Susan Jane “Jennie” Leighty was born on July 21, 1837, in Duncansville, Pennsylvania, to George Leighty and Sophia Walters. She grew up and attended school in Duncansville, and her father probably died sometime before 1850. She lived with her mother, and by 1860, they owned $400 of real estate and $200 of personal property. She married John Henry Black in April 1864, and they had at least two children: Carrie, born around 1866; and Lillian, born around 1876. They lived in her childhood home, and by 1870, they owned $200 of personal property. By the early 1900s, one writer noted, she was “one of the oldest members of the Methodist Episcopal church [in Duncansville] and also one of the oldest and best known residents of the town.” She died of pneumonia in Duncansville on April 11, 1908.