USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 53
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promoters, and the large factory is continu- ally behind in filling orders.
The Macon Shear Company is another en- terprise established by Colonel Blees. This he started with a strong trust to fight, and his tact as a business man is shown by the way he forced aside opposition and created a market for the output of his shear factory.
The philanthropic and benevolent inclina- tions of Colonel Blees have been manifested in various ways. One of his greatest achieve- ments was the building of the Blees Military Academy, the successor of the St. James Mili- tary Academy, and the most stately, costly and best equipped military school on the American Continent. Colonel Blees is a scholar and accomplished soldier, trained in the thorough manner and accurate discipline of a reorganization of the German Army under Von Moltke and Von Roon, and is an enthusiastic advocate of military education for the young men of America. It was his de- sire to establish a school in accordance with his high standard, and this he has done, to the lasting credit of himself and the glory of Missouri. In the education of the youth Col- onel Blees believes in that which will develop manliness, courage, self-respect, and the re- sultant good breeding, self-reliance and respect for law and authority. Besides attending to his large military academy, the carriage and shear works, he is one of the largest stockholders and the president of the First National Bank of Macon, one of the most substantial banks of Missouri : is presi- dent of the Macon Citizen Printing Company, president of the Northwestern Electric Heat & Power Company, president of the Hartford Loan & Investment Company, president of the Blees-Moore Instrument Company of St. Louis, owner of the Blees Theater at Macon, and the leading hotel of the city, the Jeffer- son. In addition he is one of the largest holders of realty in Macon County, owning valuable farm lands and Macon city prop- erty. Being the possessor of a vast fortune, he takes a keen pleasure in investment that will assist in the upbuilding of the city of Macon, and develop the resources of the county. His excellent business judgment is shown in the manner these investments are made-always in a way that benefits all classes by giving employment to the people- or, like his academy, will result in a blessing to generations yet to be.
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In works of charity he is foremost in sup- port of any worthy cause, but never ostenta- tious. He is liberal toward the churches, and all that tends to elevate and make better the human family. Personally he is retiring, sensitive and modest to a degree seldom found in men who have acquired great wealth and have accomplished much good by means of it.
At various times he has been urged by friends to accept political honors. The Re- publicans of the First Congressional District of Missouri, at the Hannibal Convention, July 20, 1898, nominated him for Congress. This he declined, preferring a quiet life, and to have no public duties that would interfere with his attention to his numerous business enterprises. In 1900 he was urged to become one of the four delegates at large to the Re- publican National Convention. This, too, he declined. He is aesthetic in his tastes. The choicest of books tell of his literary tastes, and all about is evidence of refined luxury. He is fond of horses, and his elegant stable in Macon contains some of the finest equine blood in Missouri.
Colonel Blees was married in 1886, at Monroe, Louisiana, to Miss Mary V. Staples, of Bladen Springs, Alabama, an admirable woman, whose earthly paradise is her home. Mr. and Mrs. Blees are the parents of five children, Frederick James, Alvin Wolcott, William Albert, Anna Marie and Marie Elise Blees. Blees Place, a magnificent private park near Macon, is the property of Mrs. Blees. This is a farm, though the name park is more appropriate, as Missouri has few pri- vate or public parks that present such a mag- nificent example of landscape gardening. The place contains a large artificial lake, several miles of drives, and is stocked with the choicest of domestic animals.
Blees Military Academy .- Blees Mili- tary Academy, at Macon, Missouri, is in a certain sense the successor of the St. James Military Academy, founded in 1875. The original institution was established by the Rev. Ethelbert Talbot, the present bishop of Western Pennsylvania, as a school of tlie Protestant Episcopal Church. It passed from the control of Mr. Talbot, and came under the direction of the Diocese of Mis- souri. It soon became evident that the
school could not be properly sustained nor become reasonably useful as a denomina- tional institution, or as reputedly under the patronage of an individual sect, and the property passed into the hands of Colonel Frederick W. V. Blees, who sought to pop- ularize the school by providing proper academical instruction and moral training, without the restrictions required by de- nominationalism.
