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| Martin Luther Black |
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| Mary Caroline Lee Black |
Family Group Sheet
Martin Luther Black
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(1848—1918)
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Mary Caroline Lee
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(1850—1935)
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Marriage 22 Aug 1868
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Martin Lewis Black
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(1869—1891)
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Ethel Black
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(1870—1870)
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Victor Lee Black
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(1872—1936)
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Percy Allen Black
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(1874—1950)
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May Black
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(1876—1920)
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Edna Black
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(1878—19??)
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Arthur Stanley Black
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(1880—1941)
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Phillip Black
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(1890—1972)
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Martin grew up in polygamy. His mother, Margaret, accepted it and was herself converted to the Mormon Church. His father ended up having 6 wives and 41 children, 21 sons and 20 daughters. Martin was the firstborn child.
Martin moved throughout Utah with his parents. He worked with his father and learned the trade of milling wheat. In 1869, at the age of 21, he was living in Beaver, Utah and married Mary Caroline Lee, daughter of Eliza Foscue and John Percival Lee. They lived there until at least 1880 where 8 of their 9 children were born.
Mary Caroline Lee was born in Salt Lake Valley (Holladay) in Dec.1850. Her parents had come across the plains with the Mormons the previous summer. The following spring of 1851 her parents were part of a group of 500 Mormons who went to San Bernardino to colonize that area. They stayed there until 1857. When they returned to Utah they settled in Beaver, Utah.
Martin and Mary began their family in Beaver. They moved from Beaver to Huntington, Utah sometime between 1880 and 1890. Their 9th child, Phillip, was born in Huntington. In 1891, their son, Martin Lewis, died in Salt Lake (peritonitis-possibly a ruptured appendix)at the age of 21. He is buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery and there is a monument erected to him by his classmates at Deseret University.
In about 1893, Martin & Mary arrived by wagon train in the area that became Burlington, Big Horn County, Wyoming. The "Otto-Burlington Early Settlers", set up a temporary settlement called Mormon Bend, and Martin was chosen as Second Counselor in the Bishopric of the new ward in the Church. Things did not go well there for the settlers. There were problems with the irrigation canal they were hired to build. The people were very poor and lived in difficult circumstances. By 1900, Martin and Mary were living at the Pitchfork Ranch south of Burlington near the town of Meteetsee. He was listed on the Census as a worker on the ranch.
We have no record of what happened after that time between Martin & Mary. When they left Big Horn Wyoming, they left their married daughters May Keith (who died there in 1918) and Edna Nielsen Huber (who moved to Fruita, CO between 1920 & 1930, and their son, Arthur (who was a sheepherder—never married, died 1941 in Wyoming). In 1910, Martin was living back in Huntington, Utah. He was remarried to the widow, Sariah Pulsipher Allen. It is possible that he was friends with Sariah and her husband when they previously lived in Huntington. Martin's brother, Isaac Edwin Black was married to Nancy Allen, who was a sister of Sariah's deceased husband. The Census reports that Martin is a farmer and a miller.
We don’t know if Mary returned to Huntington with Martin or if she went straight to Fruita, Colorado. Her son, Victor, was living in Fruita in 1905 when he married. In 1910, the Census reports that Mary is living there with her youngest son, Phillip, and she is a beekeeper. There are letters from her mother, Eliza, to Coral which say that Mary plans to move back to Utah, but she died in Fruita in 1935. She is buried next to two of her grandchildren who died in infancy, not far from her son, Victor, and his wife Margaret.
We don’t know if Mary returned to Huntington with Martin or if she went straight to Fruita, Colorado. Her son, Victor, was living in Fruita in 1905 when he married. In 1910, the Census reports that Mary is living there with her youngest son, Phillip, and she is a beekeeper. There are letters from her mother, Eliza, to Coral which say that Mary plans to move back to Utah, but she died in Fruita in 1935. She is buried next to two of her grandchildren who died in infancy, not far from her son, Victor, and his wife Margaret.
In 1917, Martin was a manager & mechanic at the first automobile dealership (amazing!) in Huntington. He died of a heart attack in 1918 at the age of 70. He is buried next to Sariah’s first husband, Andrew Allen, and there is one monument to both of them. Sariah is buried several sections away next to her parents.
