USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III > Part 2
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(VII) Frank Swett, fourth son and sixth child of Jacob and Charlotte B. (Swett) Black, was born in Limington, York county, Maine, March 8, 1853, and was brought up on his fa- ther's farm, on which he became accustomed to manual labor while very young, his work on the farm being confined to the summer months, and in the winter he attended the dis- trict schools. When his father removed to Alfred, to take charge of the county jail, he attended the Alfred high school. Determined
to gain a college education, he saved his small earnings and was thus enabled to attend the Lebanon Academy, and in his preparation for college he was later assisted by private in- structors connected with the Limerick Acad- emy. He increased his tuition fund by teach- ing school, and when eighteen years of age he entered Dartmouth, but his college attendance, like that of so many of Dartmouth's students at the time, was interrupted by periodical ab- sence each winter in order to teach school to replenish his slender purse. His editorial abil- ity was first recognized at Dartmouth, where he was successively editor of the three col- lege papers. He was graduated one of the honor men of the class of 1875, and given the degree of A. B. on Commencement Day. After graduation he peddled chromos in cen- tral New York, and this experience brought him in contact with the publisher of the Johnstown Journal, a weekly newspaper pub- lished at Johnstown, New York, and he be- came editor of that paper. His short editorial career fully justified the prophesy made while in college that he would make a brilliant jour- nalist. His own ambition, however, was to become a lawyer, and to this end he secured a place as law clerk and law student in the office of Robertson & Forster in Troy, New York. To gain the money to bear the ex- penses without interfering with his studies, he worked nights as a reporter on the Troy Whig, and part of each day as registry clerk in the Troy postoffice. He was admitted to the bar in 1879, and his first independent posi- tion as lawyer was a member of the firm of Smith, Wellington & Black. He withdrew from the firm in 1880, and put out his "shin- gle" as "Frank S. Black, Attorney and Coun- cilor at Law," and he has ever since done business alone. His knowledge of the law was sufficient for any branch, and his thorough preparation and mastery of every detail of the cause he undertook to handle won him immediate success and he became a recognized leader of the bar in Rensselaer county. He was frequently consulted and employed by other lawyers in the preparation of cases that needed expert professional service; in this way he gained the good will of the bar and was ready with sound advice to both the office lawyer and the advocate before the bar. He had inherited from his father sound Repub- lican principles, founded upon those of the old- line Whig party, and yet the political field of- fered him no great allurement for many years. In 1888 and 1892 he made occasional cam- paign speeches in behalf of the candidacy of
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Benjamin Harrison. In 1893, when he was chairman of the Republican county committee for Rensselaer county, the practice of "repeat- ing" and the adoption of other methods for swelling the vote of the Democratic party in the county, but principally in the city of Troy, came before the county committee. Through Mr. Black's initiative, the committee made a vigorous and successful movement to overcome the unlawful practices. On March 7, 1893, a Republican worker at the polls, Robert Ross, was murdered and Chairman Black took both a professional and a personal part in bringing the assassin before the courts and securing his conviction. This prosecution, so largely di- rected by him as special counsel for the in- vestigation committee, won for him not only the applause of the Republican party, but that of the entire order-loving and law-abiding cit- izens of the state, as the assassin was defended by the best legal talent of the opposing politi- cal party and thus hedged about by barriers hard to surmount or overcome. This achieve- ment brought Mr. Black before the political leaders of the Republican party of the state and wise politicians saw in the young and al- most unknown "Counsellor Black of Troy" the sound timber for successful public achieve- ment, and the next year he was made the can- didate by his party for representative for the Troy district in the fifty-fourth United States congress. He carried the election in Novem- ber, 1894, by a large plurality, defeating the skilled politician and political leader of the Democratic party of the district, Edward Mur- phy Jr., who was supposed up to this time to be invulnerable either as a candidate or friend of a candidate. In the fifty-fourth congress, Black was given a place on the