Ingham County Biographical Sketches



Abraham Black


In taking up the life history of Abraham Black we find many scenes and incidents of an eventful career, worth recording, that will be of interest to our readers, as he has not only been an agriculturist of prominence, but has seen active service in wars representing two nations. Born in the year 1827 on the Emerald Isle, he there spent his boyhood and youth, acquiring his education in the schools of his native land, until reaching the age of nineteen he enlisted on the sixth day of May, 1846, in the British army, and served five years and three months and took part in the Irish Rebellion. Upon the expiration of his service, he emigrated to America and joined his father, who had come to Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1851, and there worked in a foundry for one and a half years. His father, John Black, was also a native of the Emerald Isle, being born in the year 1787, while the mother, who bore the maiden name of Charlotte Pinkington was born in 1797. The father did not long survive the emigration to the New World, as he died the same year at the age of sixty-five, while the mother departed this life at the age of fifty-five.

Arriving at Elizabethport, N. J., our subject remained in the employment of a foundryman for a year and a half, and then moved to the City of Chicago, where he found employment, and there remianed for two years with the McCormick Harvester Machinery Company. On the expiration of this time, which was in 1854, he came from Chicago to Delhi township and secured employment as a farm laborer, working by the month for Messrs. Abraham Smith, Thomas Mosier and N. B. Watson. He followed this occupation until 1863, when in response to Lincoln's call for volunteers he joined the boys in blue by enlisting in Co. L., 4th Michigan Cavalry. Here he saw twenty-two months' hard service and was mustered out on the 19th day of August of 1865. He was with his company in the hotly contested engagement of Selma, Alabama, and at Columbus, Ga., together with numerous smaller engagements. He cast his first vote for Gen. George B. McClellan, or "Little Mac," while in the field, and has ever since supported the Republican ticket.

In the year 1852, our subject was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Donahue, a daughter of Thomas and Ann Donahue, both natives of Ireland, and unto this union were born seven children, as follows: Ellen Jane, who died at the age of thirteen months; Mary Jane, the wife of James Thornburn, and she died on the 16th day of May, 1882; A. J., now a merchant of Holt; Catherine, the wife of James McReady, a resident of Diamondale, Eaton county; Thomas, a resident of Jackson; Lottie, at home, and Hattie, the wife of Charles F. Taylor, now living in Detroit.

Returning from the war, our subject worked as a farm hand for Mr. John McHugh and then bought forty acres of land at the Four Corners, east of Holt. This property he improved and erected thereon a suitable home and farm buildings and there resided for eighteen years and then moved to the Village of Holt, where he has resided for eighteen years. The wife and mother died in 1902, at the age of sixty-six years. She had been a valuable helpmate on life's journey. She was laid to rest in Maple Ridge Cemetery. She was a member of the Church of England, to which Mr. Black also belongs. He is a member of the Charles T. Foster Post at Lansing. Faithful as a public spirited citizen in time of peace, as he was a soldier in the preservation of the Union, Abraham Black is honored and respected by all who know him.






Taken from:
"Past and Present of the City of Lansing and Ingham County, Michigan", by Albert E. Cowles.
Published by The Michigan Historical Publishing Association Lansing, MICH., 1905.
Pages 229-230.



Biographies

Michigan Biographies Project




Sondra Higbee