For five years he pursued his endeavor, with indifferent success in a pecuniary way, his effort being hampered by financial in- ability to provide the teaching staff and equipment indispensable to such a school as he sought to establish, and in 1896, worn out by illness induced by strenuous effort and anxiety, he closed its doors, not, however, before he had formulated plans for the found- ing of a larger and more completely equipped academical school, to carry out a distinct purpose, in which the commercial element was regarded as secondary. He reasoned that while the previous decade had witnessed an unprecedented strengthening of Western universities and colleges, giving them a com- manding position in the educational world, on the other hand, academies and schools of secondary instruction remained as at the beginning of that period. The public high schools had made substantial progress, but there was an important work for which they were not adapted.
With these conditions, he recognized, as another fact of equal importance, that the military system in American schools had not been satisfactorily elaborated as part of a comprehensive educational system. The so- called military academies were in large measure commercial enterprises, and were conducted as such. To remedy defects so apparent, and to meet such obvious needs, by the equipment of an academy in the most thorough and complete manner, and at the same time to conduct a military school solely with reference to educational needs, was the purpose of Colonel Blees, in founding the Blees Military Academy, and to it he devoted his fortune and effort with the spirit of a born teacher, and the liberality of a genuine philanthropist. By education and training he was admirably fitted for the task. As a student, he was conversant with the meth- ods and conduct of the leading European universities and governmental military
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schools, and as a teacher he had successfully conducted private and public schools and academies in various American cities.
Blees Military Academy is located upon a picturesque tract of one
Location and hundred and forty-three
Buildings. acres of land, situated in the southern suburbs of Macon. The grounds are made up of alter- nating knolls and sward, and include a lake covering eighteen acres, used for bathing, boating, fishing and skating. as well as an ample parade ground, athletic fields and courts, and rifle ranges. The Wabash Rail- way passes through the grounds, and has provided the academy with a private station. Adjoining the academy grounds is a magnif- icent farm, the property of Mrs. Blees. It is known as Blees Place, and while nominally separate, it is practically a portion of the academy grounds. Its lake of twenty acres with its pleasure boats, its magnificent con- servatories, dancing pavilion and fine drive- ways, are a resort for the students and for the social sets of Macon ; and the gardens, orchard and dairy contribute to the academy tables. The academy grounds and the city of Macon are connected by an excellent macadamized road and granitoid sidewalks.
The principal buildings are the academic hall, the gymnasium, the annex, the grand- stand and stables, and the artillery house. Academic Hall is a four story building 88 by 224 feet. of buff brick, with trimmings of Bedford stone. It is absolutely fire-proof, and in this particular stands alone among the academies of the country. Interior as well as exterior walls are of hollow tile, and the doors and window casings are of ornamental metal. The entire building is heated by steam and lighted by electricity. The arrangement of Academic Hall is the acme of excellence for comfort, convenience, attractiveness, and case of supervision. All living and work rooms look out upon spacious courts. thus receiving perfect light and ventilation. The ground floor contains the recitation and music rooms, laboratories and workshops, quartermaster's stores and tailorshop, and bicycle stands for one hundred and fifty wheels. Upon the first floor are the execu- tive offices, the assembly and dining halls. the hospital wards, and apartments for the superintendent, commandant, surgeon and matron. One end of the lobby upon this
floor is occupied by the library and reading rooms, and the other by the museum. Upon the two upper floors are one hundred and ten dormitories for the cadets. each of whom has a separate room provided with a sta- tionary basin supplied with running water. In the corners of the building, upon the same floor, are twelve suites of rooms for the in- structors. Rooms upon the lower dormitory floor open directly upon the recreation court, while the floor above opens upon a spacious overlooking balcony. In front of the main entrance to the academy, will be placed two eight-inch Columbiads, and near them two pyramids of cannon balls, all gifts from the War Department of the United States.
The recreation court is probably un- equaled for beauty and convenience in any college or school in America. This is the resort of the academy family for amusement and social intercourse. It is elegantly fur- nished with easy lounging seats, the best of current literature. a piano, billiard and pool tables, and tables for chess, checker and card players. From the center of the conrt, leading to the floor below. is the grand stair- case, twenty-four feet wide, of ornamental iron, with marble treads. From the center of the landing rises a fine column twenty- four feet in height, surmounted by a beauti- ful clock, the four facesof which are illumined at night by clusters of electric lights.
The gymnasium is a fine edifice of brick, stone and steel. Extending as a balcony around the main floor, is a one-twelfth mile running track. This floor will also contain a swimming pool. On the ground floor are complete gymnastic apparatus, target rifle ranges with stationary and moving targets, bowling alleys, needle and shower baths, and individual lockers.
