USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 52
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113
289
BLANCHETTE-BLAND.
after two years of good fortune he returned to Palmyra. He did not re-enter the busi- ness world, but lived quietly, enjoying the re- wards of a well spent life.
Blanchette, Louis .- The founder of the city of St. Charles. He immigrated from France, and is first heard of with Laclede and Chouteau at St. Louis shortly after the founding of that city. He had no inclination for cultivating the soil, or trading with the Indians, but passed his time hunting soli- tarily. From this habit comes the name by which he is commonly known, Chasseur, the hunter. In 1768, in following game, he crossed the Missouri River and found the spot upon which is now built the city of St. Charles, naming it Les Petite Cotes, meaning the Little Hills. It has also been known as Village des Cotes, or the Village of the Hills. There he built a log cabin, and in the year following, a fort. Some authorities assert that his fort was the stone tower which was afterward fitted up as a windmill by Francis Duquette, and used as a jail at a later day. He was appointed Commandant, under Span- ish authority, and changed the name of his post to that of St. Charles, in honor of Don Carlos, king of Spain. His fate is uncertain. It has been asserted that he was killed by In- dians, and again that he died about 1793, and was buried in St. Charles, near the old stone Catholic Church of St. Borromeo. He left no descendants.
Bland, Charles Clelland, lawyer and jurist, was born February 9, 1837, in the town of Hartford, Ohio County, Kentucky. His father was Stoughton E. Bland, a native of Lebanon, Kentucky, born on the farm on which Honorable Proctor Knott, ex-Gov- ernor of Kentucky, now lives. His mother's maiden name was Margaret Nall, and she be- longed to an old Kentucky family. The Bland family is of English origin, and the family tree was planted in America at a very early date, when the first members of the family settled in Virginia. To this family be- longed Richard Bland, who was the intimate friend of Thomas Jefferson, and it has since had many illustrious representatives in public life, one of the most distinguished of whom is Congressman Richard P. Bland, of Mis- souri, a candidate for presidential honors at the Chicago Convention of 1896, who was a
brother of Judge Bland. Judge Bland came to Missouri as a boy and was reared in Ar- cadia, in southeast Missouri, obtaining his education in the public schools and at Arcadia Academy. After leaving school he taught school for a time in Missouri and later at Prentiss, Mississippi. While teaching he read law, and in 1860 was admitted to the bar by Circuit Judge James 11. McBride, at Salem, Dent County, Missouri. He had scarcely begun practice at the Salem bar when the Civil War temporarily diverted his attention from legal pursuits. Although he came of Southern lineage, his convictions made him a Unionist and caused him to en- list as a private soldier in Company D of the Thirty-second Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Until the close of the war he was in active service, participating in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, fought in December of 1862; the battle at Arkansas Post, fought in the same year : the siege of Vicksburg, and the battles at Jackson, Brandon, Missionary Ridge, Jonesboro, Georgia, and many minor engagements. He served under Generals Sherman and Francis P. Blair, and led his company into at least one-half the battles fought by Sherman's army in its march from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia. After the fall of Atlanta the Thirty-second Regiment was consolidated with the Twenty-first Mis- souri, and November 18, 1864, Judge Bland was mustered out of the service, with the rank of captain. After the war he opened an office at Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri, and practiced there alone until 1866, in which year his brother, Honorable Richard P. Bland, be- came associated with him. A year and a half later Richard P. Bland removed to Lebanon, Missouri, but Judge Bland remained at Rolla, and continued in active practice there until 1880, when he was elected circuit judge. He was re-elected to that office in 1886, and again in 1892, but be- fore the expiration of his last term on the circuit bench he resigned to accept the as- sociate-justiceship of the St. Louis Court of Appeals, to which he had been elected in November of 1896. As a jurist Judge Bland has taken rank among the ablest in the State, and he is no less noted for his integrity and uprightness than for his ability.
