calsfoundation@cals.org
June 21, 1872
Knife-maker James Black died, blind and a pauper. He is buried in the old graveyard, Pioneer Cemetery, of Washington (Hempstead County) in southwest Arkansas. Newspapers as far away as Memphis, Tennessee, commented on his death. Black, popularly known as the maker of the bowie knife, was one of the early pioneers of Arkansas and settled in the town of Washington, where he had a successful blacksmith shop. After he married a woman whose father did not approve of the match, his father-in-law eventually severely beat him and took away his children and property.