The kitchen is provided with the most modern steam cooking appliances, such as are used at government posts, and in the principal hotels. The academy laundry work is done on the premises in a well equipped steam laundry containing separate washers for table linen, bed linen, and body garments, thus insuring absolute cleanliness.
The academy equipment is adapted to all practical necessities. The Equipment. open laboratories provide means for work in biol- ogy, physics and chemistry, and private lab- oratories are in use by the special teachers
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of these sciences. The general reading room contains a carefully selected library of two thousand volumes, besides the leading news- papers and magazines. In addition, each department of the academy is provided with an ample working library of reference works.
For use in military instruction, the acad- emy has been provided by the United States War Department with two three-inch rifle guns, with limbers and all necessary equip- ments ; and one hundred and fifty Springfield cadet rifles, with bayonets and accoutre- ments ; ample ammunition supplies are con- stantly kept in store for both artillery and small arm practice. The government also contributed twenty-four Mauser rifles and bayonets, captured from the Spanish Army; these are to form two ornamental stacks in the academy. Colonel Blees has supple- mented this military equipment by the pur- chase of two two-pounder Hotchkiss rapid- fire guns. For cavalry drill are kept twenty- four splendid cavalry horses, fully equal to the grade used in the government service ; these are headed by Rex McDonald and George Washington, the two most superior saddle horses known in the United States. The equipment comprises arms and accou- trements of standard government pattern. An equipment for instruction in field fortifi- cation and bridge building is in course of construction.
Blees Military Academy is pre-eminently a university fitting and Purposes and Conduct. home school for young gentlemen, and is in no sense a reformatory.
Only boys of known good character are ad- mitted, and to these are given such instruc- tion and training as to make them honorable, self-respecting, self-reliant and law-abiding, and respectful of authority. Military dis- cipline is maintained as one of the many means used for the complete and symmetrical development of the youth, physically and mentally. To advance these purposes, the superintendent, teachers and cadets con- stitute a military corps. The founder and the superintendent each bear the title of colonel ; the commandant, that of major ; and the various instructors rank as captains.
The rules governing the academy are based upon those of the United States Mil- itary Academy, at West Point, with neces- sary modifications. Cadets are required to
wear the uniform of the academy upon all occasions, this requirement serving the three- fold purpose of impressing ideas of discipline and esprit de corps. of distinguishing cadets wherever they appear, and of providing the most serviceable as well as least expensive clothing. Two suits, a fatigue uniform and a dress miform, are necessary for winter wear, and a uniform of similar appearance but lighter weight for summer wear. The coat and trousers are of cadet gray cloth, and the overcoat and cap are of navy blue clothi. The suits are trimmed with handsome fire- gilt buttons bearing the academy monogram, and the caps bear the same monogram in silver. All uniforms are furnished at cost.
While in conduct of the academy the mil- itary spirit thus predominates, the greatest care is given to the moral and even the re- ligions training of the cadets; at the same time, sectarian bias or influence are stu- diously avoided. Daily chapel services are held, and are so conducted as to inculcate the fundamental principles of practical christian- ity, without savor of creed or dogma. Per- sonal cleanliness of life is insisted upon, and the use of tobacco and liquors is positively forbidden.
Physical development and preservation of health are promoted through regular and systematic exercise, in addition to the daily military drill. Every form of wholesome outdoor sport is encouraged, and ample provision is made for horseback riding. bicycling, football, baseball and polo. as well as for boating in summer, and skating in winter.
Conducive to the physical health and the morale of the cadet corps, is the annual en- campment, to which the week preceding commencement is devoted. For this oc- casion, tents and all complete camping paraphernalia are provided, and the outing is looked forward to by the corps with pleasant anticipation.
Various entertainments are given by the cadets during the school year ; among these the most important are at Thanksgiving, on Founder's Day and at Commencement.
In the event of illness, the sick are as well provided for and as carefully nursed as in the most completely appointed metropolitan hospitals. As a matter of fact, the cadet is specially favored, in being regarded as a member of a family and one whom those in
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charge hold in sincere personal regard. Ample hospital wards are under the care of a capable physician and a trained nurse, both residents of the academy, and a resident physician of Macon is called in consultation when necessity requires. In case of con- tagious disease, the patient is completely isolated, insuring him proper treatment, and protecting the school against infection.
