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North and South
Stories and Genealogy of Theodore Charles Anderson and Sara Carlene Shuttleworth
Black's Road
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Following Black's Road
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Coming to America
When the four Black brothers, James (age 26), Samuel (age 24), Thomas (age 23) and Robert (age 22) (Ted’s 4th Great Grandfather) came over from County Derry, Northern Ireland in 1754, they made their way to Cecile County, Maryland.
There, James Black married Elizabeth Russell and moved to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Samuel married a woman named Jane and went to Virginia. Thomas married a woman named Elizabeth and also wound up in North Carolina.
Robert Black married Eleanor Rodgers and moved to the area that’s now known as Blacksburg, South Carolina, which should not be confused with Blacksburg, Virginia which was founded in 1798 by another of Ted’s ancestors, William7 Black and his brother John10.
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The Louisiana Purchase
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In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson negotiated the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. With this acquisition, America doubled in size, making it one of the largest nations in the world at that time.
The purchase involved over 600 million acres at a cost of less than 3 cents an acre in what today is the better part of 13 states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, including the territory known as Arkansas. All this new land was open to the Americans for settlement.
Samuel Russell Black, Robert’s son (Ted’s 3rd Great Granduncle), received a land grant in Alabama on April 12, 1812. He died before he got there, but his large family did and settled in and around Perry, Greene, Wilcox, and Monroe Counties.
Judge Jonathan Black, Sr., who was a nephew of Robert Black, was the first member of the Black clan to set foot in the new Arkansas territory. He settled in Southern Arkansas in what became known as Union County.
By 1829, he was well established and when Union County was created on November 2 of that year, he was elected County Judge and his son Jonathan Black, Jr. was elected Sheriff.
At the urging of Jonathan, William Russell Black (Ted’s 1st cousin, 4 times removed), the son of Samuel Black and Isabella Johnson, left his home in Wilcox County, AL and traveled to Mobile. From there he went by steamer to New Orleans and then up the Mississippi River on a paddleboat. When he got to the Arkansas State line, he took a stage overland to visit his cousin Judge Jonathan Black in Union County.
Upon his return to Alabama, he related to the Black Clan that Union County Arkansas was the richest land he had ever seen.
His enthusiasm was so great that almost all of them decided to move there.
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Wagon Train to Arkansas
John Columbus Black (Ted’s 2nd Great Grandfather), and Robert Johnson Black (Ted’s 1st cousin, 4 times removed) organized a wagon train to move everybody to Union County.
John C. and Robert J. made overland trips to Arkansas on horseback to scout out the territory. They decided where they were going and how they were going to get there.
The zeal of the Blacks for emigrating to Arkansas interested many others around Monroe, Perry, Wilcox and Greene Counties so, when the wagon train was assembled in late 1836, not only the Black clan, but also the Perrys, the Wallaces, the Connors, the Rayfords, the Munfords, Dr. Thomas Reed Williams, William Carter and Sanders Norris joined in.
The wagon train left Monroe County, Alabama during the winter of 1836/1837, probably in November or December 1836 but no later than January 1837.)
The Blacks who made the journey were:
 John Columbus Black (age 38) (Ted’s 2nd Great Grandfather),
 His 7 children:
 William Franklin (age 11),
John Joseph (JJ) (age 10)
James Mac (age 9),
Adam Davis (age 6),
Francis Putnam (age 4) (Ted’s Great Grandfather),
Mary Mathilda (age 3), and
John Columbus, Jr. (age 1);
Robert Johnson. Black (age 37),
Robert J.’s mother:
Isabella Johnson (age 59);
Robert J.’s 2 children:
Oliver Hazzard Perry (age 16) and,
Araminta Mathilda (age 14);
Robert J.’s 2 brothers:
William Russell (age 21), and
Samuel Frank (age 17)
and Robert J.’s 4 sisters:
Catherine S. (age 31),
Isabella (age 29),
Martha (age 23), and
Rebecca (age 13).
Included in the Connor party was Jane Black (age 19) (Robert J.’s sister), wife of Charles Frank Connor.
Apparently, there were also a large number of slaves. An exact count of the size of the wagon train is not known but it had to be 100 people or more, with dozens of wagons.
The wagon train moved slowly, but smoothly across Alabama crossing the Tombigbee River somewhere around Demopolis. It proceeded west across Mississippi, crossing the Pearl River somewhere around Jackson. It reached the Mississippi River somewhere around Vicksburg and crossed over into Louisiana.
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Black's Road
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The wagon train rolled on across Louisiana, turning north when it reached Monroe. From there it pushed on until it reached Farmerville, LA where the road stopped. Nothing but virgin forest loomed before them, broken only by dim paths made by the Indians.
Farmerville is located in North-Central Louisiana, 18 miles south of the Arkansas State line on the shores of a large body of water that is known today as D’Arbonne Lake. By road today it is 336 miles from Monroe County, AL to Farmerville, LA.
The wagon train stopped at Farmerville. Slaves rapidly built cabins and the group made temporary homes. It was early in the year 1837, perhaps not later than April. There was plenty of land and water, many slaves and lots of time to plant and harvest a crop.
