BIO:  Chauncey F. Black, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, historical editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, York Borough, Pg 6

CHAUNCEY F. BLACK.  The stock from which the present lieutenant-governor springs 
needs no introduction to Pennsylvanians.  His illustrious father, Jeremiah 
Sullivan Black, was pre-eminently a Pennsylvanian by blood and birth, by 
education and public service.  He unites the ruling types in the rural portions 
of the State - the sturdy Pennsylvania German and energetic Scotch-Irish.  Born 
in the Glades, Somerset County, his father was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, his 
mother of Scotch-Irish on her father's side, as her name, Sullivan, indicates, 
and of Pennsylvania German descent on her mother's side.  Judge Black's father, 
Henry Black, was a man of prominence in southern Pennsylvania; he served in the 
legislature from 1814 to 1818, was an associate judge for a term, and was a 
member of the National house of representatives when he died.  His wife was the 
daughter of Chauncey Forward, who was a member of congress and a brother of 
Walter Forward, secretary of the treasury under Tyler.  Chauncey Forward Black, 
who bears his mother's family name, was born in Somerset County, Penn., 
November, 1839.  His early education was obtained at Monongalia Academy, 
Morgantown, W. Va., at Hiram College, in Ohio, and he finished his studies at 
Jefferson College, Canonsburg.  When he was a pupil at Hiram the late President 
Garfield was a tutor there, and the acquaintance thus formed ripened into a 
personal friendship, which was only interrupted by the president's tragic death.  
Their political differences were the widest, as illustrated by the scholarly and 
irresistible paper, in which Mr. Black took issue with Mr. Garfield's exultant 
boast that the influence of Jefferson is on the wane in our political system.  
He was admitted to the bar of Somerset, and also of York, but never practiced 
much, showing early inclination toward journalism and other forms of literary 
work.  From the time of beginning his law studies he wrote for various journals 
on a wide range of topics, doing a vast amount of effective political work, for 
which he has trained himself by study of the fathers of the republic.  Jefferson 
found in him an appreciative but discriminating admirer, and the Hamiltonian 
theories encountered his early criticism and dissent.  Study of the constitution 
and of the discussions over its adoption and construction, convinced him that 
they who had founded our institutions had builded wiser than they knew, 
formulating a system which could be practicably and profitably applied to every 
question that arose.  Mr. Black, though a student of politics, has never failed 
to take a laboring oar in the practical work of campaigns.  Besides the 
engagement of his pen for effective work in many quarters, he has been heard 
upon the stump year after year, and a number of the later platforms of the 
Democratic State conventions are accredited to his authorship.  In 1879 he 
represented York County in the State convention, and in 1880 he was one of the 
delegates from that congressional district to the Cincinnati convention, voting 
on the first ballot for Judge Field, and on the second for Gen. Hancock.  Prior 
to the late State convention, from the time his nomination for lieutenant-
governor was first broached, the suggestion was received with popular favor, and 
he was chosen by a large majority on the first ballot.  The selection was 
ratified most heartily not only by the Democratic press of Pennsylvania, but by 
many journals of large influence outside the State.

From his youth up Mr. Black has been a supporter of those principles which he 
comes to by inheritance and holds by intelligent conviction.  With ready pen and 
eloquent tongue he has steadily maintained them for over twenty years.  In all 
his utterances and writings they never found abler nor more fitting expression 
than in his successful efforts to revive the Jeffersonian societies and extend 
the study of Jeffersonian principles.  To this patriotic task he has applied 
himself, not because of any retrospective tendency of his mind, nor by reason of 
any failure to profoundly appreciate the spirit of true progressiveness and to 
adapt himself and his political principles to the wonderful development of our 
national life.  He holds that in the Jeffersonian philosophy are the germs of 
all political progress.

Since 1873 Mr. Black has been closely and continuously identified with the 
journalism of the country.  He has been uninterruptedly an editorial contributor 
to the New York Sun and other prominent journals of the country, his facile pen 
being devoted to no special range of subjects, and often wandering into the more 
graceful lines of literature, while his fulminations are vigorous and effective 
when hurled at political evils.  The geniality and native humor of his 
temperament, which make him a social favorite wherever he is known, unmistakably 
manifest themselves in his literary work, but the sturdy Anglo-Saxon and virile 
thought of his editorial expression make it recognizable.

In November 1882, he was elected lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania.  His 
majority in York County was one of the largest ever received by any candidate, 
when opposed by the opposite party.  In January, 1883, he entered upon his 
duties as presiding officer of the senate of Pennsylvania.  His dignified 
bearing, affable manners and courtesy have won the admiration of the senators of 
both parties, and of the officers, of the various departments, with whom he has 
had official intercourse.

In 1863 Mr. Black was married to the daughter of the late Hon. John L. Dawson, 
whose home was at Friendship Hill, Fayette County, the former residence of 
Albert Gallatin, and the present residence of Mr. Dawson's widow, which is still 
in the ownership of the family.  Mr. Dawson represented the (then) Twenty-first 
District in congress with great distinction.  He was in reality the father of 
the homestead law now in force.  Of the four children at "Willow Bridges," the 
three boys illustrate their distinguished lineage by the names Jeremiah 
Sullivan, John L. Dawson and Chauncey Forward.  Possessed in eminent degree of 
those fireside virtues which are the best qualities of public men, Mr. Black has 
social accomplishments which make him extremely popular with his acquaintances.  
Upon his nomination for lieutenant-governor he received the hearty 
congratulations of his neighbors and assurances of their support regardless of 
party, because of the warmth of feeling which his personal characteristics have 
awakened for him.  No local interest fails to engage his sympathy, and his 
former friends and neighbors are accustomed to count him among those who regard 
their agricultural concerns with community of interest.  He was one of the 
charter members of Springettsbury Grange, No. 79, organized in Spring Garden 
Township, York Co., Penn., January 4, 1874, by R. H. Thomas, State secretary.  
He attends the Episcopal Church.

On the left hand side of the Northern Central Railroad, about a mile southwest 
of York, Penn., and in the township of Spring Garden is a beautiful home, 
bowered among apple trees, which are thickly set on a smoothly kept lawn.  Well 
trimmed hedges run all around this little farm; through them, here and there, 
grow the osage trees and towering elms, while drooping willows and whispering 
maples shade the enclosed grounds.  The ivy grows over the stone springhouse; 
Virginia creepers cling to trellises and branching trees and flaunt their 
graceful foliage in the summer wind.  Within the house which adorns "Willow 
Bridges," are the signs of solid comfort and refinement.  Near by, an office of 
rustic beauty, furnished with all the facilities for literary labor, is the 
workshop of Chauncey F. Black.

Inheriting from a hardy race of ancestors a love of nature, he lives here in the 
country at the foot of Webb's Hill, over which the spacious and highly 
cultivated farm of his father's estate spreads itself.  He breaths pure air, 
drinks spring water, supplies his table from his own garden, and catches 
inspiration from all his surroundings for the vigorous work which he has done in 
the promotion of a healthy and honest policy for the commonwealth.