Person:Martin Black (1)

md: Margaret Barekman 2 Feb 1854

Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 1HTZ-KK

md: Margaret Barekman 2 Feb 1854

Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 1HTZ-KK

Being the eldest son in the family, the responsibility of managing the farm and providing for his mother and the younger children rested upon Martin Luther Black. For fifteen years he cared for the family. Shortly after the death of the father, John Black, Martin's younger sister and pet, Catherine, was born.

Margaret A. Barekman (King) was a widow with one son, George King. After their marriage, Martin and she decided to go to California to seek gold as so many of their friends had done. They left the family in Lawrence County and, with all they had, started west. In St. Louis they met some of their friends rturning from California and were told there was no more gold to be found. Martin started back home with his family, but when they got to Wayne County, Illinois, they found good land and decided to stay there. They homesteaded near Barnhill, Wayne County, and there raised a family. Margaret died soon after the birth of their third son. Five years later Martin remarried and all that branch of the family have been raised near Barnhill or Fairfield, Wayne County, Illinois.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Black, Chester Allen, and Sarah Hancock Black. Our Black family in America: some of the descendants of William Black and Sarah Stevens. He, born in North Carolina in 1770, lived most of his life in Vermillion, Richland County, Ohio, and died there soon after 1850. (Salt Lake City, Utah: [s.n.], c1960).