BLACK-L Archives

From:
Subject: Chauncey F. Black of York County, PA
Date: 16 Apr 2005 20:58:47 -0600

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

Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JNE.2ACIB/3387

Message Board Post:

Chauncey F. Black

The stock from which the present lieutenant-governor springs needs no introduction to Pennsylvanians. His illustrious father, Jeremiah Sullivan Black, was pre-eminently a Pennsylvanian by blood and birth, by education and public service. He unites the ruling types in the rural portions of the State-the sturdy Pennsylvania German and energetic Scotch-Irish . Born in the Glades, Somerset County, his father was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, his mother of Scotch-Irish on her father’s side, as her name, Sullivan indicates, and of Pennsylvania German descent on her mother’s side. Judge Black’s father, Henry Black, was aman of prominence in southern Pennsylvania; he served in the legislature from 1814 to 1818, was an associate judge for a term, and was a member of the National house of representatives when he died. His wife was the daughter of Chauncey Forward, who was a member of congress and a brother of Walter Forward, secretary of the treasury under Tyler.!
Chauncey Forward Black who bears his mother’s family name, was born inSomerset County, Penn., November 1839. His early education was obtained at Monongalia Academy, Morgantown, West Va., at Hiram College, in Ohio, and he finished his studies at Jefferson College, Canonsburg. When he was a student at Hiram the late President Garfield was a tutor there, and the acquaintance thus formed ripened into a personal friendship, which was only interrupted by the president’s tragic death. Their political differences were the widest, as illustrated by the scholarly and irresistible paper, in which Mr. Black took issue with Mr. Garfield’s exultant boast that the influence of Jefferson is on the wane in our political system. He was admitted to the bar of Somerset, and also of York, but never practiced much, showing early inclination toward journalism and other forms of literary work. From the time of beginning his law studies he wrote for various journals on a wi!
de range of topics, doing a doing a vast amount of effective political
work, for which he has trained himself by studies of the fathers of the republic. Jefferson found in him an appreciative but discriminating admirer, and the Hamiltonian theories encountered his early criticism and dissent. Study of the constitution and of the discussions over its adoption and construction, convinced him that they who had founded our institutions had builded wiser then they knew, formulating a system which could be practicably and profitably applied to every question that arose. Mr. Black, though a student of politics, has never failed to take a laboring oar in the practical work of campaigns. Besides the engagement of his pen for effective work in many quarters, he has been heard upon the stump year after year, and a number of the later platforms of the Democratic State conventions are accredited to his authorship. In 1879 he represented York County in the State convention, and in 1880 he was one of the delegates from that congressional district to the Cinc!
innati convention, voting on the first ballot for Judge Field, and on the second for Gen. Hancock. Prior to the late State convention, from the time his nomination for lieutenant-governor was first broached, the suggestion was received with popular favor, and he was chosen by a large majority on the first ballot. The selection was ratified most heartily not only for the Democratic press of Pennsylvania, but by many journals of large influence outside the State.
From his youth up Mr. Black has been a supporter of these principles which he comes to by inheritance and holds by intelligent conviction. With ready pen and eloquent tongue he has steadily maintained them for over twenty years. In all his utterances and writings they never found abler nor more fitting expression than in his successful efforts to revive the Jeffersonian societies and extend the study of Jeffersonian principles. To this patriotic task he has applied himself, not because of any retrospective tendency of his mind, nor by reason of any failure to profoundly appreciate the spirit of true progressiveness and to adapt himself and his political principles to the wonderful development of our national life. He holds that in the Jeffersonian philosophy are the germs of all political progress.
Since 1873 Mr. Black has been closely and continuously identified with the journalism of the country. He has been uninterruptedly an editorial contributor to the New York Sun and other prominent journals of the country, his facile pen being devoted to no special range of subjects, and often wandering into the more graceful lines of literature, while his fulminations are vigorous and effective when hurled at political evils. The geniality and native humor of his temperament, which make him a social favorite wherever he is known, unmistakably manifest themselves in his literary work, but the sturdy Anglo-Saxon and virile thought of his editorial expression make it recognizable.
In November 1882, he was elected lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania. His majority in York County was one of the largest ever received by any candidate, when opposed by the opposite party. In January, 1883, he entered upon his duties as presiding officer of the senate of Pennsylvania. His dignified bearing, affable manners and courtesy have won the admiration of the senators of both parties and of the officers, of the various departments, with whom he has had official intercourse.
In 1863 Mr. Black was married to the daughter of the late Hon. John L. Dawson, whose home was at Friendship Hill, Fayette County, the former residence of Albert Gallatin, and the present residence of Mr. Dawson’s widow, which is still in the ownership of the family. Mr. Dawson represented the (then) Twenty-first District in congress with great distinction. He was in reality the father of the homestead law now in force. Of the four children at Willow Bridges,” the three boys illustrate their distinguished lineage by the names Jeremiah Sullivan, John L. Dawson and Chauncey Forward. Possessed in eminent degree of those fireside virtues which are the best qualities of public men, Mr. Black has social accomplishments which make him extremely popular with his acquaintances. Upon his nomination for lieutenant-governor he received the hearty congratulations of his neighbors and assurances of their support regardless of party, because of the warmth of feeling which h!
is personal characteristics have awakened for him. No local interest fails to engage his sympathy, and his former friends and neighbors are accustomed to count him among those who regard their agricultural concerns with community of interest. He was one of the charter members of Springettysburg Grange, No. 79, organized in Spring Gaeden Township, York County, Penn., January 4, 1874, by R.H. Thomas, State secretary. He attends the Episcopal Church.
On the left hand side of the Northern Central Railroad, about a mile southwest of York, Penn., and in the township of Spring Garden is a beautiful home, bowered among apple trees, which are thickly set on a smoothly kept lawn. Well trimmed hedges run all around this little farm; through them, here and there, grow the osage trees and towering elms, while drooping willows and whispering maples shade the enclosed grounds. The ivy grows over the stone springhouse; Virginia creepers cling to trellises and branching trees and flaunt their graceful foliage in the summer wind. Within the house which adorns “Willow Bridges,” are the signs of solid comfort and refinement. Near by, an office of rustic beauty, furnished with all the facilities for literary labor, is the workshop of Chauncey F. Black.
Inheriting from a hardy race of ancestors a love of nature, he lives here in the country at the foot of Webb’s Hill, over which the spacious and highly cultivated farm of his father’s estate spreads itself. He breaths pure air, drinks spring water, supplies his table from his own garden, and catches inspiration from all his surroundings for the vigorous work which he has done in the promotion of a healthy and honest policy for the commonwealth.


Taken from the book, “History of York County, Illustrated 1886” by John Gibson, Historical Editor

This thread:

• Chauncey F. Black of York County, PA by