Chauncey Forward Black (November 24, 1839 – December 2, 1904) was the third

lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania The lieutenant governor is a constitutional officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lieutenant governor is elected for a four-year term in the same year as the governor. Each party picks a candidate for lieutenant governor independently o ...

from 1883 to 1887. He was an unsuccessful candidate for

Governor of Pennsylvania A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

in 1886.

Biography

Born in Glades, Pennsylvania on November 24, 1839, he was the son of justice for the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme ...

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

and

U.S. Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

Jeremiah S. Black Jeremiah Sullivan Black (January 10, 1810 – August 19, 1883) was an American statesman and lawyer. He served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (1851–1857) and as the Court's Chief Justice (1851–1854). He also served in the ...

and Mary (Forward) Black, and the grandson of Representative Henry Black and Mary (Sullivan) Black. His maternal grandfather was Representative

Chauncey Forward Chauncey Forward (February 4, 1793 – October 19, 1839) was an American politician who served as a Jacksonian member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Early life and education Forward was born in Old Granby, Connecticut, ...

. He married Mary Clarke Dawson and they had four children. Black was educated at

Hiram College Hiram College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Hiram, Ohio. It was founded in 1850 as the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute by Amos Sutton Hayden and other members of the Disciples of Christ Church. The college is nonsectarian and coe ...

, where he met and developed a close personal friendship with future president

James Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...

. He later attended

Washington & Jefferson College Washington & Jefferson College (W&J College or W&J) is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania. The college traces its origin to three log cabin colleges in Washington County established by three Presbyterian missionaries to ...

. Black entered the field of journalism, where he wrote primarily for ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

.'' Black was also an author best known for

ghostwriting A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

a biography of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

for his bodyguard

Ward Hill Lamon Ward Hill Lamon (January 6, 1828 – May 7, 1893) was a personal friend and self-appointed bodyguard of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Lamon was famously absent the night Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, having bee ...

titled ''The Life of Abraham Lincoln; from his Birth to his Inauguration as President'' published in 1872. Because of his reformist zeal, Black was chosen to run on the ticket of

Robert E. Pattison Robert Emory Pattison (December 8, 1850August 1, 1904) was an American attorney and politician serving as the 19th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1883 to 1887 and 1891 to 1895. Pattison was the only Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania between ...

in 1882. He served as

Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania The lieutenant governor is a constitutional officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lieutenant governor is elected for a four-year term in the same year as the governor. Each party picks a candidate for lieutenant governor independently o ...

from 1883 to 1887 and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1886. Chauncey Forward Black died in

York, Pennsylvania York ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populati ...

, on December 2, 1904, at the age of 65. He was buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery,

References

External links

The Political Graveyard
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Chauncey Forward 1839 births 1904 deaths Lieutenant Governors of Pennsylvania American biographers American male biographers Writers from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Democrats Historians of Abraham Lincoln