierJudge J. P. Young
H. E. CannonJudge James Palmer
Ed BellGeneral George W. Gordon
Judge F. H. Heiskell

Memphis readers will no doubt recognize the family names of many of these pall bearers as still prominent Memphis families. Robert's picture appears in an engraving following page 642 of Lindsley's Military Annals of Tennessee, 1886, reprinted 1995 by Broadfoot Publishing Co. The same picture appears following page 74 of J. P. Young's history of The Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, 1890, reprinted by Morningside Bookshop, 1976. Young's book makes repeated references to a manuscript by R. J. Black. Contextual material in the Lindsley section on the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry by "a Committee of Officers, Memphis and Brownsville, Tenn," suggests that Robert may have been the chief drafter of the words contains in Lindsley. The clues are, first, the "committee of officers from Memphis and Brownsville" would have instrumentally included Robert as coming from the region around Brownsville and living in Memphis and second, the section makes reference to Robert's three wounds to the ex!
clusion of others. Who but Robert would have been absorbed with his wounds in a general history of the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry?

The Robert Black manuscript remains missing. Who can find it? Might it be with some papers of W.T. Black, Jr.? It might be with papers of J. P. Young because he makes reference to it in his regimental history and because Young, himself, only joined the regiment just before Franklin, in 1864.

Robert's Children

Robert married Fannie Madin Somerville of Tipton County, March, 1869, and had four children:

Robert Jones, Jr, b. / /1870d. 7/20/1927 (in Memphis)
Fannie Maude,b. 8/2/1871d. 8/23/1898
Joseph Somerville, b. 4/14/1878d. 7/17/1907
Janie, b. June, 1879d. August, 1879
Robert buried many of his war comrades and all of his children but Robert Jr.
Janie lived 50 days.

Maude, shown to be a very pretty lady, died at home (323 Poplar Street, Memphis) of a sudden illness August 23, 1898. The Commercial Appeal wrote:

Miss Black was uptown and returned home. Later that evening she complained that she was not feeling well. . . . He told her to go to bed, but an hour later he was disturbed by a noise in [her] room, and on entering found her almost unconscious and in convulsions. The young woman said, "Papa, dear Papa, I am dying," and was soon in another convulsion. Capt. Black [his UCV rank] hastened to Dr. Williford's residence, and the physician quickly came, but the young woman was beyond medical relief, and in a moment she was dead. The Physician attributed the death to heart failure.

Joseph Somerville Black married ? and was murdered while working in a shoe store in Memphis, waiting on a customer. He was struck in the back of the head with a hammer. A few days after his death, a child was born, who subsequently drowned in Florida during WWI service. Robert, later in life, referred to his son as Joseph Stonewall Black, invoking reference to Stonewall Jackson.

Robert Black, Jr., called Robbie, married Madora (called Dora) Harrison of Franklin, TN, and was reported to be living in Nashville in 1910 at the time of his father's death. (Dora Harrison is daughter of John H. Harrison.) Thereafter, they moved to Memphis and lived at 1975 Vinton Ave. at the 1920 census. He had one son, Robert Harrison. Black, born in 1912. Robert J., Jr. died in Memphis July 20, 1927, making him 57 at time of death. Address at time of death is listed as 848 Mosby. Dora Harrison Black moved back to Nashville and died June 24, 1931, age 59, survived by her sister, Mrs. Frank Davis and son Robert H., listed in obit as living in Nashville. Fate of Nashville descendants of Robert H. is unknown. (Could the manuscript be with the descendants of Robert Harrison Black?)

Robert J. Black, Sr., was a man of property, and, at the time of his death in 1910, had one surviving son, Robert, Jr, a surviving grandchild, Joseph's son who died in Florida several years later, the surviving brother, Billy, and step-siblings of Arabella, Robert's will, filed in the Shelby County Probate Court, shows that he left his property to his son.

John T. Black

John T. was Robert and Billy's youngest brother:

b.8/26/1848
d. 4/25/1879

John T. Black married Lydia Kirk Mason, 2/24/1869, in Batesville, Arkansas. They had two sons,

John Palmer Black, (b. 1/1/1876 Stanton, TN, d. 2/19/1956, Amarillo, TX)
Joseph William Black (b. June, 1879.)