Bland, Richard Parks, lawyer, farmer and member of Congress, was born at Hart-
19
290
BLANKE.
ford, Kentucky, August 19, 1835, and died at Lebanon, Missouri, June 15, 1899. Hi father died when he was six years old, and he was compelled to earn his own living by working at farm labor. He had a thirst for knowledge, and, by attending the country schools in winter and making the best use of the limited advantages they afforded, he was qualified to become a teacher himself at the age of seventeen. In 1854 he came to Mis- souri, and two years afterward went to Ne- vada and settled down at Virginia City, which became one of the richest mining centers in the world. There he was elected county treasurer for several terms, discharging his duties with diligence and fidelity. In 1865 he returned to Missouri and located at Rolla, engaging in the practice of law, and four years later he removed to Lebanon. In 1872 his friends proposed that he run for Con- gress, without receiving from him any en- couragement for the proposition, but while he was absent attending court one of them had it announced in the Democratic paper published at Lebanon that Richard P. Bland was a candidate for the nomination. That was the beginning of his public life. He con- sented to enter the race and was elected to the Forty-third Congress from the Fifth Dis- trict, serving with a fidelity and ability that made his name a power in his district. He was re-elected twelve times and served in thirteen Congresses, being beaten only once, in the year 1894-a defeat which he re- trieved two years afterward. During his long career in Congress he was conspicuous as an advocate of tariff reduction to a revenue basis, and in favor of prohibiting contract labor ; but the measure for which he became famous, and which gave him the name of "Silver Dick," was the free coinage of silver at sixteen to one. In 1873 it had been stis- pended in the revision of the United States Statutes, and in 1877 Mr. Bland brought for- ward in the House a bill to restore it. The bill passed the House, but in the Senate was amended so as to require the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase and coin silver to an amount not less than two millions, and not more than four millions, per month, and in this shape was passed, being known as the Bland Act, or the Bland-Allison Act. It was not free silver coinage, and did not satisfy either the advocates or the opponents of that policy, and in the sixteen years
of exhaustive controversy in Congress and the country that followed, Mr. Bland was the recognized leader of the free silver party, bringing to the treatment of the subject a thorough knowledge of it, and a candor and fairness of spirit that won for him the respect of his opponents, and a fame that was world-wide. In 1890 this contro- versy passed through an interesting and ex- citing stage when, after a protracted debate in Congress, the Bland Act was superseded by the Bullion Act, or Sherman Act, as it was called, authorizing the issue of silver certifi- cates to a limited amount, against deposits of silver bullion in the Treasury; and the high- water mark of it came three years later, when, after a final debate and struggle in Congress, the Sherman Act was repealed, and the opponents of free silver coinage achieved a complete victory. Nevertheless, the pop- ular interest in the subject was maintained, and in 1896 the Democrats of Missouri, in their State Convention at Sedalia, presented Bland for the presidency to the National Democratic Convention, which met shortly after, in Chicago. His name was received in the Chicago Convention with great favor, leading all others on the first three ballots, and there was a confident expectation among Mr. Bland's friends that he would be nomi- nated, when a spirited speech made by Wil- liam J. Bryan, of Nebraska, caused a stam- pede to himself, and Bryan became the nominee of the convention and the leader of the party. Mr. Bland's hold on the people of his district was more the result of his simple and unaffected manners, honesty and sin- cerity, than of any cultivation of the arts that win popular favor. His constituents came to be proud of one who had such a great name in the world, but who, at home, was always on a level with themselves. His habits were domestic, his temper gentle, and few public men have been so warmly loved by their friends.
DANIEL M. GRISSOM.
Blanke, Cyrus F., merchant and man- ufacturer, was born in Marine, Illinois, October 24, 1861, son of Frederick G. and Caroline Blanke, both of whom were natives of Germany, but came to this country in early life. His father was long a resident of Ma- rine, and for thirty-five years was actively en- gaged in business there. The son obtained his earlier education in the public schools of
Cyrus F. Blanke
291
BLANTON.
