Dr. Orlando E. Black was a young physician of merit and promise located at Wilsonville He was born April 16, 1875, at Harlan, Clay county, Ala. He was reared on a farm and attended the common schools of his county when a boy, later entered and graduated from Ashland college, attended the Birmingham Medical college for two years, and graduated from the medical department of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn., in 1900. He located at Wilsonville, Feb. 15, 1901, where he had a good practice.
On Oct. 29, 1902, he was married to Johnie May Densler, daughter of John E. Densler and Sarah Arthur Densler, deceased. Mrs. Black was born at Wilsonville, Feb. 1, 1880. To this marriage was born one son by 1904, Densler Black, Oct. 5, 1903.
The paternal grandfather of Mr. Black, George Walker Black, was born in 1817, in Elbert county, Ga., being one of the pioneer settlers. He died in Crossville, Ala. He married Jane S. Vernon, who was born in South Carolina in 1814, and died in August, 1901, at Crossville, Alabama.
William LaFayette Black, son of the above couple and father of Dr. O. E. Black, was born at Goldville, Tallapoosa county, Ala., July 22, 1848, and died at Ashland, Clay county, Sept. 26, 1900. He was reared on a farm, but the last twenty years of his life were spent as a successful merchant at Harlan and Ashland, Clay county. He married Martha Adella Toland, Dec. 10, 1868. She was born March 14, 1848, at Tylersville, Laurens district, S. C. Her father, James Toland, married Mildred A. Street, May 6, 1847. He was born in Laurens district, S. C., June 27, 1816, and died at Oxford, Ala., July 25, 1903, and she was born in Halifax county, Va., Nov. 14, 1827, and died at Bluff Springs, Ala., Jan. 28, 1859. Hugh Toland, father of James Toland, was born in Ireland in 1787 and died May 22, 1864. His father was a cousin of Robert Emmet Toland, engaged in the Irish rebellion, and to escape the fate of his distinguished cousin, fled from Ireland. He bribed the captain of a ship to allow him to remain in the hold of the vessel until it reached American waters. His family had boarded the same ship at Londonderry, and knew nothing of his being on it until they reached their destination. They landed in 1797 at Charleston, S. C., when Hugh Toland was ten years old.
He was married, in 1812, to Mary Langston, daughter of Henry Langston and Sarah (Murphy) Langston. Henry Langston was born June 1, 1761, fought during the Revolutionary war under General Francis Marion, and died Sept. 14, 1845. His wife, who came over from Ireland when a small child, died in 1855. Hugh Toland died in Laurens district, S. C., in 1870.
The maternal great-grandfather of Doctor Black, Hezekiah Street, the father of Mildred A. Street, was born in Pittsylvania county, Va., Nov. 13, 1789, and died Feb. 5, 1865. His wife, Nancy L. Talbot, was born in August, 1804, and died Sept. 1, 1863. They removed to Bluff Springs from Virginia, where Hezekiah Street became one of the wealthiest planters and slave owners of Alabama. His father, David G. Street, was born and lived in Halifax county, Va., but little is known of his life, except that he was a Baptist preacher. He married a Miss Jennings and died in the early part of 1853.
Doctor Black was a Democrat, a member of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was a Baptist, as were all the members of his family. Mrs. Black was an Episcopalian. Dr. Black passed away Mar. 13, 1917 and is buried in Wilsonville Cemetery, Wilsonville, Shelby County, Alabama.
SOURCES
Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
DR. ORLANDO E. BLACK
