John David Black history

JOHN (DAVID) BLACK

son of William Black and Sarah Stevens

b. 24 March 1797 at North Carolina

married Mary (Cline) Klyn

19 April 1821
d. 15 October 1839 Bridgeport, Illinois

The Black family was well established in Vermillion, Richland County, Ohio, until 1837, when the elder son of the family lost his farm and decided to move to Illinois where land was to be had for the taking. Judging from the land deal, a copy of which is here reproduced, the rest of the family followed very soon. The sister, Rhoda, with her husband and family were already in St. Francisville, Lawrence County, by the time John reached there, and soon the whole family had taken farms and were settled close to what is now Bridgport, Lawrence County, Illinois. 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 Bridgeport.


John Black’s son William (Morley)* has this to say about his father:

“My father was an independent farmer owning 40 acres of rich farmland 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 the 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 we 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.”

*William was not christened William Morley, but later adopted the name Morley, as related in his Autobiography. We have used parentheses for clarity.

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 his elder brother John was now living. He was a prominent man and raised his family in Bridgport.