Marine, and completed his preparation for a business career at a St. Louis business col- lege. After quitting school he clerked for a year in his father's store, and then came to St. Louis, where he first found employment as clerk in a retail grocery store. At the end of another year he accepted the position of shipping clerk in a tobacco factory, where he was employed until the close of the year 1881. He then turned his attention to the business in which he has since been so remarkably successful, serving his early apprenticeship as city collector for a wholesale tea and coffee house. This business was suited to his taste and it very soon developed that he was ad- mirably adapted to it. Before he was twenty- one years of age he became a traveling sales- man in the employ of the same firm, and his connection with that branch of the business continued until 1889. He then determined to engage in business on his own account and established the house of C. F. Blanke & Co., of which the present widely known C. F. Blanke Tea and Coffee Company is the out- growth. The business thus established ex- panded rapidly under his sagacious manage- ment, and in 1892 it was incorporated under the State laws of Missouri, with a capital of $100,000. Two years later the amount of the capital stock was increased to $200,000, a proportionate growth of the business neces- sitating the addition of working capital. At the end of twelve years this establishment had become one of the largest coffee-roasting plants in the United States, selling goods in almost every State of the Union, employing seventy salesmen and having in all about two hundred persons on its pay roll. The trade in tea and coffee has, of course, constituted the principal feature of the business, but meantime Mr. Blanke has kept pace with the tendency to add to the list of table beverages, and after several years of experimentation has perfected a substitute for coffee so like it in taste and appearance that the difference can only be detected by experts, and these pronounce it a better beverage than the aver- age coffee. Within a month after he placed it on the market he was compelled to increase his capacity for manufacturing this article tenfold, and it is now being shipped to all parts of the United States, physicians and others pronouncing it a healthful and agree- able beverage. The manufacture of this ar- ticle in St. Louis promises to become an
important industry, and it has greatly ex- panded a business which had already grown to large proportions. This plain statement of facts relative to the growth of a commer- cial and manufacturing enterprise of which Mr. Blanke was the founder, and the entire conduct and management of which has been under his supervision, testifies more strongly than could anything else to his splendid busi- ness capacity and executive ability. Before embarking in business he had fitted himself by travel and observation to make it a suc- cess, and the rich endowment of natural sa- gacity was his to begin with. In addition to his travels in the United States, he had trav- eled through all the civilized countries of Europe, and thus continued the process of self-education which he had begun in boy- hood. The result was the development of a self-reliant business man, who, notwithstand- ing the fact that he entered upon his career at the beginning of a period of most remark- able business depression, has achieved a large measure of success. Not a dollar came to him by inheritance or as the result of for- tutitous circumstances, and for what he has accomplished he is indebted to his own vigor- ous intellectuality, hard work and continuous application. Generous by nature, his success in life has made him a liberal contributor to charitable and benevolent organizations and a helpful friend of those needy ones who ap- peal to him for assistance. He is identified with the Republican party, but has not been particularly active in political movements. In fraternal, social and business circles he affiliates with the Freemasons, Royal Arca- num, Legion of Honor and the Knights of Pythias, is a member of the Business Men's League, Merchants' League Club, League of American Wheelmen, Spanish Club and the Union Club, being also a director of the last named club. He is also a member of the Manufacturers' Association and a director of the Jefferson Bank. He was married, in 1889, to Miss Eugenia Frowein, daughter of A. P. Frowein, Esq., then cashier of the Henry County Bank of Clinton, Missouri.
Blanton, Horace Harbin, lawyer, and recognized as one of the leaders of the bar of Vernon County, was born in Keytsville (now Washburn), Barry County, Missouri, April 20, 1860, son of William Horace and Martha Jane (Harbin) Blanton. His father was a
292
BLANTON.