private land claims committee and on that of the Pacific railways. While the first term of any repre- sentative in the United States congress is bound to be uneventful, the eyes of the Re- publican party leaders were upon Representa- tive Black, and at the meeting of the Repub- lican state convention, assembled at Saratoga in August, 1896, he received the nomination of his party as their most available candidate for the highest office in the gift of the people of the state, that of governor, to succeed Levi P. Morton. Mr. Black received 187,576 votes to 174.524 for Wilbur F. Porter, and 26,698 for D. G. Griffin, in the convention, and he was triumphantly elected in November, 1896, and served his adopted state acceptably, and with credit to himself, the party by whose votes he was elected, and the people of the great Empire State. In 1898 Dartmouth Col-
lege conferred on him the honorary degree of LL. D. At the meeting of the Republican state convention in 1898, he was a candidate for renomination, his opponent in the conven- tion being Theodore Roosevelt; the first ballot gave Black two hundred and eighteen votes and the hero just returned from the Spanish- American war seven hundred and fifty-three votes, and the delegates in the convention sup- porting Governor Black made the vote for Colonel Roosevelt unanimous. Under the ad- ministration of Governor Black the birth of Greater New York occurred, due to the pas- sage of the act on March 23, 1897, by a vote of one hundred and eighteen to twenty-eight, vetoed by Mayor Strong and passed again by the assembly by a vote of one hundred and sixty to thirty-two, April 12, 1897, which bill as then passed received the signature of Gov- ernor Black, May 5. 1879, and went into effect January 1, 1898. He also signed the bill al- lowing the expenditure of $2,500,000 for the improvement of Bryant Park and the building of a free library building to be occupied by the New York Public Library and the Astor, Lenox and Tilden foundations; one to au- thorize the city to contract with the Grant Memorial Association for the preservation of the tomb of General Grant and to provide for the completion of the State Capitol building at Albany. He secured appropriation for the purchase and reclamation of Adirondack lands, and during his administration several thousand acres were added to the state's domain. In 1898 he called an extra session of the legis- lature for July II, to take action upon "an appropriation to meet the expense of providing New York's share of troops required for the war with Spain; a plan to enable voters ab- sent from their homes in the military service of the United States to vote at the coming elections, and a provision to better protect citi- zens who would vote according to law and more certainly prevent and punish those who would vote otherwise." The result of the state election, November 8, 1898, was 661,707 votes for Theodore Roosevelt, including 4,503 bal- lots cast by the military, the preponderance of which vote was in favor of Theodore Roosevelt, but it stands upon record that Gov- ernor Black in November, 1896, received 125 .- 869 votes more than did Roosevelt in 1898; while the fact of 1896 being a presidential year did not cause the total vote for governor to exceed that of 1898 by more than 43.000 votes.
On retiring from the governorship of New York, he resumed the practice of law by re-
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moving his office from Troy to Manhattan Borough, New York City, establishing him- self in law offices at 170 Broadway, where he carries on a general practice. His most nota- ble case in the criminal courts was his defense of Roland B. Molineaux, who had been con- victed of murder in the first degree and sen- tenced to electrocution. He took up the des- perate case at this crisis and obtained for the accused a new trial; and in this trial he satis- fied the jury of the innocence of his client, despite his former conviction and sentence ; convinced by his reasoning and the logic of his argument the jury brought the verdict of "not guilty," and young Molineaux walked out of the courtroom a free man. While do- ing business in New York City, Governor Black has continued to retain his residence at Troy, where he spends his Sundays. He has a summer home at Freedom, New Hampshire, and passes about five months of the year in that charming spot. He is a member of the Unitarian church of Troy, and is associated with the following organizations: The Repub- lican clubs of Troy and New York, Lawyers' Club of New York, and New England, Maine and New Hampshire societies. He married, November 27, 1879, Lois B. Hamlin, of Prov- incetown, Massachusetts, and their only child, Arthur Black, resides in Boston, Massachu- setts ; he was graduated at Harvard, A. B., 1903, LL. B. 1906. He married Frances G. Purdy, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, and has one child, Frank Swett Black, born July 19, 1907.