During the summer, fall and winter of 1837, after the crops were planted and the log cabins build, John C. and Robert J. lead the other men and slaves to cut a wagon road from Farmerville, north up to the Arkansas-Louisiana line to a place now known as Oakland, LA, 18 miles away. They then crossed the Big Lapile Creek into Arkansas and continued to cut the wagon road up to the land that John C. and Robert J. had selected before they left, which was another 13.5 miles further north. This place is now known as New London, Arkansas.
The wagon road they built became known as Black’s Road.
After spending about a year in Farmerville, the wagon train finally moved on into Arkansas and, in the spring of 1838, arrived at New London.
Robert Johnson Black built a large log house. It had to be large because he, his children, his mother and sisters and brothers lived together, and it was probably
of cypress because the records show that cypress logs were desired by the pioneers of Union County. Jesse Phelps, Rural Route, Strong, now owns the old Black place,
and lives there. A cypress log which had been hollowed was used to curb the firstdug well for the new log house.
Colonel John Logan Black, a graduate of West Point and a Colonel in the War Between the States (visit Crumbling Defences), made the trip from Blacksburg, South Carolina, to Union County in 1850 to visit his cousins, Robert Johnson and John Columbus Black.
He wanted to move to Arkansas, but the girl he loved in South Carolina, Mary Peay Black, would not come to the "Arkansas Wilderness"---she had never seen Arkansas. He went back to Blackburg married his sweetheart, and spent the remainder of his life telling about the wonderful country on the Ouachita River, and about the sweet water that
came from the dug well with the cypress log curbing. In 1940 his daughter, Mrs. John B. Palmer, of Ridgeway, South Carolina, remembered the story of the well and frequently talked
about it.
Using Black’s Road, many other settlers came and the little community grew and prospered and soon became part of Harrison Township.
Black’s Road was 32 miles long. Louisiana Highway 549 follows this old road today on the Louisiana side. On the Arkansas side, Black’s Road in now called Oakland Road. The route the wagon train blazed across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana was so well planned and thought out that the modern US Highway 20 pretty much follows its path today.
John C. married twice, both time to 1st cousins. His first wife was Jane Davis. She was the daughter of Mary Black and Robert Davis. Mary was the aunt of both John C. and Robert J. Jane Davis died in 1836 while they were still in Alabama, probably during childbirth of John Francis.
One wonders who took care of John C.’s 1-year-old baby, John Columbus, Jr., during the wagon train trip to Arkansas. A good guess is that it was Isabella Black, because John C. married her in 1838. She was also a 1st cousin, the daughter of Robert J. The Blacks really did like one-another.
He had children by both marriages, 7 with Jane and 3 more (all girls) with Isabella.
In 1850 John C., then a widower, server as the Constable of Harrison Township. He died 10 years later in 1860, just before the Civil War. After his death, some of the family moved north to Pine Bluff, AR, others moved to Hot Springs, AR where Ted’s Great Grandfather, Francis Putnam Black, died in 1874.
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Tune "The Theme from Wagon Train"
The introductory tune used on this page is the theme from the TV series Wagon Train" as played by the City of Prague Philharmonic from the Album "Valley of the Gwangi: The Classic Film Music of Jerome Moross", Track 6.
Wagon Train was a television series on NBC from 1957 to 1962 and on ABC from 1962 to 1965. It ranked #1 in the Nielsen Ratings in the 1961-1962 television season.
The show was based on the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford, and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., and Ward Bond.
The show chronicles the adventures of a wagon train as it makes its way from Missouri to California. There were 284 episodes with the first episode appearing 18 September 1957 and the last episode 2 May 1965. Some of the actors appearing on Wagon Train included Ward Bond as Major Seth Adams (Wagon master seasons 1-4), Robert Horton as Flint McCullough (seasons 1-5), Denny Miller as Duke Shannon (seasons 5-7), Michael Burns as Barnaby West (seasons 4-8), Robert Fuller as Cooper Smith (seasons 7-8), John McIntire as Christopher Hale (Wagon master, seasons 4-8) and Frank McGrath as Charlie Wooster (cook, seasons 1-8), Terry Wilson as Bill Hawks. The eight-season one-hour show was filmed in black and white except for its seventh season which was 90 minutes and in color.
The first season theme "Wagon Train"?title=was written by Henri Rene and Bob Russell and lyrics were not used. The theme was conducted by Revue musical director Stanley Wilson. In the second season, a new more modern sounding theme was introduced. "(Roll Along) Wagon Train"?title=was written by Sammy Fain and Jack Brooks and sung by Johnny O'Neill. About midway through the second season this was replaced with an instrumental version by Stanley Wilson. In the third season a more traditional sounding score was introduced. "Wagons Ho!"?title=was written and conducted by Jerome Moross. This theme would last through the series run and is the most remembered Wagon Train theme. Stanley Wilson re-recorded "Wagons Ho!"?title=for the last two seasons.
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The Black’s Travels
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This page and all genealogical data contained on it are Copyrighted © 2007/2008
by Theodore C. Anderson
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