native of Alabama, a son of Horace Blanton, and a representative of an old family. Before the Civil War. W. H. Blanton practiced law for a considerable period in Vernon County, Missouri, and also represented that district in the Missouri State Legislature. Upon the opening of the war, Alfred Harbin, our sub- ject's maternal grandfather, accompanied the family to Austin, Texas, where they resided until the elose of hostilities, while our sub- ject's father enlisted in the service of the Con- federate government. The childhood days of Horace H. Blanton were, therefore, spent upon the plantation in Texas. In 1866, as soon as the social conditions of the State of Missouri had rendered it practicable and safe to do so, the family returned and established its home in Vernon County, W. H. Blanton engaging in the real estate business in Ne- vada as a member of the firm of Prewitt, Blanton & Poindexter, for many years the leading concern of its character in that part of the State. This relation was sustained by him up to the time of his death, which oc- curred in Nevada in April, 1872. Horace H. Blanton's mother was a daughter of Major Alfred Harbin, a native of Virginia, and an early settler of Missouri, who, at different times, served in both branches of the State Legislature before the war. The Harbin family was one of the oldest in the Old Do- minion, and many of its representatives have distinguished themselves in the various fields of endeavor. As a boy Mr. Blanton attended the public schools of Nevada. Subsequently he was a student for one year in Henderson College, in Rusk County, Texas, after which he took up the classical course in the Mis- souri State University. Before the comple- tion of the prescribed course in this institut- tion he began reading law in the office of Honorable Charles G. Burton, of Nevada, and on May 2, 1881, was admitted to the bar. Since that time he has been engaged in the practice of his profession continuously in Ne- vada. Always unswerving in his devotion to the principles of the great party of Thomas Jefferson, he was appointed, in 1881, to the office of city attorney of Nevada, serving from 1882 to 1884. In the latter year he was the successful candidate for the office of prosecuting attorney for Vernon County, serving one term of two years. In 1802 he was again elected to the same office, which he filled a second term. In 1896 Mr. Blanton
was the choice of the Democrats of the northern part of his congressional district for the nomination as representative in Con- gress, but in the convention was defeated by M. E. Benton, of Neosho. Though always devoted closely to his profession, Mr. Blan- ton has taken the time to become interested in the work of several fraternal organiza- tions, and is identified with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Red MIen, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was married, December 2. 1885, to Miss Florence Mims, daughter of John Mims, for many years a prominent contractor of Ne- vada. They are the parents of four children, Florence, Kathleen, Elaine and William Horace Blanton. This brief personal sketch of the career of Mr. Blanton would be incom- plete without a word as to the estimate of his fellow practitioners and friends among the laity as to his rank at the bar and his worth as a man. Beginning with an education more limited than that with which many students of the science of law are favored, he has never permitted his ambition to lag, but has been as ardent in the pursuit of knowledge during his professional career as when he first began to prepare himself for its prac- tice. Through his own unaided efforts, prin- cipally by reason of his indefatigable indus- try and perseverance, and the determination to become a leader rather than a follower, le has attained a position of dignity and conse- quence from both professional and social view points. Well grounded in the principles of the law, possessed of oratorical powers of a high character, broad-minded, liberal and of unquestioned integrity, his fellow men have shown that they are appreciative of his worth as a man and his ability as a counselor. His record stands like an open book, and the high compliment offered to him in 1896 by a large following in southwest Missouri is suffi- cient indication of the confidence reposed m him by those who have had the best oppor- tunities of forming an estimate of him. His future public career will undoubtedly depend almost solely upon his own personal inclina- tions.
Blanton, Wilson N., farmer and mine- owner, was born in Sevier County, Tennes- see, Jime 4. 1840, son of Gazzaway and Mary (Baker) Blanton, both of whom were natives of Burke County, North Carolina. Obidah
J. I. PCes.
293
BLANTON INDIAN WAR-BLEES.
Blanton, the grandfather of Wilson N. Blan - ton, was born in Virginia and removed from that State to North Carolina in his young manhood. There he married Betsey Green, and they reared a family of four children. This ancestor of Mr. Blanton was a soldier in the War of 1812, and fought under General Jackson in the battle of New Orleans. He was a planter and slave-owner in North Car- olina, and lived to be eighty years of age. The great-grandfather of Wilson N. Blanton was William Blanton, and he was a Virginia planter, who was a member of Washington's bodyguard during the War of the Revolution. Gazzaway Blanton removed with his wife and three children from North Carolina to Sevier County, Tennessee, and their twelve children grew to maturity in that State. He was a successful planter and a man of affairs, and during the Civil War served for a short time under Colonel John C. Vaughn in the Con- federate Army. Retiring from the army on account of ill health, his place in the ranks was taken by his son, John A. Blanton. Both he and his wife were members of the Mission- ary Baptist