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Happy Birthday to Nixon Black and his grandparents!
Colonel John Black was born in England on July 3, 1781 while his wife Mary Cobb was born in Massachusetts July 26, 1776. Their grandson George Nixon Black Jr was born in Ellsworth on July 11, 1842. He went by Nixon because his father was known as George. John, a successful land agent and businessman, had Woodlawn built in 1827 as the family home. Nixon ensured its future by gifting it to the Trustees for Public Reservations when he died in 1928.
George moved his family to Boston to expand John's business interests when Nixon was a teenager and we know of his visits to Woodlawn in his later years but there are only a few clues about Nixon as a child and young man. Archives at Woodlawn include receipts for dancing lessons in Bangor and payments for school lessons in Ellsworth. The earliest known picture of Nixon is believed to be the portrait that hangs in Woodlawn’s front hall and was likely painted in New York city. In November 1853, when Nixon was 11 years old, he accompanied his parents on a trip to New York City. Two of his uncles (his mother’s brothers) were merchants in New York and sold lumber from the Black’s mills in Ellsworth. Evidence on the back of the portrait suggests it was painted during this visit to New York. Perhaps it was as a result of this trip that Nixon’s interest in traveling was born.
In 1865, at the end of the Civil War and several years after Nixon’s studies at Harvard abruptly ended, Nixon took his first trip to Europe. He traveled with college friends and members Boston’s Crowninshield family. Again, Woodlawn archives shine a light on this grand adventure. On September 10, 1865, George Black’s cash book records reveal the purchase of Nixon’s steamship ticket and gift of $144 in gold for his travel expenses. Four days later the party sailed from Boston and were gone for a year returning in late September 1866.
These kind of details provide the bones for Jane Goodrich’s meticulously researched and cleverly written historical novel, The House at Lobster Cove, which recounts of the life of Nixon Black and is for sale in the gift shop. There will be a few opportunities this summer to have a private book tour - check the website!
Happy Birthday to the John, Mary & Nixon! We are grateful for your skills, success, and generosity as we celebrate and enjoy the legacy of the Black family in Ellsworth.
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