In February, 1864, Mr. Black enlisted in Battery D, Second Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, and did service in the army of the Potomac. He was in the battles of Rapidan, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburgh, feeing wounded in the last conflict on July 30, by a piece of shell. The wound was in his left arm and that member is crippled to this day. He languished in the hospital for six months and then returned to his regiment and did duty until the end of the war but was not discharged until February, 1866. He participated in some of the fiercest conflicts that were ever fought between contending armies and his was a brilliant military record.
Noting details, we see that Henry F. Black was born in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1847, being the son of James and Margaret C. (Norton) Black, natives of Pennsylvania. The father was a miller and they soon removed to Sullivan County after the birth of Henry. There the mother died when he was six and the father died in 1862.
After the war Mr. Black returned to Hancock County, Illinois, and two years later went to Hannibal. Missouri. In 1870 he came to Silver City, Utah, where he mined and prospected. There he was married on April 4, 1873, to Melvina, daughter of Madison D. and Clarinda (Green) Hambelton. Mrs. Black was born in Carson Valley, Nevada, on December 4, 1856.
Mr. Black was constable and also deputy sheriff in Utah. In 1881 he mined at Wood River, Idaho, and 1890 found him in Pullman and 1893 he leased Indian land, where he remained until the reservation was opened. Then he took his present place, about two miles southwest from Mohler, which he has improved in an excellent manner. He has a fine windmill, tank and many other excellent results of his skill and industry.
Mr. and Mrs. Black are both members of the Christian church. They have one son, James F., who married Miss Pearl Departy, came and took a quarter section adjoining his father’s farm on the east. Mr. and Mrs. Black are exemplary people and stand high in the esteem and good will of the members of the community. His uncle, H. F. Black, a banker of Ness City, Kansas, died recently.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903