Blanchard, Thomas – Bleckley, Logan E
Blanchard, Thomas
inventor, was born June 24, 1788, in Sutton, Mass. While engaged with his brother in the manufacture of tacks by hand, he invented a machine which made 500 per minute, and sold the patent for $5,000. He also invented a lathe to turn the whole of a musket-barrel from end to end, by the combination of one single self-directing operation; the lathe for turning irregular forms, now in use in all armories, for making musket-stocks, also applied to busts, shoe lasts, handles, spokes, and a machine for bending timbers, called the compound bend. He died April 6, 1864, in Boston, Mass.
Bland, Ballard
jurist, was born in Kentucky. He was educated for the legal profession, and while residing in Louisville was appointed United States judge for the district of Kentucky.
Bland, Bessie
poet, was born Dec. 8, 1863, in Lynn, Mass. She is a successful writer of Lynn, Mass.; and her poems have been given a place in several standard works.
Bland, Charles Clelland
soldier, jurist, was born Feb. 9, 1837, in Hartford, Ky. During the civil war he was captain of company D, Missouri infantry This eminent lawyer and volunteers. jurist was elected in 1881 as judge of the circuit court of the nineteenth judicial circuit of Missouri, which position he still holds (1898).
Bland, Richard
statesman, was born May 6, 1710, in Virginia. He was for some years a leading member of the house of burgesses, and in 1768 was one of the committee appointed to remonstrate with parliament on the subject of taxation. In 1773 he was one of the committee of correspondence, and was a delegate to the continental congress from 1774 to 1776. He died in 1790.
Bland, Richard Parks
lawyer, congressman, was born Aug. 19, 1835, near Hartford, Ky. He received an academic education; removed to Missouri in 1855, thence to California, and thence to that portion of Utah now Nevada, locating at Virginia City. He practiced law; was interested in mining operations in California and Nevada, and was county treasurer of Carson county, Utah territory, from 1860 until the organization of the state government of Nevada. He returned to Missouri in 1865; located at Rolla, Mo., and practiced law with his brother, C. C. Bland, until he removed to Lebanon in August, 1869, and continued his practice there. He was elected to the forty-third, forty-fourth, forty-fifth, forty-sixth, forty-seventh, forty-eighth, ferty-ninth, fiftieth, fifty-first, fifty-second and fifty-third congresses, and was elected to the fifty-fifth congress as a silver democrat. In 1896 his name was prominently brought forward for president of the United States.
Bland, Robert Linn
journalist, lawyer, was born June 2, 1868, in Jane Lew, W. Va. He attended the public schools of Weston, W. Va.; learned the printer's trade, and for a number of years was engaged in journalism. He founded the Buckhanon Dispatch, and was connected with different newspapers of his He was associated with R. H. state.
Harrison in the publication of the Weston Democrat; has written extensively for city journals, and is now vice-president of the West Virginia Editorial association. He is the author of Mountain Memoirs, a local work of biographies.
Bland, Theodoric
soldier, congressman, was born in 1742 in Prince George county, Va. He rose to the rank of colonel, and had the command of a regiment of dragoons; in 1779 had command of the troops at Albemarle barracks, and continued in that station until elected to a seat in congress from Virginia, in 1780; served in that body three years, and was then chosen a member of the Virginia legislature. He was a representative in the first congress under the constitution, having voted for its adoption. He died June 1, 1790, in New York.
Bland, Theodoric
lawyer, jurist, was born in 1777. He was a lawyer by profession; was judge of the county court in Baltimore; judge of the United States district court of Maryland; and was twenty-two years chancellor of the state. From 1836 to 1841 he published in Baltimore, Reports of Cases Decided in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland. He died Nov. 16, 1846, in Annapolis, Md.
Bland, Thomas A
physician, lecturer, author, was born May 21, 1830, in Bloomfield, Ind. During the civil war he was a surgeon in the army. For twenty years he lived in Washington, D. C., with his wife and coworker, M. Cora Bland, M. D., also a skilful physician and able writer and a popular lecturer. He has been at the head of the Eclectic Medical society of the District of Columbia from the first; was its first president, and was re-elected by unanimous vote seven times since. He is the author of How to Get Well and How to Keep Well, and other works. As a physician and medical author, he has done much for progress in medicine and in a knowledge of the laws of health; and as a public lecturer he ranks high.