 Wlliam Morley Black and Margaret Ruth Banks
Black, William Morley, a Patriarch in the San Juan Stake of Zion was born Feb. 11, 1826, at Vermillion, Richland county, Ohio, the third child of John Black and Mary Kline. The family moved to Bridgeport, Ill., when William was eleven years old. Three years later his father died. When seventeen years of age, with the consent of the family, he left his mother's home to earn his own living. His education consisted of two winters' schooling. After leaving home he worked three years among the farmers. In 1846 he married Margaret Ruth Banks and settled with his young wife near Peoria, Ill. At the age of 22 he was elected county sheriff at that place. In 1849 he caught the gold fever, and on his journey west passed through Nauvoo, Ill., which he still found in ruins. Driving an ox team across the plains, following the old "Mormon" trail 1400 miles, he arrived in Salt Lake valley July 24, 1849. While camped near the Jordan bridge, he and a companion were invited to supper at the house of Uncle Buck Smithson. There he first heard of "Mormonism," and the Sunday following he attended a meeting in the brush bowery where he heard Apostle John Taylor preach. When that meeting closed his ambitious dreams for gold vanished, he having found a richer treasure. He forfeited his share of the team and outfit, and without a dollar in his pocket he cast his lot with the Latter‑day Saints. He was baptized in 1849 by Levi Jackman, assisted in erecting the Council House, and worked as a mason on the tithing office, which was built on the ground now occupied by the Hotel Utah. Being called by Pres. Young to aid in settling Sanpete valley, he started for that part of the country, but was attacked by Indians in Spanish Fork canyon. By the heroic effort of Ephraim K. Hanks, peace was made with the Indians and the party reached Manti in a snowstorm. He was kindly received into the home of Patriarch Morley, to whom he soon became greatly attached, and lived with him two years. He then returned to Canton, Ill., for his family. Three days before reaching Canton he met with a severe accident, breaking three of his ribs. His wife and parents‑in‑law received him as one raised from the dead. His parents‑in‑law became very angry when they learned that he had joined the "Mormon" Church, and he was told that he must leave the house before morning or renounce his "Mormonism." This was indeed a crucial test of his life, but he did not flinch. At daybreak he harnessed his team and without a word of goodbye he pulled out in the face of a fearful blizzard with his wife and two children and started for Utah. In the spring he joined a company of Saints at Omaha and was made a captain of a company of 40 wagons in which he crossed the plains. In his busy life Patriarch Black made homes at Manti, Ephraim, Nephi, Circle valley, Beaver, Glendale, Orderville and Huntington ( Utah ), Fruitland ( New Mexico ), and Pacheco, Mexico. His Ephraim home was valued at $6,000, and his Pacheco home about the same. Bro. Black was a miller by trade and followed that business more or less for sixty years. In July, 1912, when Gen. Salazar expelled 400 or more "Mormon" colonists from their homes in Pacheco and vicinity, Bro. Black and his last living wife (Maria) were among the exiles. In his last days Brother Black took pleasure in expressing his gratitude to Pres. Wm. H. Taft, the U. S. Congress and the citizens of El Paso for their whole‑souled liberality to the "Mormon" people at the time they were expelled from Mexico. Bro. Black was ordained a Patriarch May 16, 1903, by Apostle Matthias F. Cowley, and while acting in that sacred calling he gave 900 blessings. But the crowning joy of his life was his family, he being the husband of six wives and the father of 40 children, twenty sons and twenty daughters. He passed to his final rest June 21, 1915, at Blanding, Utah. Patriarch Black was in life quiet and obliging in disposition, until old age rendered him helpless. He was always active, cheerful and strong in his love for the Gospel.
In 1850 two men named William Black arrived in Manti. To distinguish between them, one was called “Black Bill” and the other, “Red Bill,” which alluded to either hair color or complexion. It was “Red Bill” who was adopted into the home of Isaac Morley and from that day forward that one went by the name of “William Morley Black”.
Little is recorded about Margaret. She waited patiently for William while he headed for the gold fields of California. When given the decision to either let him leave for Utah with her son Martin or to leave her parents forever and join him with their daughter, Martha, she chose the latter. She accepted the Gospel and was baptized a member of the “Mormon” Church. By all accounts, she and her sister wives lived in harmony. Records from Orderville say that Margaret was a mid-wife. In 1884 Margaret died and was buried in Salina, UT.
His story continues: Complete History of William Morley Black from Our Black Family in Americahttp://www.geni.com/people/William-Black/6000000000043228049 William Morley Black--Death Certificate Anna Maria Hansen Black--Short biography and testimony of William's third wife. Sarah Marinda Thompson Black--Life in Mexico (references to William Morley Black and family). Lois Elnora Black Wright--Granddaughter of William M. Black--Stories from Orderville, Huntington, etc. Jerusha Irene Spencer--Stepdaughter of Wm Morley Black--Stories about exile in Mexico.
