Leonard Black (1897-1909)

November 11, 2026

Leonard Black (1897-1909)

November 19, 1868

Leonard’s father, Charles, was born in Williamstown, New York to parents James and Mary; he had one older brother, Henry. The 1870 US Census lists James as a farmer and Mary as keeping house.

July 1869

Leonard’s mother, Lucy Warner, is born in New York; some records have her going by “Lulu.” Her parents appear to be named William & Lorrie.*

*A lot of family tree confusion surrounds Leonard’s mother. We know her name for sure, but the rest outside of her family/children with Charles Black is potentially tangled with another family tree. More on that later.

February 4, 1891

Charles and Lulu are married in Amboy, New York.

February 16, 1892

Their first child, a son named Henry, is born in Pulaski, New York; family trees have him going by “Harry.”

He looks to be named after his paternal uncle, but without knowing when he died it’s hard to say if it was a posthumous naming or not.

June 1897

Leonard Black is born in Oswego County, New York.

1900

Sometime in the last three years the young family moved to the Arizona territory; the US Census has them living in Duncan.

Charles is listed as a farmer while Harry is listed as being in school. The boys’ paternal grandfather, James, was living with them as well; he was listed as being a “farm laborer.”

Charles, Lulu and James are all listed as being able to read and write. Charles is also listed as owning his farm rather than renting and he owned it outright rather than having a mortgage.

May 15, 1903

Harry and Leonard’s sister, Lucia, is born in Schurz, Nevada.

1909

The family was living on Florence Avenue in Tonopah, Nevada.

March 20, 1909

Charley Bottomly was delivering three tons of grain up to the Tonopah-Belmont Mine on a trail wagon; Leonard and Harry were riding with him.

It’s not clear why they were riding with him. Looking at a map, Florence Ave runs near the Tonopah Historic Mining Park today (where the Belmont Mine used to be). They may have seen a friend going by and decided to ride with him.

When the wagon reached its destination, Leonard lost his balance when the wagon stopped and landed in front of the wheels after hitting the wagon tongue.

He managed to call out, “Whoa!” but the horses didn’t stop in time; one of the wheels ran over Leonard’s abdomen. He was stuck under the wheel until Harry and Charley (ages 17 and 19) were able to back the wagon off of him; because of the type of wagon and the way the horses were hitched, it took even longer.

They took Leonard home where a Dr. Garner was already visiting. He said he didn’t think that Leonard’s injuries were fatal and the next morning, Dr. Garner returned home to Rawhide.

Unfortunately, Leonard wasn’t out of the woods. Another doctor, Dr. McLeod, examined him but wasn’t able to save him. Tragically, Leonard was conscious through over entire day of suffering: thirty hours from the accident to his death.

Lulu was home alone with the children while Charles was in Schurz on business, though he came back as soon as word was sent.

Reading the account of his death absolutely broke my heart. And while I was obviously thinking of Leonard’s suffering, I also couldn’t help but think about Harry. I’m six years older than my closest sibling in age and I can practically hear their mom telling Harry to watch his brother.

March 24, 1909

Leonard is buried in Old Tonopah Cemetery with many school students in attendance for his funeral. Fifth grade through the high school were let out of school that day for the funeral.

1910

The US Census has the family living in Schurz, Nevada. Charles is listed as being a farming engineer.

It was likely difficult to go on living in Tonopah and they went back to the familiarity of Schurz where Lucia was born.

At this time, James is no longer living with them, but Lulu’s brother David had moved with the family; he was working as a miner.

1920

This is where the family tree starts to get a little confusing.

In 1920 James is listed as living as a roomer (or boarder) in Las Vegas; he was a salesman. Born in NY in 1869 (one year off, it happens a lot in census records) with a father from Scotland and mother from NY, this is very clearly our man. He’s also noted as being married.

The M in the furthest column indicates marriage.

However.

Lulu is listed in this census as living in Fallon, Nevada. But she and Lucia both appear under the last name Garner; Lulu was married (in these records) to John Garner.

Born in 1870 in NY (again just one year off) with parents from NY and being listed with Lucia and her information matching (born in 1904 in Nevada) this definitely feels like our ladies.

Lulu also appears in one family tree as having different spouses.

While it wasn’t overly common at the time (the divorce rate was about 10%), the couple may have split up. Given what they went through losing a child, marital strain is natural. There’s just no official record to say for sure.

What confuses me about the family tree where Lulu appears with both Charles and John is her personal family history (parents, siblings, etc) is a little all over the place compared to other trees. I thought maybe Garner was getting mixed up with her maiden name Warner.

However, the census records say what they say. Lulu was married to John and Charles was living as a roomer (though was still marked as married).