The course of study is absolutely com- prehensive. It covers six Course of Study. years, taking students from the fifth grade of public school work up to the first college year. A certain amount of work in Englishi, mathematics, history and language is re- quired of all students. The optional courses include French, German, Spanish, the com- mercial branches and the principal sciences. Students desirous of entering a university, are thoroughly prepared for the freshman class, and the same courses qualify for ad- mission to the West Point Military Academy, or to the Naval School at Annapolis. The business course affords ample preparation for entrance upon business life, to such students as do not expect to complete a collegiate training.
The scientific course provides instruction in biology, physics and chemistry, each of these branches extending through an entire session, with three periods a week given to lectures and recitations, and two double periods each week to laboratory work.
The academy is among the exceedingly small number of secondary schools which offer systematic work in manual training. At present, the course is restricted to mechanical and free-hand drawing and the simpler forms of carpentry and joinery. Complete equipments for all grades of work in wood and iron are soon to be added.
Class instruction in band and orchestral music is given by a competent director of mmusic. The band instruments used are the property of the academy, and bear the academy monogram. Individual instruction in band, orchestral and piano music is afforded at a slight extra expense. En- couragement is given to nisical organiza- tions of any kind among the cadets.
A journal entitled "The Reveille," pub- lished monthly, performs a useful office as a chronicle of events concerning the academy,
its teachers and students, and is of interest within the school and among its friends.
The faculty is composed of broad-minded practical educators, who Faculty. have had the advantages of university training, and are skilled specialists in their various de- partments. The instructors are twelve in number, giving a ratio of one teacher for every ten cadets.
For the present, owing to the withdrawal of United States Army officers from private schools to enter active service, the duties of the tactical officer are performed by an academy tutor who served for ten years in the Prussian Army, attaining the rank of first lieutenant, and who for ten years past has been engaged in military academy work in the United States. A United States Army officer will be detailed for duty in the academy as soon as the exigencies of the service will permit.
The conduct of the academy is constantly and carefully supervised by Colonel Fred- erick W. V. Blees, Inspector General, who founded the school, and is the president of the board of directors. Associated with him in an advisory capacity is an eminently capable and interested board of visitors.
Blees Academy does not seek a large at- tendance. Its tuition rates are higher than those of any other Western academical school, and its requirements, both as to conduct and work, are purposely much more rigorous and exacting. The academy closed its first year in 1900; it enrolled seventy- two cadets, of whom six were graduated in the class of that year. The academy now numbers about ninety cadets, and the graduating class of 1901 will number six members.
Bledsoe, Hiram, soldier in the Mexi- can War and Confederate soldier in the Civil War, was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, April . 25, 1825, and died at Pleasant Hill, Missouri, February 6, 1899. His parents came to Missouri in 1839. when he was fourteen years of age, and settled on a farm in Lafayette County. When Colonel Doniphan raised his regiment in western Missouri, for service in the Mexican War, in 1846, he enlisted and took part in the famous expedition to Santa Fe and Chihua- hua. At the close of the war he returned to
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Lafayette County and engaged in farming. At the beginning of the Civil War he took the Southern side, and with four pieces of artillery took part in the fight with Sigel, near Carthage, on the 5th of July, 1861, in which he and a number of his men were wounded, among them Thomas Young, Charles Young and Lieutenant Charles Higgins. The steadiness with which his guns were worked under the accurate and galling fire of Sigel's artillery under Major Backoff, had a good effect upon the raw militia on the Confederate side, and from that day to the end of the war, "Bledsoe's Battery" was famous, taking an effective part in many great battles, and always with honor to the name of Missouri. At the end of the war Colonel Bledsoe returned to Lafayette County, but in 1868 removed to the farm five miles southwest of Pleasant Hill, in Cass County, where he died. In 1872 he was appointed by Governor Brown presiding judge of the Cass County Court, to fill a vacancy, and was afterward elected and re-elected to the place. In 1878 he was elected collector of the county, and in 1892 was elected State Senator, and was appointed one of the government commissioners to locate the positions of the Confederate troops in the battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, in all of which he participated. He was an intrepid and able soldier and an upright and good citizen. On the battle-field of Chickamauga, at the Brotherton House, there is a granite monument erected by the State of Missouri bearing this inscription: "To Bledsoe's Mo. Battery, C. S. A."