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BLACK This family is doubtless of Scotch ancestry. Samuel Black, a ship owner of considerable property, died in Boston in 1749. His will, dated Feb- ruary II, 1749, bequeathed to his friends George Glenn and wife, to a negro boy to whom he gave his freedom and some property, to brothers Aaron, Alexander and John Black ; to the sons of his brother, Moses Black; to sisters Elizabeth and Margaret ; "to two broth- ers by my father's side," James and Robert. Just what this means we have not learned, probably James and Robert were by a differ- ent wife than Samuel's mother. But the will states that "his brothers and sisters are in Ireland," affording proof of the Scotch-Irish origin of his family. Some of them appear to have come to Boston soon afterward. A James Black died there in 1770, leaving a widow Susanna.
(I) John Black, immigrant ancestor of this
family, may have been brother of Samuel men- tioned above. If so, he was in Boston but a short time before his death. We know noth- ing about him except from the probate of his estate and that of his widow. He was a mariner. Hlis widow Elizabeth was appointed administratrix of his estate April 9, 1751. She died January 17, 1775, making a nuncupative will drawn by Dr. John Stedman and signed also by her daughter, Mary Fullerton, proved and allowed February, 1775, in Suffolk, be- queathing' to her children: I. Elizabeth, who was given the largest share and the residue. 2. Mary, married Fullerton. 3. Jane, married Brewer. 4. Henry, mentioned below. 5. John Jr.
(II) Henry, son of John Black, was born in Boston, October 6, 1739, from old family Bi- ble, and died in Prospect, Maine, June 15, 1817, and is buried at Sandy Point, Stockton.' He received by his mother's will the great family Bible, a sight of which would be great- ly appreciated by the family historian. He married, August 16, 1764, Sarah Stowers, who was born in Chelsea (Rumney Marsh, Bos- ton), January 25, 1744, and died in Prospect, Maine, October 5, 1816. He and his wife were admitted to the Chelsea Church, owning the covenant, July 25, 1765. He was a soldier in the revolution in Captain Samuel Sprague's company, 1775. Children, born in Boston in what is now Chelsea and baptized in the Chel- sea Church: I. Henry Jr., November 10, 1765, baptized November 17 ; mentioned below. 2. Sarah, June 17, 1767, baptized June 28; married Josiah Ames. 3. John, June 25, 1769, baptized October 15, 1769; married Rebecca Stimpson. 4. James, November 5, 1770, bap- tized June 30, 1771 ; married Rebecca Brown. 5. Elizabeth, January 2, 1775, married Joseph Matthews. 6. Jane, April 20, 1776, married - Field. 7. Mary, March 23, 1778, mar- ried Jonathan Dow. 8. Alexander, March 20, 1780. He was a saddler by trade. He re- moved to Prospect, Waldo county, Maine, dur- ing the revolution. His house was burned by the British when their fleet sailed up the river. He used to do leather work for the revolutionary soldiers at Fort Pownal, Cape Jellerson. He was once placed under arrest for criticizing the bravery of Commander Saltonstall. He represented his town in the Massachusetts general court in 1806-07-08-09- IO-II. He was one of the leading citizens of the town.
