Biographies  Greenville County - South Carolina Genealogy Trails BLACK, WILLIAM CLIFTON, M.D., physician and surgeon, formerly vice president of the South Carolina Medical association, now president of the Greenville County Medical association, proprietor and manager of the W. C. Black Private Sanitarium and Training School, of Greenville, South Carolina, was born in Buffalo, Cleveland county, North Carolina, on the 18th of October, 1860. His father, Jefferson Black, was a merchant, a planter, and a manufacturer of iron, a man of great energy and of sterling principle, who had married Miss Eliza Borders, daughter of Major Hugh Borders, of Cleveland county, North Carolina. The ancestors of both his father and his mother were of Scotch Irish descendant.Passing his boyhood in the country, he was taught from his earliest years the importance of regular work, done as a systematic factor in the formation of character, as well as for the sake of support, and of acquiring property. He attended King's Mountain high school, at King's Mountain, North Carolina, for some time; and in 1883 he became a student of medicine at the University of Maryland, from which institution he was graduated in 1886 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. But he was not contented with the regular course of study which admits men to the practice of his profession. In 1890 and in 1891, and again in 1892 and 1894, he attended lectures and demonstrations at the New York Polyclinic; and for the last fifteen years there has not been a year which has not seen him in New York or Philadelphia visiting hospitals, clinics and lecture rooms, in order to keep in touch with the latest discoveries in medicine and surgery. On the 15th of November, 1891, Doctor Black married Miss Nannie Hoke Lester, daughter of William F. Lester, of Columbia, South Carolina. They have had three children, all of whom are living in 1908. Doctor Black was for some years chairman of the board of health of the city of Greenville. He has contributed a number of articles to scientific and medical journals. He is a member of the American Medical association; of the Tri-State Medical association (Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina); of the South Carolina Medical association; and of the Greenville County Medical society, of which he has been president. He is a director in the Greenville Real Estate, Loan, Insurance and Trust company, and in the Corbett Home, which is one of the largest sanitariums in the state. By religious conviction he is identified with the Baptist church. In politics he is a Democrat, and he has never swerved from allegiance to the nominees and the principles of that party. Doctor Black confines himself entirely to the practice of surgery, and is considered one of the leading surgeons in the South, and his sanitarium is one of the most successful in the country.  Men of Mark in South Carolina By James Calvin Hemphill Published 1907 - transcribed and contributed by Barb Ziegenmeyer for Genealogy Trails History Group BACK © all rights reserved to the original submitter