Blanden, Charles G
banker, poet, was born Jan. 19, 1857, in Marengo, Ill.
He is the author of a volume of poems entitled Tancred's Daughter and Other Poems.
Blanks, James Braxton
expert accountant, was born Jan. 9, 1839, in Petersburg, Va. He has been an accountant the greater part of his life, and for fifteen years teller and assistant cashier of three different banks; and commissioner of the revenue of the city of Petersburg for six years. He has been grand secretary of the Royal Arch Masons of Virginia; grand recorder of Knights Templars of Virginia, and grand secretary of Royal Arcanum of Virginia.
Blashfield, Edwin Howland
painter, was born Dec. 15, 1848, in New York city. His favorite subjects are figures, with carefully studied landscape or architecture. Historical subjects and por-- traiture, with particular devotion to accuracy of detail, also claim his attention. Some of his principal paintings are A Poet; Toreador; Monseigneur; The Augur; A Roman Emperor; The Fencing Lesson-Roman Ladies; and The Besieged, a fine picture, has been exhibited in the royal academies of London and Edinburgh. He has been president of the Society of American Artists.
Blatchford, Eliphalet W
manufacturer, was born May 26, 1826, in Lansingburgh, N. Y. In 1854, he began the manufacture of lead in Chicago, Ill. His firm of E. W. Blatchford & Co., now incorporated, has been extremely successful.
Blatchford, Richard Milford
legislator, public official, was born April 23, 1798, in Stratford, Conn. In 1826 he was made a financial agent for the Bank of England, and in 1836 appointed to the same position by the Bank of the United States, and assisted in winding up its affairs. In 1855 he was elected to the state legislature; in 1859 commissioner of Central Park, and subsequently of the public parks generally. When the rebellion commenced he was entrusted with funds for the recruiting service, and in 1862 was appointed minister to Italy. He died Sept. 3, 1875, in Newport.
Blatchford, Samuel
jurist, was born March 9, 1820, in New York city.
He was private secretary to W. H. Seward from 1839 to 1841, and military secretary on governor's staff up to 1843. He was made a counselor of the supreme court of the state in 1845. In 1855 he was appointed a justice of the supreme court of the state for the first district, but declined; in 1867 was appointed district judge of the United States court for the southern district of New York, and in 1882 was appointed an associate justice of the United States supreme court. He died July 7, 1893, in Newport, R. I.
Blatt, William Moses
lawyer, author, was born April 29, 1876, in Orange, N. J. He graduated from the Boston university law school; has been assistant editor of the New England Courier; librarian of the Boston university law school, and is the author of Leading and Important Cases in Massachusetts Common Law.
Blauvelt, Augustus
clergyman, author, was born April 7, 1832, in Covert, N. Y. He is a Dutch Reformed clergyman of New Jersey, deposed from the ministry on account of his liberal doctrinal views embodied in papers in the Century Magazine. He is the author of The Kingdom of Satan; and The Present Religious Crisis.
Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna
theosophist, was born July 31, 1831, in Southern Russia. Her father was Col.
Peter Hahn, a descendant of the Von Rottenstern-Hahns of Mecklenburg, Germany. She studied the French and English languages in Paris and London; and wandered in Africa, Europe, America, India and Central Asia. She acquired complete control of her psychic faculties,. and entered upon her life work of explaining the nature and source of such phenomena. In 1873 she came to America, and five years later became an American citizen by naturalization. In 1875 she founded the Theosophical society, with headquarters in New York city; and in 1879 began the publication of The Theosophist. In 1888 she published her monumental work, entitled The Secret Doctrine. The society which she founded now numbers over six hundred branches. or lodges throughout the civilized world.
She died May 8, 1891, in London, England.
Blayney, Francis Scott
educator, clergyman, lecturer, was born July 31, 1856, at Iberia, Ohio. He has been president of the University of Omaha, and organized and built the Second Presbyterian church of that city, and the First Presbyterian church of Hebron, Neb.. This noted lecturer of psychology and ethics since 1890 has been pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Abilene, Kan.
Bleckley, Logan E
lawyer, jurist, was born July 3, 1827, in Rabun county, Ga. In 1864 he was appointed supreme court reporter; in 1875 was associate justice of the supreme court, and in 1887 was made chief justice of the supreme court.
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