Cyrena (II) b 21 Aug 1859 in Hillsdale Co. Michigan, the youngest of Amasa Blount and Cyrena (I) Black Blount’s children. Cyrena’s mother died when she was born and her upbringing has caused me much speculation.

Cyrena was placed in the care of a woman referred to as Grandma Fitch, and Amasa married Julia Havens (date unk). According to the Black Family Book Grandma Fitch made sure Cyrena attended the Black Family Reunions and they lived just west of Hudson. I was able to find Cyrena in the 1870 Michigan census living with Sherman and Esther Fitch (first line, name spelled Syrena Blunt, the Fitch’s are on the bottom of the previous page, the census taker listed her age as 17 and not 11).

I had originally thought that Amasa had left Cyrena when he homesteaded in Kansas in the early 1870s but then I found a reference in the Hills and Dales book that he and his brother-in-law Phylancourt had left the Methodist Church to join the Adventist Church in 1876. I then checked and found the him is listed as Amos Blount in the 1870 Michigan census with wife Julia. Living with them were their children as listed in the family database as well as Cyrena’s 18 yr old brother Oscar Lemuel and 16 yr old Jane who I think must be Cyrena’s older sister Altha (the age is right).

I don’t have the date of Cyrena and Arthur’s marriage but I was more that a little curious as to how she met a man from London, England. In the census mentioned above I found that Sherman Fitch was born in Wales so I surmise that Sherman and Arthur became friends based on their British backgrounds and Arthur met Cyrena at the Fitch home. I have no idea how Arthur came to Michigan after he arrived in NY.

It appears that a group of Hillsdale residents went to homestead in Kansas in the late 1870s: Amasa Blount, his son Oscar Lemuel, daughters Altha (m. William Brown), Cyrena and Arthur, and the Fitchs.

We have copies of the papers for Arthur and Cyrena homesteading 160 acres on Rattlesnake Creek, near Macksville [1895 Stafford Co., KS map]. Their first child, Nora, was born there 28 Dec. 1880 and Amasa died either 12 Sep or 12 Oct 1880 and is buried in Macksville. (This photo is described as Amos A., but the stone clearly says Amasa. I was able to stop at the Farmington Cemetery in April of 2004.)

Homesteaders were required to stay five years to own the property however it appears that Arthur and Cyrena mortgaged their land at the bank for $240 prior to the five years, loaded their belongings on a wagon and headed back to Michigan. Sherman and Esther Fitch also returned at the same time as Arthur and Cyrena. Apparently they didn’t like Kansas. [some diary entries of other homesteaders]

After their return to Michigan Cyrena and Arthur had three sons, Arthur b. 11 Oct 1882, George Walter, b. 23 Apr 1884, and Carl b. 10 Jan 1886. They lived near Hudson and later moved to a farm on Cutler Rd. near Wyman, three miles north of Edmore, in Home Township of Montcalm County, Michigan.

For reasons we can only guess at George was also raised by Grandma Fitch. My mother said he rarely spoke of his childhood and the little she does know was because George did talk his son-in-law, Harvey Petersen, while they were doing farm work. She does recall that the eldest, Nora, was responsible for much of the child care and that her father and uncles, Nora's brothers, regarded her as a maternal figure.

When George was 15 Grandma Fitch got a telephone call in Hudson saying that Cyrena was ill, and to come immediately. Grandma Fitch and George took the train to Edmore, but Cyrena had passed away by the time they arrived.

Cyrena died in childbirth on 1 May 1899, age 39, just as her mother had died giving birth to her. The funeral was in the brand new Cutler and Savage School on Deja Road, 2.5 miles north of M-46. My mother, Ida, told me the double doors on the south side of the building were put on to accommodate the casket. (Ida Ruth Skinner Petersen taught at the Cutler and Savage School for a number of years and my sister and I attended Sunday School and Summer Vacation Bible School there. The building was sold when the rural school consolidated with Edmore [now Montabella]. As of January 2001, the building is a private residence.)

Arthur sold the farm to his son George sometime around 1905 when George and Jessie Mina Raymond married. Mom said Arthur moved to Mason, Michigan where he had a municipal job cleaning the streets of horse droppings. Apparently Arthur had a sense of humor, he commented that ‘Mason sure wasn’t a one horse town’. Arthur remarried after the death of Cyrena but we don’t have further info. He died in Mason in 1930.

My mother remembers that he was a very good whistler and she thought that he had been offered some kind of vaudeville job in NY when he arrived from England. Mom also learned from cousins in England that his middle name was really Bince (a family name) but that it had gotten changed to Vince when he immigrated. The family story is that other brothers also immigrated- one to South Africa or South America and one to Australia with a brother Walter remaining in London. This information is based on memory of letters that were destroyed in a house fire.

Arthur and Cyrena are buried in the Vinewood Cemetery in Edmore. The stone is in the front row, turned away from the road. [picture of grave site coming.]