By Tracy Gupton

It was on this day 64 years ago that the final chapter in the book of life for retired school teacher Minnie Pearl Wright Black was closed. The Arkansas native died on September 15, 1959, at the age of 85. Minnie Black had taught primarily fourth and fifth graders during a remarkable career in education that spanned 40 years.

But in her younger adult years Mrs. Black taught reading, writing and arithmetic in East Columbia in what could truly be called a one-room schoolhouse, where students of varying ages occupied desks giving Minnie their rapt attention, eager to learn the basics of primary education. The schools where she worked got larger as she aged and Minnie Black moved from East Columbia schools to eventually teach in West Columbia where her daughter, Lillian Black Jones Gayle, would follow in her mother’s footsteps. Mrs. Gayle taught at West Columbia Elementary School for many years herself, and her daughter, Lillian Annette Jones, carried on the family tradition as a longtime school teacher.

Historic Columbia Cemetery in West Columbia is the final resting place for all three of these dedicated teachers. Lillian Annette Jones was a Columbia-Brazoria school board trustee and a former president of the Columbia Cemetery Association Board of Directors.

East Columbia school students shown with their teacher, Mrs. Minnie Black, in 1906

When Minnie Black passed away at Hermann Hospital in Houston on September 15, 1959, she was the oldest member of the Columbia Methodist Church’s congregation. The Reverend A. Wayne Jones officiated her funeral service at West Columbia’s Methodist church and Minnie Black was laid to rest beside her husband across East Jackson Street from the church at Columbia Cemetery.

Henry Oscar Black died at the relatively young age of 36, passing away in Brazoria County on July 3, 1906. He was born the son of Murdock Black and Antoinette Burns McLean Black of North Carolina. Henry Black died just four months after his Dad. Murdock Black died at 66 on March 25, 1906, in Pender County, North Carolina, where both Murdock and Antoinette Black are buried at Point Caswell Cemetery. Henry’s mother also died at the age of 66 like her husband, passing away in 1911 in Jacksonville, Florida, but having her body returned to Pender County, North Carolina, for burial.

Her newspaper obituary stated that Minnie Pearl Wright moved to Brazoria County, Texas, with her family when she was a child. She was born August 4, 1874, in Monticello, Arkansas, in Drew County, the daughter of James Preston Wright (1850-1919) and Martha Caroline McNeely Wright (1855-1941). Her mother was born in Kentucky and died in West Columbia at the age of 86 in 1941. Both of Minnie’s parents and her sister, Alice Ora Wright, are also buried at Old Columbia Cemetery in West Columbia. Alice Wright was born in Kentucky in 1870 and died in East Columbia at the age of 84 on September 14, 1955.

During their childhood, Minnie and her sister Alice grew up on the Varner-Hogg Plantation where their father served as an overseer. Ima Hogg, the daughter of former Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg, donated her family’s plantation near West Columbia to the State of Texas in the late 1950s. It has been a state park ever since.

Minnie Black and her descendants have lived in the historic Nash-Wright house in East Columbia for many decades. The house was built in 1847 by Lewis Nash and was purchased in 1892 by Minnie’s father, James Preston Wright, according to the book “A Window to the Past: A Pictorial History of Brazoria County, Texas” [1986, Brazoria County Historical Museum and Brazoria County Historical Commission].

_{Photo Courtesy of the Columbia Historical Museum}

Four Generations: from left, Lillian Black Jones Gayle, Martha Caroline Wright Black, Lillian Annette Jones and her grandmother Minnie Wright Black

A longtime East Columbia resident, Minnie Black had been suffering from ill health for a lengthy period after breaking her hip in a fall in her early 80s. She was being treated at Hermann Hospital in Houston when the end came on this day in 1959. She was survived by her son, William Henry Black, of Midland, Texas, and her daughter, Lillian Jones Gayle of East Columbia; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. She had been living with her granddaughter, Lillian Annette Jones, at one of the oldest residences still standing in Brazoria County. A Texas state historical marker can be seen today in front of the residence in East Columbia.

Minnie’s son, James Murdock Black, born in Port Arthur, Texas, in Jefferson County in 1903, was only two years old when his father, Henry Black, died. James Black ultimately died young like his Dad. He passed away at the age of 30 two days before Christmas in 1933 in Conroe, Texas, in Montgomery County, and is also buried at Old Columbia Cemetery near his parents.

_{Photo courtesy of the Columbia Historical Museum}

Minnie Wright Black taught school for 40 years in East Columbia and West Columbia

_{Photo courtesy of the First Capitol Historic Foundation}

This house on Varner Creek in East Columbia was built about 1847 on cedar pole framing by George Lewis Nash, who lived here with his family for about 45 years. Minnie Wright Black’s parents bought the house in 1892 and added on to the south side of the Victorian plantation-style home. Due to the erosion of the creek banks, the Wright family used teams of mules to move the house about 100 yards from its original location, rolling it along on large logs. The Wright family migrated to Texas from Arkansas after the Civil War, traveling in a covered wagon.