(III) Henry Jr. (2), son of Henry Black, was born in Boston, November 10, 1765, and
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baptized in the Chelsea Church November 17, 1765. He lived at Prospect, Maine, and died there September 11, 1828. He was a farmer and prominent citizen. He married, August 25, 1789, Annie Brown, born in Belfast, Maine, March 18. 1766, and died at Searsport, Maine, July 21. 1857. Children: 1. Ann, born June 6, 1790, married James Leach. 2. Sally, March 3, 1792, married Andrew Leach. 3. Mary, January 18, 1794, married James Greely. 4. Henry, February 3, 1796. 5. John, May 2. 1799, married (first ) Mary Pierce, and (second) Mrs. Tyler. 6. Clarissa, February 17, 1802, married Isaac Carver. 7. Joshua T., June 6. 1805, mentioned below. 8. Hannah, April 24, 1807, married Alexander Nichols. 9. Otis P. D., February 4, 1810, married (first) Hannah C. Nichols ; ( second) Maria R. Mari- thew.
(IV) Joshua T., son of Henry (2) Black, was born in Prospect, Maine, June 6, 1805, died in Searsport, July 12, 1873. He was educated in the public schools of his native town. After he left school he was a teamster for a number of years, and then in trade at Searsport, where he owned a market and pro- vision store. He sold his business and be- came a farmer at Searsport, and followed that occupation the remainder of his active life. In politics he was a Republican. He was a mem- ber of the state militia in his younger days. He was a member of the First Congregational Church of Searsport. He married (first), January 28, 1838, Eleanor M., born in Bel- fast. December 20, 1807, died in Searsport, June 18, 1850, daughter of Robert and Han- nah (Mitchell) Houston, and granddaughter of Captain Samuel and Esther (Rogers) Houston. Children: I. Robert, died in in- fancy. 2. Joshua W., born August 16, 1842, mentioned below. 3. Edward Dayton, May 16, 1844, a grocer at Melrose; married (first) Emma Wood. (second) Georgianna Crofts ; children of second wife : Charles, James, John, Elizabeth. 4. Charles Bently, July 16, 1845, died August 30, 1845. He married ( second) Jane R. Houston, a sister of his first wife, July 17, 1853; she was born in Belfast, June 12, 1800, died March 20, 1884, in Searsport. The following was taken from the Waterville Sentinel of July 17, 1908: "While George W. Frisbee was with a picnic party on Vaughan's shore in East Belfast he discovered an old tombstone that had been thrown into the bushes on the bank. It was made from com- mon field rock, the base pointed and the top arched and bordered with leaves, and was evi-
dently homemade. It bore the following in- scription : 'Erected in memory of Mrs. Esther Houston the wife of Captain Samuel Houston who died Nov. 8th, 1794 in the 61st year of her age. Retire my friends dry up your tears, here I must lie till Christ appears.' Almost every trace of Belfast's first cemetery has been obliterated, and it is believed that the above- mentioned stone is practically the only one that has withstood time and weather. Mrs. Houston was the daughter of Major Robert Rogers, an officer in the French war. Her husband, Samuel Houston, was one of the original proprietors, drawing lots number 6 and 13, and settling on the latter in 1771, where he built a log hut. The house and barn he built later were burned by the British dur- ing the Revolution. He was the second town clerk, a member of the first committee of safe- ty, and captain of the first militia company. His son, Samuel Jr., enlisted in the army a week after the battle of Bunker Hill, and was a member of Washington's life guard."
