El Capitan above Short CreekHistorical Short Creek

Warren Black

People

In the record

1902–1996

Warren Black

James Warren Black was born in Huntington, Utah, in 1902, homesteaded at Short Creek, and married Ruth Walker in 1927. He died in Colorado City, Arizona, in 1996.

James Warren Black, called Warren Black in family records and in his own account, was born on 18 August 1902 in Huntington, Emery County, Utah, a son of James Edwin Black and Sarah Lavinia Foote.1 FamilySearch records him under the identifier KWHH-MVL, with that birth, a death date of 26 November 1996 in Colorado City, Mohave County, Arizona, and burial on 30 November 1996 at Carling Memorial Park there.2

In a first-person narrative in the Black Book he said that after his family had lived at the Ferron mill and then in the Uinta Basin, he went to work on the railroad about 1921. “When I became 21 myself, I came in and homesteaded on the property here in Short Creek, then went back and worked on the railroad until I had to move on to the property to prove up on it.” He said he proved up and that “in ’32, why, President Roosevelt signed the deed.”3 A Bureau of Land Management serial land patent in Mohave County, Arizona, is listed under the name James Warren Black and dated 1933.4

He married Ruth Walker on 17 June 1927 in St. George, Washington County, Utah. The family portrait sheet in the Black Book gives that date and place; a later funeral recording in this archive describes the marriage as taking place in the St. George Temple. In his own narrative he said he married in 1927, when he was 25, “to Ruth Walker. She came here to teach school in ’26, I guess, and she came back in ’27.”5 An Ancestral File family-group printout dated 11 August 1999, also in the Black Book, gives the marriage as 7 June 1927, without a place.6

In the same narrative he said he was a school trustee for 13 years and took part in church affairs; that he herded sheep, worked on the railroad and at a sawmill, and later worked with his mother when she bought a store that already housed the post office; and that he retired at about age 60 to 65.7

The Black Book family portrait also records another marriage, to Esther Johnson, born 26 October 1929 at Lee’s Ferry, Coconino County, Arizona, on 3 May 1943 at Short Creek, Mohave County, Arizona. FamilySearch records that marriage as 2 May 1943 at Colorado City and gives Esther Johnson’s dates as 1929–2012.8

FamilySearch lists these children of James Warren Black and Ruth Walker with death dates: Rachel Black (1928–2016), Viola Black (1932–2010), Eldon Black (1933–2026), Leslie Black (1935–1990), Gerald Charles Black (1940–2010), and Linda Black (1942–2019). Arizona birth records name James Warren Black and Ruth Walker as the parents of Viola (8 February 1932), Eldon (11 November 1933), and Leslie (24 September 1935).9

This page is about James Warren Black (1902–1996), son of James Edwin Black and Sarah Lavinia Foote and husband of Ruth Walker. It is not a page for other people in the family who share the name Warren Black.

Appearances

No pre-1961 talk, meeting, document, or photograph on this site has yet been published under his name. The Black Book includes his first-person narrative and a drawing of a pile driver “As discribed by Warren Black.” An undated archive photograph is labeled as Warren Black’s home. Those later or still unpublished items open as they are approved.

Sources

  1. Black Book (Black family history; compiler and date unknown), p. 1, family portrait for James Edwin Black and Sarah Lavinia Foote: child 1, “BLACK, James Warren,” born 18 August 1902, Huntington, Emery, Utah; and the first-person narrative headed “WARREN BLACK,” p. 28: “I was born in Huntington, Emery County, Utah, in 1902, August 18.” The same book’s history of James Edwin Black and Sarah Lavinia Foote, p. 4 (history page 1), says their first son, Warren, was born 18 August 1902 in Huntington.
  2. FamilySearch, James Warren Black, identifier KWHH-MVL: birth 18 August 1902, Huntington, Emery County, Utah; death 26 November 1996, Colorado City, Mohave County, Arizona; burial 30 November 1996, Carling Memorial Park, Colorado City; parents James Edwin Black and Sarah Lavinia Foote. Tree details read 30 October 2026. FamilySearch person page.
  3. Black Book (Black family history; compiler and date unknown), pp. 28–36, first-person narrative headed “WARREN BLACK,” especially p. 36 on the railroad about 1921, the Short Creek homestead at age 21, proving up, and the deed “in ’32.”
  4. The Land Patents, “Colorado City, Arizona Land Patents,” listing a serial land patent for James Warren Black, Mohave County, Arizona, 1933, citing Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States Office. https://thelandpatents.com/places/az0152413230.
  5. Black Book (Black family history; compiler and date unknown), p. 1: married 17 June 1927, St. George, Washington, Utah, spouse “WALKER, Ruth,” born 12 August 1902, St. George; and p. 33, Warren’s narrative: “I got married in 1927 when I was 25 years old, to Ruth Walker. She came here to teach school in ’26, I guess, and she came back in ’27.” FamilySearch, KWHH-MVL and Ruth Walker, identifier KVPR-MC5, marriage 17 June 1927, St. George. A transcript of the archive funeral recordings labeled for Ruth Walker Black, Colorado City Academy (file date 10 February 1991; the recording states that she died 13 February 1991), gives the marriage as 17 June 1927 in the St. George Temple.
  6. Black Book (Black family history; compiler and date unknown), Ancestral File (TM) version 4.19 family group record printed 11 August 1999, p. 22 (sheet numbered 21): James Warren Black, spouse Ruth Walker, “MAR.: 7 Jun 1927,” place blank.
  7. Black Book (Black family history; compiler and date unknown), pp. 33 and 39, same narrative, including school trustee for 13 years, sheep, railroad, sawmill, the store and post office, and retirement at about 60 to 65. A drawing on p. 40 is captioned “DRAWING OF THE PILE DRIVER / As discribed by Warren Black.”
  8. Black Book (Black family history; compiler and date unknown), p. 1, “Other Marriages,” spouse “JOHNSON, Esther,” married 3 May 1943, Short Creek, Mohave, Arizona; her birth 26 October 1929, Lee’s Ferry, Coconino, Arizona, partly in handwriting. FamilySearch, Esther Johnson, identifier KWHH-MVK, 1929–2012, marriage 2 May 1943, Colorado City, Mohave County, Arizona (tree details read 30 October 2026).
  9. FamilySearch, KWHH-MVL, children of the marriage to Ruth Walker (KVPR-MC5), tree details read 30 October 2026. “1926–1936 Birth Records in Mohave County, AZ,” GenealogyTrails, extracted from an Arizona Department of Health Services database: Viola, 1932.02.08, father James Warren Black, mother Ruth Walker; Eldon, 1933.11.11, same parents; Leslie, 1935.09.24, father J. Warren Black, mother Ruth Walker. http://genealogytrails.com/ariz/mohave/births1926-1936_oldformat.html.