Harvey BLACK of Scottish descent was born on February 14, 1783, in St. Lawrence Co., NY where he lived for several years. Harvey was reared to farm pursuits and followed this his entire life.

* Information provided by Karl Hillig provides the following - Harvey BLACK was born on February 14, 1786 in West Springfield, MA. He lived in St. Lawrence Co., NY for several years before moving to Ohio, and then to Michigan. Harvey was a private in the New York Militia during the War of 1812.

Harvey's father Samuel (b. 12-6-1763, Oakham, Worcester Co., MA; d. 3-16-1852, Lenawee Co., MI) was a Revolutionary War veteran of Scottish descent. Harvey's mother, Achsah JONES, was born 5 May 1758 in West Springfield, MA. She was the daughter of Ebenezer JONES Jr. and Abigail DAY.

Harvey married Olive POWERS in St. Lawrence Co. (abt 1815). They had eight children, five girls and three boys. Lucretia, Harvey P., Phylancourt, Cyrena (not Serina), Marquis De Lafayette (MDL), Clarinda, Lucinda, and Altha. The first five children were born in New York State and the last three in Ohio.

In 1825 the family moved to Huron Co., Ohio, near Ridgefield, where Harvey bought 160 acres of land. The family lived here until sometime after the death of Olive, abt 1835.

The Hills and Dales book said that Harvey served in the War of 1812 along the Maumee River with ‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne. However, Wayne died in 1794 when Harvey Black was eleven years old and before the conflict. War of 1812 Service Records show a Harvey Black serving as a Private in the McMahan Regiment of New York (based in Chautaugua Co., the furthest west county in NY). Harvey would have been 29 years old.

In September 1835, with wagons drawn by oxen, Harvey, (age 52) and his eight children moved to the Northwest Territory. Harvey obtained patents for 320 acres of land in sections 23, 26 and 27 at the price of $1.25 per acre from the Territorial Governor.

When Michigan became the 26th state in January 1837, Hillsdale County was established with the townships left unnamed. The area where the Blacks settled was then known as Florida and designated Jefferson Township in 1849. The first township meeting was held April 3, 1837 and H. Black* is listed as one of the voters living in the township at the time of its organization.

On his property Harvey built a log house with openings for windows and doors. As there were no sawmills to cut planks for doors or glass for windows, these openings were covered as best they could to keep out bad weather. They had only lived there a short time when Althea, the youngest, died at the age three. She was the first to be buried in the Black Cemetery.

Though it was more than a year before the Black’s saw another white settler, they were not alone in the wilderness. They lived peacefully along side the Indians of the Potawotamie tribe whose local chief was Baw Beese. Family stories relate that Baw Beese was very helpful to them and other early settlers.

The first contact the Blacks had with other whites came when they heard chopping sounds in the forest and went to investigate. The men walked about two miles through the woods and came upon a man named Stout. It was another two years before more pioneers settled close and for some time only three other white families lived near the Blacks.

The cooperative existence between the Indians and earliest pioneers ended as the land filled with more settlers. The newcomers forced confrontations with the Indians by shooting their dogs and taking their game. When the Indians stood their ground, the settlers complained to the government; the results were the Indians forced to reservations sometime between 1839 and 1842.

The Blacks said it was a sad sight to see the Indians marched from their homeland at the point of bayonets. The beginning of the journey took the Indians by the Black cabin and the Blacks gave them food. In his tearful farewell speech near the lake that bears his name, Baw Beese sighed, “Me don’t know whether me go or me fight.”

Stories from the Hills and Dales book describe the severe, near starvation, conditions that many early settlers endured as they attempted to establish farms. For supplies the Black family had to travel to the nearest trading post in Monroe, Michigan, 75 miles distant. There they bought flour and returned through Ohio to procure beans and potatoes. It took two weeks for a round trip on horseback, following a blazed trail with a muddy track through forests. Later these supplies were obtainable in Jonesville.

On one such trip to Monroe, the children were left with salt and pepper as the only edibles in the house. The girls gathered cowslip greens, the boys hunted. Harvey P. rode his horse to Jonesville (15 miles distant) for a sack of baker’s bread. He carried this home on the back of his horse and by the time he arrived it had become pumiced, yet the crumbs were relished by the hungry family.

When Harvey was taken to his sick bed the Indians became alarmed and seemed to be in council. They would run up and peek in the window openings in the house as the family kept close to their father’s sickbed, not knowing if they would be seized upon and left to the mercy of the Indians. On the third or fourth day, one individual who was the most threatening them, was restrained from coming near and Baw Beese, the peace chief, entered their home. By signs and motions he assured them that their presence was welcome and forever afterward were friendly with them. The Indians often borrowed from them, especially Shincauw (money) and never refusing to pay their debt, if only in venison. The family story is that the war chief was Tehcumseh but since he died in 1813, this is not possible.

Before his death on August 11, 1842, at age 59, Harvey had divided his property among his children, each receiving 40 acres. He retained the original homestead for himself and son Philancourt (sic), with a small plot set aside for a family cemetery. This little cemetery is where daughter Altha was already buried, and Harvey interred.

About 1851, the first log school house was built near the present day corner of Tripp at Reading Rd. on the property of Oren (Orrin) Anderson, another earlier settler. The school, named for the Black family, was approximately 10 x 14 x 7.5 feet, heated by a fireplace, and had a desk for the teacher and a few student benches. For many years the water for the school was drawn with two buckets and a chain over a pulley from a well on the Harvey P. Black land across the road. In 1861 a more modern building replaced the log house.

In addition to providing education for many children the Black School was also used as a Sunday School, a place for revivals, singing, debates and exhibitions. In September 1939 the Black School became part of the Pittsford School District, at which time it was closed. Later the property was sold to Harvey P.’s granddaughter Marilla Black and her husband Arthur KALDER, who had taught there in 1899. The property was sold out of the Black family with their deaths.

One of the early teachers was Eunice B. FIELDS who married Marquis DeLafayette (MDL). She had a banner on which was inscribed “Sans Dieu Rien”- “Without God, Nothing.”

Lucretia | Harvey P. | Phylancourt | Cyrena | MDL | Clarinda | Lucinda | Altha