(V) Joshua Wilson, son of Joshua T. Black, was born in Searsport, Maine, August 16, 1842, and was educated in the public schools of that town. He enlisted in April, 1861, among the first in Company I, Fourth Maine Regiment of Volunteers, and went to Rock- land with the regiment. He returned home on account of not being of suitable age. He re- enlisted September 10, 1862, in Company K, Twenty-sixth Regiment. (See history of Twenty-sixth Maine Regiment, p. 313.) He took part in the expedition under General Banks and was at the siege of Port Hudson and at the battle of Springfield Landing. He was mustered out August 16. 1863. He re- turned to Searsport and opened a meat and provision market in that town, conducting it until 1866, when he removed to Marlborough, Massachusetts, where he conducted a meat market for two years. He was then in the same line of business for two years and a half in Boston. After spending a year of travel through the western states he returned to Searsport. He was census enumerator for the federal census of 1870 and 1880 in Searsport. He was appointed deputy sheriff of the county in 1872 and served until 1878. He was agent for the American Express Company at Sears- port for nine years. From 1884 to 1887 he was deputy collector of customs at Searsport. He was appointed postmaster by President Harrison in 1889 and again in 1898 by Presi- dent Mckinley, and has been reappointed twice since then and is now serving a fourth
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four-year term. He has given the utmost sat- isfaction to the public and the department as postmaster. At the present time he is also judge of the municipal court. He was appoint- ed trial justice by Governor Plaisted in 1882. He was appointed justice of the peace by Gov- ernors Robie and Burleigh and reappointed by Governor Cobb. He is a Republican of much influence and activity, and after twenty- five consecutive years of service on the Re- publican congressional district committee was re-elected April 29, 1908, for another term. He is president of the Searsport Water Com- pany. He is a member and past master of Mariners Lodge of Free Masons of Searsport ; of Searsport Chapter, Royal Arch Masons ; of King Solomon Council, Royal and Select Mas- ters, Belfast; of Anchor Chapter, Eastern Star, of Searsport; and past grand of Sears Lodge of Odd Fellows. He belongs to Free- man McGilvery Post, No. 30, Grand Army, and was on the staff of Commander Adams of the Maine department. He is an attendant of the Congregational church. He married, August 12, 1874, Eliza E., born June 13, 1843, daughter of Josiah Bickmore, of Montville. Children: I. Frederick Frasier, born Sep- tember 26, 1876, mentioned below. 2. Jessie Mildred, April 6, 1884, married, February 23, 1908, John H. Montgomery, of Bucksport, a druggist. 3. Edna Eleanor, July 4, 1886, was associated with her father in the postoffice from 1903 until her sudden death, June 15, 1908.
(VI) Frederick Frasier, son of Joshua Wil- son Black, was born September 26, 1876, in Searsport, and educated there in the public schools, attending the University of Maine for two years. He began his career as freight clerk on a Boston steamship. In September, 1898, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point and was graduated in 1902. He entered the army and was sent to the Philippines, where for two years he was stationed at the headquarters of General Sum- ner at Zamboanga, and he had charge of the yellow fever camps. He was transferred to San Francisco after the earthquake disaster and had charge of a camp of fifteen thousand homeless people. Afterward he was stationed at Seattle and then at Fort Liscomb, Alaska, in charge of a target camp. In 1908 was pro- moted to first lieutenant of Eleventh Infantry, and is on duty in Cuba. He is a member of Mariners' Lodge of Free Masons, Searsport ; of Searsport Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; and of Palestine Commandery, Knights Tem- plar, Belfast,
BLACK The Black family of York and! Kittery, Maine, was of Scotch. ancestry. Daniel Black settled in York, Maine, before 1700. He was a son of Daniel Black, of Rowley and Boxford, Mas- sachusetts. (See history of Boxford, Massa- chusetts.) He bought land of Samuel Web- ber, February 29, 1703-04, located on the north, side of Sentry hill. He deeded two acres on the north side of Hull's creek in York to Peter Nowell, August 24, 1709. (York Deeds, Book viii fol. 30. ) He died before 1712, when his widow bought land of Peter Nowell, twenty acres on the northeast side of the. highway by the market place in York. His first deed on record was dated September 24, 1698, when he bought eleven acres at Burnt Plain in York of Thomas Wise. He bought two acres at Dummers Cove of Thomas. Moore, and September 5, 1700, mortgaged to James Gooch three acres of land and build- ings on the highway and Meeting House creek, York. But still earlier Daniel Black had a town grant of twenty acres, which was. sold by his widow and son Samuel to John Harmon, December 5, 1717. Sarah and Sam- uel deeded to Jonathan Young Jr. ten acres near Cape Neddick pond, York. Later they deeded other parcels of land. Children of Daniel and Sarah Black: Samuel, Elizabeth, Mehitable.
