My Genealogy Hound

J. H. BLACK, superintendent Lone Elm White Lead Works, Joplin, was born in Greenup county, Ky., Aug. 11, 1848. His parents, Henry and Eliza (Bradshaw) Black, were also natives of Kentucky. His father was born Dec. 25, 1818, and died Nov. 25, 1862. His mother was born Jan. 7, 1819, and now resides at Baxter Springs, Kan. When about seven years of age our subject moved with his parents to Atchison county, Kan. There he attended the common schools, receiving a liberal education, and also learned the blacksmith’s trade. In the winter of 1863 he enlisted in the Fourth Kansas Battery and served until the close of the war. The principal part of his fighting was with the Indians. He was in Curtis’s expedition, and participated in the battle at the headwaters of the Republican River and others. He was mustered out in June, 1865, returned to Kansas, and went to Fort Scott, where for ten years he engaged in mining, working about thirty men. He came to Joplin in the spring of 1875 and went into the employ of Messrs. Moffet & Sergeant, engaging in smelting, and took charge of the entire works as superintendent in Dec, 1880. Mr. Black was married in Fort Scott, Kan., June 1, 1873, to Miss S. R., daughter of A. S. and Ellen Humphreys, of that city. Mrs. B. was born in Illinois Dec. 2, 1852. From this union there were three children: Howard, born March 9, 1874, in Fort Scott; Cora, born Feb. 9, 1876, and died Feb. 15, 1877, in Joplin; and Gertrude, born May 12, 1880, also in Joplin. Mr. Black is a member of the I. O. O. F. He is a man of extraordinary business qualifications, and it is only just to say that the success of the “experiment” which he has conducted is in no inconsiderable part due to his management.