George Edgar Black

     George Edgar Black was born on 28 September 1859 at Platteville, Grant County, Wisconsin.¹ He was the son of John Thomas Clellan Black and Amanda Evaline McWilliams. George Edgar Black married, at age 35, Mary Emeline Hoge, age 27 on Wednesday, 23 January 1895.¹ George Edgar Black died on 3 February 1936 at Seaside Hospital, Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California, at age 76 years, 4 months and 6 days.¹
     GEORGE EDGAR BLACK

George Edgar Black was born at Platteville, Wis., on September 28, 1859, and died on February 3, 1936, in Seaside Hospital at Long Beach, Cal.

George Edgar Black lived in Platteville till 1881, when he moved to North Dakota after the death of his mother, Amanda Evaline McWilliams (Black). He took up a claim in North Dakota and lived there for two years. The snow was so deep on his farm that he had to use a rope to guide him when he went from the house to the barn.

In 1883 he moved into Grand Forks, N.D., where he was engaged as a boilermaker for the railroad until 1924. He was active in the Congregational Church, in which on an Easter Sunday he met his future wife, Mary Emeline Houge. She visited Grand Forks in 1893, where she was selling volumes of the Poems of William Cullen Bryant, and sold one to George Edgar Black. They were married on January 23, 1895.

In 1934, George Edgar Black and his wife Mary went to New York to meet their son Richard Blackburn Black on his return from the South Pole. In 1935, George Edgar Black and his wife drove to California. The following year he died in Seaside Hospital at Long Beach. Richard Blackburn Black and his young son Douglas were with George Edgar Black when he died.

George Edgar Black was the son of John Thomas Clellan Black, who was born in Bond Co., Ill., on September 16, 1833, and died of fever on October 22, 1864, at Atlanta, Ga., in Sherman s tMarch to the SeaA during the Civil War. He was a Private in Company E, 25th Wisconsin Infantry. He was originally buried in Grave No. 7056, Sect. G, in the U.S. National Cemetery at Marietta, Ga.

George Edgar Black s mother was Amanda Evaline McWilliams (Black), who was born on August 12, 1839, at Edwardsville, Ill., and died on February 2, 1880, at Platteville, Wis. Her other children were Mary Ellen Black (Casselman), b March 18, 1861; and John Edward Black, b March 16, 1863 and d in February, 1938.

Amanda Evaline McWilliams (Black) was one of twelve children of Alexander McWilliams and Martha Patsy Yoakum (McWilliams). Alexander McWilliams was born in Madison Co., Ky., on October 16, 1813. He was the son of Andrew McWilliams and Mary Kincaid (McWilliams), who died in 1816. The McWilliams came from Scotland, and the Kincaids from Ireland. Alexander McWilliams died at Ellenboro, Wis., on September 27, 1870, and is buried at Union Cemetery, Lima Township, Grant Co., Wis. He and Martha Patsy Yoakum were married in Madison Co., Ill., on August 24, 1837. Martha was born in Madison Co., Ill., on December 11, 1816, and died in Harrison Township on September 20, 1902. She is buried in Union Cemetery, Lima Township, Grant Co., Wis. She was the daughter of John Yoakum of Tennessee and Rachel Weaver (Yoakum) of Virginia, who resided in Madison Co., Ill.

From "The Baylis Family of Virginia," Mrs. Willetta Baylis Blum and Dr. William Blum Sr., (Washington D.C.: 1958), pp. 294 - 295.