My Genealogy Hound

C. S. Black. In compiling an account of the mercantile establishments of Lilley, Ark., the mercantile house owned and conducted by Mr. Black is eminently worthy of mention. He was born in Randolph County, Ark., January 31, 1842, and was the third of eight children—four sons and four daughters—born to Seaburn and Zeura (Sloan) Black, whose union took place in Lawrence County, Ark. They were born in Kentucky and Missouri, respectively, and the former died in Ouachita County, Ark., in 1857, at the age of forty-seven years, and the latter in Texas in 1882 aged sixty-five years. After their marriage they resided in Lawrence and Randolph Counties until 1846, then moved to Ouachita County, where the father passed his last days. In 1878 his widow went to Texas with her children, and settled in Delta County, and both she and her husband were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The father was a farmer and trader, and when a small boy was taken by his parents from his native State to Arkansas. He was a Democrat and a member of the Masonic fraternity. C. S. Black received the advantages of the schools of Princeton, Ark., in his youth, but in August, 1861, he dropped his books to join the Third Arkansas Cavalry, with which he served faithfully until after the battle of Chickamauga in 1863, when he returned home and joined Gen. Fagan’s escort, and was with Price on his raid through Missouri, and he participated in the battles of Corinth, Iuka, Franklin, Spring Hill and Chickamauga during his earlier service. At the first-named battle he was wounded twice, first in the left arm and then in the left thigh, and from the effects of his wounds was in a very dangerous condition for some time. After the war he went to Texas, where he remained until 1868, then came to Arkansas, and located in Ouachita County, and purchased 200 acres of his present plantation, but is now the owner of a section of land. In 1876 in connection with managing his plantation he purchased a supply of general merchandise, and has followed this occupation very successfully up to the present time, and is now doing a very extensive business. He was married, May 13, 1869, to Miss Minnie Agee, a daughter of Philip Agee, a sketch of whom appears in another part of this work. She was born in Camden, Ark., January 4, 1851, and her union with Mr. Black has resulted in the birth of four sons: Walter, Leo, Sidney and Trosey, unfortunately all died but Leo. The family worship in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and in his political views he is a Democrat. His plantation, which goes by the name of Long Branch, is well known as a commercial point. Mr. Black is large and commanding in appearance, and his word is good for thousands in any of the cities of the United States, in fact but few men in Arkansas stand higher in the commercial world.