From; "Biographical Review of Cass, Schuyler and
Brown Counties, Illinois 1892", by Biographical Review Publishing
Company, Chicago, Illinois; pages 128-130; a reprinted by Stevens
Publishing Co., Astoria, Ill., 1971, is sold by the Schuyler County
Historical Society, Rushville, Illinois.
Joseph Franklin Black was born in Murray county, Tennessee,
February 23, 1828. His father, William Black, was born near
Milledgeville, Georgia, January 3, 1796, son of Thomas Gillespie Black,
who was born in Markingham county, North Carolina, in January, 1772,
whose father, William Black, a native of Maryland, removed to North
Carolina. William Black was captain of a company of militia at
the time the Revolutionary war broke out, and was one of the first who
refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British government.
He died soon after the war began. The maiden name of his wife was
Beard. They were members of the Presbyterian Church.
Thomas G. Black was reared and educated in his native
State. He taught school several years. Removing from North
Carolina to Georgia, he settled near Milledgeville, where he bought a
tract of land and on it passed the residue of his life, dying in
1823. He was married February 26, 1795, to Polly Callahan, who
was born April 7, 1773, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Shepard)
Callahan, her father being of Irish and her mother of German
descent. Mrs. Black went to Tennessee after the death of her
husband, and from there to Illinois in 1825. Her death occurred
in Morgan county, this State, in 1853. Grandfather and
grandmother Black were members of the Presbyterian Church. They
reared ten of their eleven children, viz.: William, Susanna, John,
Cynthia, James, Thomas, Polly, Jefferson, Eleanor, and Elizabeth.
Rebecca died in infancy. William Black, father of the
subject of our sketch, grew up and received his education in his native
State, and went with the family to Tennessee directly after the death
of his father. He was a natural mechanic and with his brother
John established a furniture factory in Maury county, remaining in
business there till 1834. That year, with his wife and six
children, he came to Illinois, their removal being made via the
Cumberland, Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois rivers. He located
four miles north of Winchester, in Scott county, where he bought eighty
acres of prairie and eighty acres of timber land, paying $2.50 per acre
for a part of it. He at once built a small frame house,
containing two rooms, and commences improving his land. In 1846
he sold his farm for $8 per acre. He then came to Cass county and
bought 200 acres of land, located six miles southeast of Virginia, for
which he paid $6 an acre. There was a double log house on this
place, which the family occupied one year, at the end of which time
they moved into the substantial brick house which Mr. Black
erected, and which still stands. He also built a work shop.
He, however, gave the most attention to his farming. He lived
there till after the death of his wife, when he went to Virginia and
spent his last days at the home of his son, John, where he died October
3, 1884. December 4, 1823, he married Miss Mary S. Vaughn, who
was born in Tennessee, November 1, 1803, daughter of Dixon and Susan
Vaughn. She died on the home farm, January 29,1881.
Of the ten children born to them they reared eight, namely;
Thomas G.. Joseph F., William L., Richmond V., Green V., James B., Mary
J., and John. Both he and his wife were reared in the
Presbyterian Church, and after coming to Illinois they united with the
Christian Church, of which they remained consistent members till the
time of their death.
Joseph Franklin Black, the subject of our sketch, was six years
old when he moved to Illinois with his parents, and remembers
distinctly many incidents connected with their removal and frontier
life. At that time Central Illinois was sparsely settled and it
was long before the advent of railroads here. Naples was the
principal market for the surrounding country. Mr. Black relates
that at one time his father went to St. Louis to mill. Instead of
being gone one week, as he had expected, he was gone three weeks, and
in the mean time the supply of meal gave out at home. By pounding
corn in a mortar, the children made meal enough to last till their
father's return. In 1836 three cooking stoves were brought to
Jacksonville, one of which Mr. Black's father bought, paying $75 for
it. Such a curiosity was this stove that the neighbors for miles
around came to see it.
Joseph F. received his education in the primitive schools of
Illinois. He inherited from his father a talent for mechanical
work and early began to assist him in the shop. At the age of
twenty he began life on his own responsibility, commencing at once as a
contractor and builder, and before he was twenty-one he bought 102
acres of land near the village of Philadelphia, for which he paid $3.50
an acre. He continued contracting and building for a time.
Then for three years he was engaged in farming. After that he
moved to Philadelphia and devoted his time to the invention of farming
machinery. To him belongs the distinction of having invented and
patented the first self-binder ever made. He took three different
patents on it, and in partnership with his brother William got two
patents on a gang plow. The value of such a man to a community
cannot be estimated. Indeed, the worth of his inventive genius
extends beyond his own community and State, being felt all over the
world.
In 1867 he resumed farming and continued that occupation till
1876. That year he moved to Virginia and established himself as a
contractor and builder. Many of the best store buildings and
residences in this city are monuments to his skill. Nor have his
labors been confined to Virginia. He has done work in
Springfield, Jacksonville, Beardstown, and various other places.
For some years past Mr. Black has devoted his time to architecture,
which he studied in his younger days, preparing plans and
specifications and superintending the construction of buildings.
He made plans for the county jail and superintended its construction;
also the two additions to the courthouse.
Mr. Black was married May 17, 1849 to Mary F. Wilmott, a native
of Illinois and a daughter of Charles R. Wilmott. They had five
children, as follows; Charles W., born September 23, 1850, was
married November 24, 1870, to Elsie Buckley, and has five
children; Mabel, Roy, Mary, Stella, and Clyde; Mary, born May
28,1855, married Armstead Mains, and has seven children: Maude,
Elma, William, Reatta, Toura, Louise and Leslie; Eva, born August 29,
1860, was married January 26, 1882, to William G. Payne; Robert, born
September 22, 1864, was married October 18, 1889, to Maggie Gray and
has two children, Edna and an infant; and Frank born March 23, 1868,
married a Miss Elliott, and has one child, Edward. Mrs. Black
died January 26, 1879, and in May 1883, Mr. Black wedded Mary
(Thompson) Skiles.
Mr. Black is a member of the Christian Church, as also was his
first wife. His present companion has her membership with the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically, he was formerly a Whig,
but since the organization of the Republican party he has affiliation
with it.
