Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-03
HON. CHAUNCEY F. BLACK.

HON. CHAUNCEY F. BLACK.
SKETCH OF THE NOMINEE FOR LIEUTEN.
ANT GOVERNOR.
A Man of Simple Tastes and stndious
Habits-A Native of Somerset County
and Son of n Famous JurIst-His Polit-
icaI Career.
In bis model home at "Willow Bridges"
few men SO fully typify in daily life the
American scholar and philosopher as
Chauncey Forward Black Surrounded by
every comfort and with every convenience
at hand, he is the picture of contentment.
His tastes are simple, his habits studious
and his inclinations literary. With vast
capacity for labor and an industrious bent,
he is constantly employed among his books,
and the product of bis efforts is an accumu-
lation OF useful manuscripts and valuable
data on historic and political subjects.
Ex-Lieutenant Governor Black is a
methodical worker, and his study is a
model of elegance and comfort. With
three sons, each inheriting the inclinations
to political investigations which was trans
mitted through him from his distinguished
father, his charming and accomplished
daughter Louisa, and his vile, lady of
great accomplishments and personal beauty,
completes the family, and as they gather
about the wood-fre in the study or cluster in
the drawing room, they comprise group
which might divert the mind of any man
from politics and implant that spirit of hap
piness and contentment which is the ruling
characteristic OF the place. His sons are
Jeremiah S., leader in athletics and
scholarship at Princeton College; Dawson,
who has recently entered the Farquhar
shops, at York, preparatory to mechanical
and scientific career, and Chauncey F., Jr.,
who, with his books, is acquiring rudi-
mentary education under the watchful care
of his father and mother.
HIS FAMOUS ANCESTORS.
Chauncey Forward Black is descended
from famous ancestry. His grandfather,
Henry Black, served the public as mem
Der OF the Legislature, an Associate Judge
and in Congress- and in each field he left a
record for ability and Integrity that is a
priceless heritage. His father, the late
Judge jeremiah S. Black, lett record
which to the end of time will adorn the
pages of history and lend luster to the
period in which he was an actor on the
stage of life. His maternal ancestors were
the Forwards, his grandfather being
Chauncey Forward, a man of distinguished
ability and brother of Presided Tyler's
Secretary of the Treasury, Walter Forward.
Both families resided in Somerset county,
where Chauncey Forward Black was born
on November a 1889.
Mr.. Blacks education was obtained in
various institutions. Under the direction
Of his distinguished father and within the
watchful care Of his loving and pious
mother, he attended select schools in his
childhood at Somerset, and subsequently
spent some time at the academy in that
town, the college at Hiram, O., where the
late President Garfield was tutor, at the
Monongahela Academy, Morgantown, W.
Va, and at Jefferson College, at Cannons-
burg, Washington county, Pa. He began
the study of law in the Office of the late
Edwin M. Stanton, the special counsel for
the Government under Attorney General
Jeremiah S. Black, and afterward the great
Secretary of War during the War of the
Rebellion. After one year spent in Mr..
Stanton's Office he went to Fayette county,
where he was admitted to the bar
But his tastes were in another direction.
During his residence at Uniontown he be-
gan writing for the county paper, and de-
veloped not only remarkable ability but
wonderful facility in this line of labor, and
after contributing to various journals and
periodicals he became an editorial writer on
the New York Sun in 1873, relation which
he maintained until in 1882, when he was
elected Lieutenant Governor of the State.
AS A WRITER AND POLITICIAN.
Mr.. Black has always had fondness for
politics, and even before he had reached the
age of majority had won a widespread repu-
tation as political writer. For many
years he had been an attendant at State con-
ventions and aided in the drafting of plat
forms and the framing OF party doctrines.
In 1879 he was delegate to the State Con-
vention, and in 1880 was one of the delegates
from the Nineteenth Congressional district
OF the State to the Presidential Convention
which nominated General Hancock for Pres
ident He voted on the first ballot for his
personal friend, Justice Stephen J. Field,
but on the second Joined with the other
members OF the Pennsylvania delegate in
support of Hancock.
His election to the Office of Lieutenant
Governor in 1882 opened up for him a new
field of usefulness, and he had DISPLAYED
such ability in the Office that at the expira-
ton of his term he was made the candidate,
without his own effort or even suggestion, of
a large proportion of the party for the Chief
Executive Office OF the State, and was nomi-
mated for Governor on the first ballot in the
convention over ex-senator Wallace by
vote of 1913 to 129. The canvass which fol-
lowed was unusually spirited. Mr.. Black
on the stump displayed surprising capacity
for leadership.
Socially, Mr.. Black is one Of the most
genial of men. Plain. practical and COM
panionable, he taxes delight in dispensing
the hospitalities of his beautiful home. He
was married in 1868 10 Mary c., youngest
daughter of the late John L. Dawson, of
Friendship Hill, Fayette county, who in his
time represented his district in Congress
several terms, and was the author of the
homestead law, and was famous orator.