Hiram Black
Hiram Black
Hiram was a poor immigrant child of a single immigrant mother. He joined the army as a young man and showed an aptitude for learning, getting assigned to the medical corps. He kept himself fit by working as a Medic and keeping up with soldiers who were rather physically competitive farm-boys. He commanded respect from them through his strength, wit, and charm. Hiram Black became the man that girls of the time swooned over.
But only one girl mattered. Emily Masterson, a young woman touched by tragedy who worked with his mother down at the dockyard. Emily had been orphaned but was already an adult and made a living working as the quartermaster's assistant in the Warehouses near the Docks. Hiram and Emily talked and began a whirlwind romance that led to their marriage just two years later. Hiram became a doctor and Emily became pregnant with their first. For the next two years, life was swell. But nothing stays perfect long.
One cool night in 1818 while meandering through the streets outside the Narrows Fort, he saw an old homeless man getting beaten and intervened. He shouldn't have. The aggressors turned their fists and weapons on him and while he fought back, he lost. They nevertheless ran off, to avoid more trouble. That night, in a filthy gutter of New York, Hiram Black lost his life. No one found the body, and the rumor swirled that he ran away, fleeing his responsibilities.
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