San Francisco County
Biographies
WILLIAM BLACK,
MARBLE MANUFACTURING
MARBLE MANUFACTURING -- Not the least among
the rich and varied resources of
At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, Mr. Black,
then a young man of twenty-two, enlisted in the New York Volunteer Infantry,
and served four years in the Union army.
He was twice wounded,—in the leg at the battle of
Transcribed by Donna L. Becker.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2,
pages 667-668, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
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WILLIAM BLACK
WILLIAM
BLACK was born in
While
working away quietly at his trade the great Civil War burst upon the country,
and at the age of twenty-two years he enlisted, July 17, 1861, in Company I,
Eighty-third New York Volunteers. With
his regiment he participated in many hotly-contested battles. His term of enlistment expiring he
re-enlisted, February 8, 1864, in the Ninety-seventh New York Volunteers, and
was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. At
the battle of Antietam he received two wounds in the
leg, and in the battle of the Wilderness was wounded in the head, the ball
entering just above the left ear. For
days his life was despaired of and he has never recovered the hearing of that
ear. After the Weldon Railroad battle, in
which the officers of the One Hundred and Fourth New York were nearly all killed
or taken prisoners by the enemy, he acted as Adjutant of that regiment for a
time. He participated in the grand
review at
After
the close of the war Mr. Black was for six months a freight clerk at Aspinwall. In 1866
he came to San Francisco and worked at his trade for L. R. Myers & Co.,
with whom he remained three years. In
1869 he established business for himself on the corner of Fifth and Jessie
streets; from there removed to 807 Market street, and
after being in business there some time sold out and went to the mines in El
Dorado county. After a mining experience
of two years at Georgetown, with only moderate success, he returned to San
Francisco and again resumed business, which he conducted successfully until
1886, when the works he built at 52 and 54 Broad Place were destroyed by
fire. He sustained a loss of many
thousand dollars, but with renewed energy he began business again, having since
had uninterrupted success. His present
establishment is located at 385 and 387 Eights street, where he has erected two
buildings, one 40 x 110 feet, two-story, and the other 40x80 feet. He also has a residence on the same lot. He has a boiler and engine in his works and
employs thirty men. Much of the best
marble work in the city has been constructed by him. The first altar built on the Pacific coast
was put up by him in St. Dominic’s Church; is of variegated imported marble and
is very artistic in its design. He also
did the marble work in the Phelan, Flood, Oriel and Chronicle buildings, and in
the Hopkins, Crocker, Stanford and various other palatial residences. For years he has devoted his entire mental
and physical ability to his business, and his work is found not only in this
city but in nearly every county on the Pacific coast. One of the finest pieces of marble work in
San Francisco is the beautiful monument put up by him in 1870, erected to the
memory of the soldiers. It stands in the
Odd Fellow’s cemetery at
Mr.
Black was marred in 1878, to Miss Annie Delahanty, a
native of
Mr.
Black was made a Mason in Hope Lodge, No. 244, in 1864, but now has his
membership in Mission Lodge, No. 169,
Transcribed by Donna L. Becker
Source:
"The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, pages 672-673, Lewis Publishing
Co, 1892.
© 2006 Donna L.
Becker.