Chariton grocer Charles N. Black and his wife, Amanda, still reeling from the loss during the previous five years of three of their adult children, sold the business during 1903 and moved back to the Sandyville neighborhood in Warren County. The couple had lived in that vicinity with their large family until 1891, when they moved to Lucas County and established a business that flourished.
They left those three children behind in the Chariton Cemetery, buried in a row behind an impressive family stone in the southeast quadrant of the original burial ground. Two, William T. and Walter E., both of whom died of typhoid fever, constitute the only Lucas County losses during the Spanish American War.
Both were soldiers of Company H, 50th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, an Iowa National Guard company based in Chariton before and after the war but nationalized for service in 1898. From May until September of that year, the company was stationed at Camp Cuba Libre at Jacksonville, Florida. The company's third loss was Charles Blandford of Ogden, who also died at Camp Libre of typhoid, a disease most often contracted from a contaminated water supply.
Two years later, typhoid also claimed the life of the brothers' younger sister, Mabel Ann, who --- perhaps motivated in part by the loss of her brothers --- had trained as a nurse in Iowa City and returned home to Chariton to practice.
Combined, it was a stunning loss from a disease rarely encountered in developed nations today because of vastly improved sanitation and better understanding of its causes and treatment.
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I wrote earlier in the week about the death of Quartermaster Sergeant William Thomas Black in a post entitled "The Men of Company H. say farewell to Sgt. Tom" because a photograph of his funeral cortege in Jacksonville has been added recently to the Lucas County Historical Society collection.
Tom, born Feb. 21, 1873, was the eldest of the Black children, age 25 at the time of his death at Camp Libre on July 19, 1898. An aspiring journalist, he had worked as a clerk in his parents' store, attended college and had gone to work for Chariton newspapers.
He seems to have been a young man of considerable promise, eulogized in The Chariton Democrat of July 22 as "Handsome, earnest, brilliant, genial Tom. None knew him but to love him. One of the most gentlemanly soldiers in Company H, a man who would have made an unsullied citizen --- he is our sacrifice to the honor of the nation and progress of humanity. No nobler sacrifice has been offered to the inevitable in this cruel war."
Funeral services for Sergeant Tom were held in Chariton on Friday, July 22, and he was the first to be buried on a newly acquired family lot in the Chariton Cemetery.
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Tom's younger brother, Walter E. (born Dec. 29, 1881), a trumpeter, also was a soldier in Company H and he, along with Sgt. Orrie Hixon, had accompanied Tom's remains home to Chariton. He was only 17 and had needed his parents' permission in order to serve.
A few weeks after returning to Camp Cuba Libre after a week's furlough in Chariton, Walter, too, was diagnosed with typhoid fever and hospitalized.
On Sept. 12, after it became clear their services no longer were needed, the men of Company H were ordered home to Iowa. Walter traveled by hospital car, then was brought to the home of his parents where he died on Sept. 28, 1898.
He was eulogized by The Democrat as "a young man of exemplary habits, honest in business, faithful to himself and his God in life, and loving and kind to his parents and sisters."
Funeral services were held on Friday, Sept. 30, at First Presbyterian Church, where, "amid a bank of beautiful flowers and wrapped in the stars and stripes, the remains were viewed by hundreds of friends.
"Afterwards the cortege slowly wended its way to the Chariton cemetery. The Chariton and Russell band headed the procession, playing the funeral march. Then came Company H with bowed heads and slow and measured tread, then the funeral car guarded by a military escort of six pall bearers.
"The mourning relatives and friends followed, forming a long line. At the cemetery the military salute was given, "taps" were sounded and the remains of Walter Black were lowered to the grave beside his brother Tom, who was buried just ten weeks previous."
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Later that fall, perhaps motivated in part by the deaths of her brothers, their sister, Mabel Ann (born August 18, 1879), enrolled in a nurse training program in Iowa City and while a student there, met and became engaged to a physician, Dr. J.R. Gardner.
She then returned to Chariton as a private practice nurse and began to plan her wedding.
During late November of 1900, however, she too was diagnosed with typhoid fever and four weeks later, on Dec. 30, died at her parents' home on North 7th Street.
"Her pleasant disposition and happy, joyous ways carried sunshine wherever she went. In the sick room her gentle touch was like that of a ministering angel. She had not a thought that was not a gentle one, not one that did not hold all the world in its kindliness," her pastor, the Rev. A.C. Ormond, said during funeral services, also at First Presbyterian.
Her remains then were taken to the Chariton Cemetery on Jan. 2, 1901, for burial beside those of her brothers. Six sisters survived.
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After leaving Chariton during 1903, Charles N. Black lived on until Feb. 21, 1916, when he died at his home near Sandyville at the age of 73. His wife, Amanda, followed him to the grave on April 16, 1924, age 69.
The senior Blacks chose to be buried in the cemetery at Sandyville rather than in Chariton, however.
But some years later, during 1941, their youngest daughter, Elizabeth (Black) Divoll (born Dec. 27, 1894 after the family had moved to Chariton), whose home was in Colorado, died while visiting her sister in Des Moines on Nov. 6, 1941. Her remains were brought to Chariton and buried near those of her three siblings.
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