Blind Asylum .- See "Missouri School for the Blind."
Blind Girls' Home .- See "Women's Christian Association."
Blodgett .- An incorporated village in Sandywood Township, Scott County, eight miles southeast of Benton, on the Belmont branch of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. It was laid out in 1868. It has two churches, Baptist and Methodist, a school, hotel and about half a dozen stores. Population, 1899 (estimated), 420.
Blodgett, Wells H., lawyer, was born at Downer's Grove, DuPage County, Illinois,
January 29, 1839, son of Israel P. and Avis (Dodge) Blodgett. His parents were among the pioneer settlers in the region of country immediately west of Chicago, and he grew up in what was then a new and rather sparsely settled community. He obtained his rudi- mentary education in the common schools, and later attended Rock River Seminary, at Mount Morris, Illinois, and the Illinois Uni- versity, at Wheaton. Soon after leaving col- lege he went to Chicago and read law under the preceptorship of his elder brother, Henry W. Blodgett, afterward for many years a judge of the United States Court for the Dis- trict of Northern Illinois. He was admitted to the bar early in the year 1861, and was preparing to begin practice when the break- ing out of the Civil War carried him into military life and postponed the commence- ment of his professional career. In response to President Lincoln's first call for troops, he enlisted as a private soldier in a company mustered into the "three-months'" service. At the expiration of this term he re-enlisted for "three years, or during the war," again taking a place in the ranks as a private sol- dier in the Thirty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Soon after being mus- tered into this regiment he was made a lieu- tenant in Company D, and in March, 1862, was promoted to captain of his company. A year later President Lincoln commissioned him judge advocate of the Army of the Fron- tier, with the rank of major of cavalry in the United States Army. He was attached to department headquarters, in the capacity of judge advocate, for some months thereafter, and was then commissioned lieutenant col- onel of the Forty-eighth Regiment of Mis- souri Volunteer Infantry, his commission bearing the date of September 22, 1864. In October following he was made colonel of this regiment and served in that capacity until mustered out of the service in July, 1865. He served first under General Fremont, and later under Generals Hunter, Schofield and Herron in the campaigns in southern Mis- souri and northern Arkansas, and afterward in Fourth Division, Twentieth Corps, under General Lovell H. Rousseau in Tennessee and Alabama. Both as private soldier and commanding officer he was conspicuous for his chivalrous action and gallant conduct, one of his acts winning for him a congressional medal of honor. When he laid aside the uni-
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form of a Federal soldier and returned to civil life he began the practice of law at Warrensburg, Missouri. During the years 1867 and 1868 he represented Johnson County in the Missouri House of Represen- tatives, and for four years thereafter repre- sented the district composed of the counties of Johnson, Henry, Benton and St. Clair in the State Senate. As a legislator he was ca- pable and influential, and although a Republi- can of pronounced views, was among the earliest advocates of the abolition of the pro- scriptive features of the "Drake Constitu- tion" and of a governmental policy which would bring about, in Missouri, the fraterni- zation of those who had been arrayed against each other during the Civil War. In the au- tumn of 1873 he accepted the position of as- sistant attorney of the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railway Company, and thus be- came identified with a branch of the practice which has given him a place among the lead- ing corporation lawyers of the West. He was appointed general attorney for the above named railway company in June of 1874, and when a consolidation of interests resulted in the organization of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company, in 1879, he was made general solicitor of that corporation. From 1884 to 1889 he represented the receiv- ers of this company in highly important and exceedingly complicated litigation, involving many million dollars, and after the reorgani- zation of the company, in 1889, he again be- came its general solicitor, a position which he has ever since held, having full control of the legal department of one of the great railway systems of the country. As a natural conse- quence of his professional connections, he has made a close study of railroad and corpora- tion law, and his fame as a lawyer rests measurably upon his accomplishments in this broad field of practice. Charged with grave responsibilities as a counselor, he has been painstaking in his researches and investiga- tions, and has advised the corporations which were his clients with judicial candor and fair- ness. During his official connection with the Wabash Railway system he has done mas- terly work in protecting and advancing its interests. For more than a quarter of a cen- tury he has been a familiar figure in the courts of various Western States and in the Federal courts, and throughout his career his sound judgment, careful discrimination, quick
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