BLACK FAMILY
The First Two Generations
The families in America by the name of Black are numerous. Real proof of the origin of this family in America has as yet not been found. From letters and old Bibles and stories handed down from one generation to another we are led to believe the first member of the family in America was either John or William Black, and we are sure he fought in the Revolutionary War in North Carolina around King’s Mountain.* The names of William and John are so common we have been unable to find absolute proof of his identity.
The census of 1840 taken in Lawrence County, Illinois, lists this family. William gave his age as seventy and his place of birth as North Carolina.
In Ohio William Black owned and operated on his own land the first grist mill on the Black Fork of the Vermillion River.
In the 1850 census we find William Black and his wife Sarah Stevens Black had left Illinois and returned to Vermillion, Ohio, but by that time the county had been divided and Vermillion was now in Ashland County. By 1850 Sarah was dead, but William was living there with one of the younger sons. He gave his age as 80 in 1850. By 1860 he too was gone.
John Black’s son William [Morley] has this to say about his father:
“My father was an independent farmer owning 40 acres of rich farm land situated in the heart of a forest. He was methodical in all of his labor, inclined to be mechanical and gave close attention to his farm, which gave ample support for himself and his family. He also owned and operated a lathe and turned legs for tables and bedsteads and wooden bowls, and he was known for the excellence of his ax helves. He was anxious for all of his children to get all the education they could. Educational facilities were meager and primitive–it was two and one-half miles from our house to the little country school house. During the winter, as a rule, we had three months of school in which we were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling. I recall only two winters when I attended school . I had but one book, Webster’s American Dispenser. During the two winters I learned it off by heart, then passed the book to younger children. I think my sister Rachel’s family still have it in their possession.”
“When I was eleven years old our neighbor, a man whom all respected, got into trouble and my father went his bond in the sum of $500.00. That was a lot of money in those days and when the time for the trial came the neighbor could not be found. It took our farm to pay the bond. Illinois, a new State, was widely advertised as a place where good homes were to be obtained more cheaply. Father and three of our neighbors moved into Lawrence County, Southern Illinois, and purchased homes near where Bridgport now stands. That late fall father’s parents and his brothers came from Ohio and bought land near ours. It was a wide, level country, beautiful with groves of trees, with stretches of prairie, with cold springs, and streams of clear water abounding with fish. The drawback was an occasional swamp giving rise to malarial fever, and here after two years of hard labor building a new home, our first great sorrow came to us in the death of our dearly beloved father. His was among the first graves in the old cemetery near Bridgport.”
They were staunch Baptists, and when a church was erected the names of the Black family were all engraved on a plaque outside the door. So many of the family lived there the settlement was called Blacksburg; the name, however, was later changed to Bridgport.
William Black, son of William and Sarah Stevens, was only twelve years old at the time of the War of 1812. He and his brother John drove a team and wagon to take supplies to the men on the fighting lines. He owned land with his father and brothers in Ohio, and with them he sold out and moved to Illinois, where elder brother John was now living. He was a prominent man and raised his family in Bridgport.
Our Black Family in America (The red book, now on-line)
*Our Black family probably has origins in Scotland. During the time of the Revolutionary War in the vicinity of King's Mountain, North Carolina there were communities of Scots/Irish settlers. A list of families included the name Black.
Scots-Irish in the Carolinas Paternal Ancestry DNA 
Mary Cline Black
William Morley Black's mother, Mary Cline, had mostly Dutch ancestry. Phillip de Trieux & Willem Jansen Traphagen were ancestors of Mary Cline Black. Her father, Jonas Cline, served in the Revolutionary War. Banks Family 
Margaret's father was Nathaniel Butler Banks. He came to Illinois from Connecticut where generations of his family had lived. The Banks family ancestry comes from England and Scotland. One branch is the Lyon family who were royalty in Scotland (House of Stewart, Robert II).
Margaret's mother was Anna Barabara Artman whose ancestry includes English, German & Dutch. The English came through Virginia, the German through New York & Pennsylvania and the Dutch from New York (New Amsterdam). MANY of her ancestors arrived in America in the early 1600's.
Banks Pedigree Chart continues on the Lyon Pedigree Chart. Banks--Lyon Connection Knapp Coat of Arms from Margaret Banks Black Ancestry. |