The history of Kittery, Maine, says that Josiah Black was in York before 1700. If so, he left no traces before 1700 on the land rec- ords, but the name is preserved in the family in later generations. In a deed dated April 6, 1719, Lewis Bane, Job Banks and Benjamin Preble conveyed land to him. These were. Scotch settlers, and Bane was ancestor of a large family, the later generations spelling the name Bean. The consideration of the deed being love and affection, there was doubtless. some relationship between them. Peter Nowell, mentioned above, was also a relative. Ridlon thinks this Josiah was among the Scotch-Irish pioneers of 1718. Further trace of him is not found.
(II) William Black was son of one of the early settlers, doubtless Josiah, for Daniel left but one son, Samuel, as shown by the settle- ment of his estate. The will of William Black was proved at Kittery, January 1, 1727-28, bequeathing to wife Sarah and to sons Will- iam and Joshua. Children: I. William, had children William and Elizabeth; removed to Harpswell, Maine, and lived on Bailey's Is- land. 2. Joshua, mentioned below.
(III) Joshua, son of William Black, born
STATE OF MAINE.
at York about 1695, died in 1753. His will was proved April 6, 1756. He married Mary Descendants are still living in Kit- tery, some having changed their names to Blake. Children recorded at Kittery : I. Benjamin, born April 19, 1719, not named in father's will but was in grandfather's. 2. Jonathan, February 15, 1720, mentioned below. 3. Mary, January 2, 1722. 4. Joshua Jr. (twin), December 27, 1724, died May 3, 1742. 5. Henry (twin), December 27, 1724, died February following. 6. Henry, December I, 1726. 7. Thomas, August, 1728, died in 1729. 8. Sarah, May 12, 1730, married Nicholas Col- lins. 9. Almy or Amy, March 8, 1731. 10. Catherine, May 15, 1734. II. Thomas, Oc- tober, 1738, died about 1756, unmarried, in his majesty's service in the French war; will dated April 30, 1756; brother Henry a lega- tee. 12. Margery, August 19, 1739.
(IV) Jonathan, son of Joshua Black, was born February 15, 1720. He probably settled in Limington.
(V) Josiah, son or nephew of Jonathan Black, was born in 1750, died at Limington, July 4, 1840. According to the Saco history he was of the family given above. The above records, in fact, include all that is known of this family down to Josiah Black, of,Lim- ington. He married Martha Cookson and set- tled in Limington before the revolution. He was a soldier in the continental army, and served in the campaign in Vermont ending with Burgoyne's surrender, October 7, 1777. Children : 1. Mary, born May 10, 1775, mar- ried Jacob Small. 2. John, August 31, 1777, mentioned below. 3. Joab, November 4, 1780, married Hannah Hamlin; children born at Limington : i. Josiah, born October 31, 1802 ; ii. Olive, August 14, 1804; iii. Hannah. Decem- ber 18, 1809; iv. Ira, September 8, 1811; v. Lovina, October 20, 1814. 4. Josiah, August 31, 1784, married Mary Libby, of Scarbor- ough, where he died July, 1864; children : i. Zebulon, born December 12, 1808, married El- mira Emerson; ii. John, December 24, 1810, married, July 17, 1837, Roxanna Andrews, of Bethel, and has two daughters, Olive and Hannah; iii. Josiah S., November 29, 1812, married Eunice B. Smith and had son David T., born December 27, 1838; iv. Mercy, Jan- uary 21, 1815, died young; v. Martha, March 29, 1817, married John J. Plaisted; vi. David I., September 28, 1819; vii. Joab, had son Al- vah, father of Charles A. Black, teacher in Paris Hill Academy and Norway Liberal In- stitute ; viii. Almer, April 13, 1824, married Betsey Bailey ; ix. Mary L., May 6, 1827, mar-
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