Church, and were much esteemed in the community in which they lived. Gaz- zaway Blanton died at the age of eighty- three, and his wife at the age of sixty. Their son, Wilson N. Blanton, was educated in the public schools of Tennessee, and had just at- tained his majority when the Civil War be- gan. Enlisting in the First Regiment of Arkansas Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Patrick R. Claibourne, of the Confederate States Army, he served two years, most of the time as a non-commissioned officer. He was a participant in the battles of Shiloh, Richmond, and Perryville, Kentucky, and numerous less important engagements and skirmishes. In 1863, his regiment having been disbanded, he returned to his home in Tennessee and engaged in farming until the fall of 1869. Meantime he had married. and in November of the year last mentioned, he removed with his family to Morris County, Kansas. A year later he established his home in Webster County, Missouri, where he de- voted two years to agricultural pursuits. He then went to Benton County, Arkansas, and continued farming there until 1876, when he returned to Missouri and established his home in Joplin. The year following he em- barked in a mining enterprise at what is known as the Burch Mines, near Duenweg,
which proved to be a successful business ven- ture. He also became interested in mer- chandising. and in 1882 removed to Webb City. For two years thereafter he conducted mining operations from that place, and then removed to Carterville, which has since been his place of residence. During the years 1888-9 he was interested with his brother-in- law, A. A. Cass, in mining enterprises at Carterville, and in 1890 he opened, on what is known as the "Tracy land," one of the richest mines in the district, commonly termed the "Blanton & Wyatt Mines." These mines they operated for several years and were richly rewarded for their labors, $400,- 000 worth of lead and zine ore being taken from one-half of a mining lot. Giving close attention to his business affairs, Mr. Blanton has had no time for public affairs, and so far as the writer is informed has never held any office. He has been a member of the Ma- sonic order since he was twenty-nine years of age. July 2, 1863, he married Miss Elizabeth A. Cass, daughter of J. M. and Martha J. Cass. Seven children have been born of this union, of whom William A. is a mine opera- tor at Carterville. Martha J. is the wife of Albert Chaley. John Newton. Louis M. and Edward W. are residents of Carterville. Mary A. is the wife of Charles Hudson, of Carterville. Mr. and Mrs. Blanton and their two eldest daughters are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Blanton Indian War .- About 1830 two brothers named Blanton, who resided in Cooper County, became alarmed at shooting they heard near their home. Mounting horses they rode through Cole (now Miller) County, into Pulaski County, spreading the news of a general Indian massacre and warn- ing the citizens to prepare for an attack or flee for safety. Many settlers barricaded themselves at their homes, but no Indians ap- peared. An investigation was made, and it was found that the shooting, which, with the imagination of the Blantons, caused the ter- ror, was done by white hunters, and the inci- dent is facetiously styled the "Blanton Indian War" in local history.
Blees, Frederick William Victor, capitalist, philanthropist and educator, was born in Aix-La-Chapelle, Prussia. March 30, 1860, son of Herr Frederick William Blees,
294
BLEES.
a wealthy mine operator. Frederick W. V. Blees was educated in the excellent schools of his native country, and was graduated from the Imperial Lyceum, at Metz, in 1878. He received a thorough military training and became a lieutenant in the Prussian Army.
In 1881 he came to America, remaining in New York and other Eastern cities for a short time, then visiting the South. For a while he taught in academies and the public schools in Mississippi and Louisiana, and later went to Iowa, where he became coni- mandant of the Griswold College corps of cadets, at Davenport. While holding this position he was chosen lieutenant colonel of the Iowa National Guard, and was appointed aid-de-camp on the staff of Governor Horace Boies.
The St. James Military Academy, at Ma- con, Missouri, which had been established for many years, and had gained a wide reputa- tion as a good school, but was a failure finan- cially, was much in need of a capable master. The place was offered Colonel Blees, and he left Davenport and took charge of the acad- emy at Macon, as head master, and for five years successfully conducted the institution, winning for it additional honors. His health failing, he retired from the academy and en- gaged in other business pursuits.
Gaining control of a large estate and for- tune in Germany, to which he was the heir, he immediately set about to develop the latent natural resources of Macon City and Macon County. He was quick to realize the opportunity offered for certain lines of man- ufacture, and organized the Blees-McVicker Carriage Company, for the manufacture of fine carriages and wagons. Hickory is one of the principal woods of Macon County, and the young growth of this was used for no better purposes by the citizens of the county than for fuel. This wood is now cut by the hundreds of thousands of feet, sawed into lumber at the mills of Colonel Blees, and made into the finest and highest class of car- riages at his factory. So perfect is the sys- tem of business that there is no waste. Such timber as is unsuitable for carriage-making is made into spreaders, ladder rounds, etc., for the immense packing houses at Kansas City, Omaha and Chicago. The carriage- making venture at Macon City has been successful beyond the expectations of its
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.