This second son was born three months after John T.'s death April 25, 1879. Janice Black Nelson, (Mrs. Frank Nelson, b. 5/17/1919) residing in Texas today, is the daughter of Palmer Black. Palmer took after his Scot-Irish ancestors. At age 12 he migrated to Newport, AK, to work for a cousin as a printer. Thereafter, he migrated down the river to Louisiana and on to Texas in very interesting episodes recounted by Janice.

Nancy J. Black

Nannie, born 1850 or 1851, the last child of Black Bill and Jane Teas, married Mann M. Wells and had four children: Willie, Naumie, Robert and Sallie. She died 6/29/1894 at age 44 or 45, having been widowed. Nothing more is known of her or her descendants, who could still be living in West Tennessee.

William F. Black

Billy Black is my direct ancestor, father of the first Dr. William T. Black. Born 6/6/1846 in Haywood County, (some reports show Humphreys County) he was 14 when Robert went off to join the CSA in 1861. Billy went the next year.

Billy's February 12, 1912, Application for Pension shows that he joined General W. H. Jackson's regiment of Forrest's Cavalry in June, 1862, a few days before he was 16, when it was encamped in Coldwater, MS, serving under Col. W. L. Duckworth, Lt. Col W. F. Taylor, Capt. J. P. Russell, 1st Lt Henry T. Sale and 2nd Lt R. J. Black. Billy was in Company B, 7th TN Cavalry serving as a private under his brother. Like Robert, Billy's pay records show that he received payment for a horse.

His pension application lists the following battles he was engaged in: Okolona, Brices Cross Road, and "with Genl Forrest in all raids and battles until end of war." Billy was paroled with his brother on May 11, 1865 at Gainesville, AL., and never wounded. On his Application, Billy answered the question:

Did you take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government? with "No."

Billy was an unreconstructed Rebel! Billy's war history is not as well documented as Robert's; but we can imagine that he followed Robert throughout the war. Anyone interested in following their trail might consult Brent Lokey, Riding with the Wizard of the Saddle: A Guided Tour of General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Career, 1996. Call Champion Printing, Shelbyville, TN 931-684-1395 for a copy.)

The pension application showed Billy's address as 612 S. Lauderdale, Memphis, on that date living with his wife, 63, and grandchild, 10. (Who might this have been? Robert Earle and Louise's child, Louise, would have been the only grandchild ~10 in 1912. Robert Earle was dead and Mother Louise was possibly a little flaky, as she married five times. Perhaps, she left the child with Billy and Sally and departed. At one time she was living in Los Angeles.) Billy was 66 in 1912. His income was listed as coming from "running Pressing Club" making $20 to $25 per month. He listed no real estate, 1 horse and wagon, household furniture and about $500 as personal property. The application was endorsed by William A. Collier, stating that Billy "deserves and needs his pension."

Billy married Sara Isabelle Coppedge of Stanton, TN, April 17, 1872, called Sally. They had three children:

Henrietta (Lettie)(b. 1/13/1873)
(d. 7/29/1902)
Never married.

William T.b.1/13/1875
d.12/10/1938

Robert Earleb.?
d.?
married Louise Millen in 1900.
Robert Earle and Louise had one child, Louise, born 1901, died 1922. Robert Earle died soon after marriage; Louise went on to have a total of five husbands, dying in CA. She and daughter Louise are buried in Stanton.

After the war, Billy returned to Stanton where he apparently worked as a farm manager. Little is known about his life in Stanton, but he appears to have had many friends.

Billy died at his home on Lamar Boulevard, 1/14/1920, at age 74. He was buried in Stanton TN, survived by his wife and son, Dr. W. T. Black. He was reported to have been active in the Methodist Church. "He served his church for many years a most acceptable way, both as a steward and Sunday school superintendent. . . . A truly good man has gone from us." He is buried in the Methodist cemetery in Stanton TN. Sallie died March 7, 1928 and is buried in Stanton.

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