The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-08-29
Judge Black.
END OF A GREAT AND
NOBLE LIFE.
The Veteran Jurist and Statesman
His Life and Achievements
The First Intellect Of Pennsyl-
vania and Most Beloved Citizen
Ripe in Years and Full of
hOnOrs. ....
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
In the death of jeremiah Sullivan
Black, Pennsylvania loses her fore
most citizen. He was indeed pre-
eminently a Pennsylvania, by blood
and birth, by education and public
service. He united those two strains
of blood which are the ruling types
in the rural portions of this State
the sturdy Pennsylvania German
and the energetic Scotch-Irish. He
was born in the Glades, Somerset
county, Pa, June 10, 1910. His
father was OF Scotch-Irish ancestry ;
his mother of Scotch-Irish on her
fathers side, as her name, Sullivan,
indicates, and of Pennsylvania Ger
man descent on her mothers SIDE
Judge Blacks father, Henry Black,
was a man of Prominence in South
ern Pennsylvania ; he served in the
Legislature from 1914 to 1918, was
an Associate Judge for term, and
was member ofthe National House
of Representatives when he died.
One son, James Black, brilliant
intellect of rare promise, died when
young, and his daughter, Judge
Blacks only sister, became the wife
Of Somerset merchant. Young
Jerry Blacks education was derived
from that admirable academic sys-
tenn then prevalent 10 Scotch-Irish
communities, which has been un-
happily supplanted by the more
popular and less thorough normal
system. At Brownsville and Stoys-
town he was taught the classics and
mathematics in his reading the
English poets were his specialties,
and the best models Of ancient and
modern literature. He had his
" schooling" by the time he was II, /,
but his education was to be but fair
ly begun when he left the classroom
for the farm. With all the mascu-
line vigor tnat has marked him in
every subsequent position, he enter
ed upon the rugged duties of farm
life in that early period and imbibed
a love for it which always chung to
him. 1t made him highly sensible
of the poetry and grandeur of rural
life and the Importance of agricul-
ture as the primary object of man,
the basic wealth Of nations. By the
light of the early morning fire he
cenned his Virgil and Horace and
daily committed a number of lines
in the original, which he carried
with him to his work and at the
intervals Of it he would take out his
poeke dictionary and translate the
passages in his memory. At the
corners of the furrow or in the paus-
es of the fail, he made translations
into English prose and verse, and
before he entered upon his profess
ional studies he well nigh knew by
heart the whole of these two authors
in Latin and English. All the while
reading with great assiduity, and
teveling in the beauties of the Eng
lish poets it was thus and then that
he strengthened the marvellous pow
er of memory which afterwards sery-
ed him so well. ''e''i''' r
He studied law with Chauncy For
ward, who was a member of Con-
gress and a brother of Walter For
ward. Secretary of the Treasury un-
der Tyler. He was admitted to the
bar in 1881 and married his precep-
tors daughter, Miss May F. Forward
when he was IS years of age. She
was eleven years his junior. About
the same time he embraced the relis
gious faith of the g Disciples Of
Christ, or 4" Campbellites," who
were then just forming themselves
into separate organization He
knew their founder, Alexander
Campbell, very well. and was bap-
tized by him. To his death he re-
q member of that faith and
some years ago be was the orator at
the unveiling of the bust of Camp
bell in Bethany College, West
Virginia. ''a'"i ''A'.iii'
ACcEssloNTo THE BENCH. n