Saturday, September 25, 2010

Lewis Black Biography by Jen M. Black

LEWIS BLACK
(As written by Lewis Black- a son of James M. and Cecelia Christena Larsen Black)

I was born in 1861 and I was a good-sized boy before I saw a match. We went to the neighbors when our fire went out, they used a powdered rag and a flint to start fires.  I was quite old before I saw a stove.
   
I will never forget the hardships and the fear we had of Indians.  On April 6th, Indians attacked a company under Bishop Olsen on the Sevier River near Richfield and killed Lars A Justensen, Charles Wilson, and wounded R. Thompson.  On August 13, 1867, Indians attacked Spring City and killed James Meeks and Andrew Johansen, and wounded William Blain.
    
Some settlers soon built log cabins, but most lived in dugouts, all with dirt roofs. Everything was hauled from Omaha, with ox team, and no money to buy. 
    
On July 19, 1867, grasshoppers came in great numbers and destroyed most all the crops in Sanpete and they stayed here for three years. They were so thick they darkened the sun along about noon you could hardly see the sun, and not a green leaf left on the trees.  People think the depression here today (1935) is terrible.  They should have been here in early days.  This is Paradise today compared to that time when you could not see the sun on a clear day for grasshoppers. In that day the people were honest, neighborly and dependable. 
    
On September 20, 1876, John D. Lee was convicted of murder in the first degree for connection with the Mountain Meadow massacre.  The fall of 1876

I took Tanner Smith down to York Station and we stopped at Bob Statards hotel and John D. Lee also stopped there.  The next morning he came out in the barn and talked to me and some others that were there and he said, "I am to be shot in September."
    
The first real communication over the air with Europe was on December 25, 1929, on Christmas Day. When Belgium, Holland, Germany, and England sent a concert and Christmas greeting to the United States Broadcasting System.  They sent it to short wave to Long Island and then to New York and then to Salt Lake and we received it here in Spring City over K. S. L.  Told me by Angus M. Black, a son.


Lewis and Trena Jensen were married October 27, 1880 and they first lived across the road west from where Eleanor Barney's home now stands.  I was born there and so were all the other children except Mabel.  Then we moved down to the other place, where the folks lived until their death, and the home still stands, one half block north and one block east of my home.
    
In his early years, dad worked in the canyons getting out red pine timber for railroad ties for the Moss Company.  He also did a little farming and cattle raising, although he never owned more than 20 acres, and the lot where the house now stands. He and mother were married 63 years and 5 months and they had many pioneer hardships to face.  Besides raising 6 children of their own, they cared for others than their own.  They made a home for Trena's sister Leate and her brother Jim because their father and mother were separated. 
   
Dad died May 5, 1944 at 1:10 P. M. at the age of 83.  He was a member of the Elders Quorum of the L. D.S. Church.  Lewis Black was one of the first white children born in Spring City on April 18, 1861, a son of James M. Black and Christena Larsen Black, early Danish pioneers.  His parents came to America in a company of 1,800 Danish immigrants, and his father was one of the early shoemakers of the community of Spring City.
    
Mr. Lewis Black married Trena Jensen October 27, 1880, the ceremony being performed by his uncle Lauritz Larsen of Spring City.  The couple later received their endowments and were sealed in the Manti Temple. (March 19, 1902)
    
Lewis Black was ordained an Elder by James A. Allred on March 2, 1902.
    
He was buried in Spring City on May 9, 1944. 


April 15, 1959
    
On the lot formerly owned by Lewis Black and later Angus M. Black, the house now is in a state of remodeling and three large rooms added.   The three rooms built by Lewis Black are still left there.  Francis J. Black, a grandson, is having it built and will live there.

Jens Mathias Black 1818-1892


Jens Mathias Black was born 
5 Apr 1818
in Sundby, Aalborg,  Denmark




Parents





Jens married Wife #1 Inger Marie Jacobsen


They had two children:
Ane Oline Ottillie (Serena) in 1843 
and Niels in 1849


Jens and Inger converted to the LDS church and immigrated to Utah with a company of members in 1853-54. Inger died of Cholera at a camp on the banks of the Kansas River while crossing the plains in 1854. 



Wife #2

Jens and Johanne were married while crossing the plains.  

They were in the Hans Peter Olsen Company in 1854. 
Their Departure date was 15 Jun 1854 and they Arrived 5 Oct 1854. There were about 550 individuals and 69 wagons were in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Westport, Missouri.
 
Read Trail Excerpt written by Johanne Bolette Dalley

We went up to here Kansas City now is and camped on the bank (of the Missouri River). In our company was a man by the name of James Black, whose wife died of cholera at St. Louis. He began paying attention to me, but I did not encourage him, as I disliked him, although I couldn't tell why. He was good looking and attractive in manner. In a way, I was dependent on my uncle, and he and his wife were very persistent in persuading me to yield, although I repeatedly told them all I did not want to marry until I reached Salt Lake City. This marriage was most unfortunate for me and resulted in great unhappiness, for as I became better acquainted with him my dislike increased. Although he was a Mormon, he did not entertain the same ideas in regard to living the principles as I did. He was also ill-tempered and jealous.

There is no record of their marriage or a divorce.   

Johanne Rolette Bertlesen married James Dalley
Johanne is buried in the Jerome Cemetery, Idaho, USA

I did find on findagrave.com that Jens Black and Johanne had a daughter named Eliza Bertelsen Black. I looked up their Family Group Record on the new.familysearch.org.

Here is  Eliza B. Farnsworth's Death Certificate. The Death Certificate has James Dalley listed as her father but Johanne didn't Marry James til 9 Oct 1856 and Eliza would have been over one years old. Eliza was born 16 Aug, 1855. 



Jens settled in South Weber, Utah 
 he married Wife #3
in 1855 in South Weber, Utah



Jens and Christina had two children while living in South Weber, Maria Lucinda born in 1856 and Anna Margarethe born in 1857. The family moved to Ephriam and then to Spring City both in Sanpete County, Utah in 1859. The rest of their children were born there. These were: Jensina Christina born in 1859, Lewis born in 1861, Sarah born in 1864 and died in 1866, Josephine born in 1866, and Ole Larsen born in 1871. Anna Margarethe got sick in 1867 at school, but the teacher would not let her go home and made her stand in the corner for the rest of the day. She never recovered from this illness and died a few days later.



Jen's also married Wife #4
Christina's sister,
Maren "Mary" Larsen

They had five children: Erastus born in 1857 and died in infancy, Mary Margaret born in 1859, Rasmeana "Mena" born in 1860, Sarah born in 1862 and died at the age of three, and Mary born in 1863 and died in 1869. 

Jens and Maren eventually divorced and she remarried Christian Willardsen and moved to Ephriam.




Jens died 17 Oct 1892  








Jens and Christena's Children


Maria Lucinda Black
B: 20 Feb 1856
M: James Philander Allred
D: 25 Jun 1886


Ann Margarethe Black
B: 20 Sep 1857
D: 4 Dec 1867


Jensina Christina Black
B: 8 May 1859
M: Perry Barton Allred
D: 6 Aug 1906


Lewis Black
B: 18 Apr 1861
M: Trena Jensen
D: 5 May 1944


Sarah Black
B: 9 Jun 1864
D: 29 Jun 1866


Josephine Black
B: 12 Oct 1866
M: Thomas Jefferson Redman
D: 21 Dec 1928


Ole Larson Black
B: 23 May 1871
M: Annie Jensen
D: 3 Jan 1947