James Knox Blish

As printed in 1910

JAMES KNOX BLISH.

James Knox Blish, for thirty-six years a member of the Kewanee bar, whose record is in contradistinction to the old adage that a prophet is never without honor save in his own country, for he is a native son of the county in which he resides, having here passed his active life and so directed his ability and efforts as to gain recognition as one of its representative and valued members of the bar. His birth occurred near Kewanee, May 2, 1843, his parents being Charles C. and Elizabeth P. (Bonar) Blish. There has been compiled an extended genealogical record of the family which says that all of the name of Blish are descended from Abraham Blish, who was in Duxbury, a part of the Plymouth colony, in 1637, and is mentioned in Winsor's History of Duxbury. He removed to Barnstable as early as 1640 and his homestead there was owned by him and his descendants for nearly two hundred years. On July, 1658, he purchased of Dolar Davis for seventy-five pounds, a farm in the easterly part of the town near the present site of the town of Barnstable, a portion of which land was in the old common-field. He was "propounded for freeman," June 5, 1661, and seemed to be a man of considerable local influence in that he served in various offices. His son Joseph Blish was born April 1, 1648, at Barnstable, was there married September 15, 1674, to Hannah, a daughter of Tristram and Agnes Hull. She was born in 1657. He was admitted as a freeman in 1689 and died June 14, 1730. His son, Tristram Blish, son of Joseph and Hannah (Hull) Blish, was born in April, 1694, at West Barnstable, Massachusetts, and was married October 17, 1717, to Anne Fuller, who was born at Barnstable in November, 1693, a daughter of Matthew and Prudence (Young) Fuller. Tristram Blish was a weaver by trade. He was executor of the will of his father in Barnstable and members of his family removed to Colchester, Connecticut, about 1726, his name occurring several times in the land records of that place. David Blish, son of Tristram and Hannah (Fuller) Blish, was born at Colchester, Connecticut, October 26, 1732, and was married about 1752, to Zeruiah, daughter of Deacon Nathaniel and Mary (Gillett) Skinner. She was born June 25, 1730, at Colchester, Connecticut. David and Zeruiah Blish were communicants in the church at Marlboro in 1754 and all of their children were baptized there. It seems that the name has been variously spelled Blish and Blush through succeeding generations, perhaps not so much by members of the family but by others who had occasion to write the name. On the records of Captain David Miller's Company that marched in September, 1776, to East Chester to join General Washington's army, appears the name of David Blish "David Blish, sergeant." He was also sergeant in Captain Rudd's company in Colonel Chapman's regiment in the Revolutionary war, which took part in the movement of the army to dis-

X'i&ixhL lodge the British at Newport in 1778, and was also present at the battle of Rhode Island. The only town office he is recorded as holding is that of highway surveyor in 1794. According to the inscription on his tombstone in the Marlboro cemetery, he died October 26, 1817, and his wife's tombstone records her death as January 2, 1813. Deacon Thomas Bhsh, son of David and Zeruiah (Skinner) Blish, was born September 13, 1762, at Glastonbury, Connecticut, and was married September 21, 1785, to Prudence, daughter of Elizur and Abigail (Hollister) Hubbard. She was born in Glastonbury, April 23, 1767. Thomas Blish was a farmer, owning several hundred acres of land in East Glastonbury. He filled a number of town offices and was prominent in the work of the church. He died April 15, 1831, and his widow afterward lived for a time with her son Sylvester, who in 1837, removed to Wethersfield, Illinois. Later she went to Rockton, Illinois, to live with her daughter, Dorothy Talcott, and there remained until her death, which occurred in 1848.

Colonel Sylvester Blish, the grandfather of James K. Blish and a son of Deacon Thomas and Prudence (Hubbard) Blish, was born December 31, 1790, at Glastonbury, Connecticut, and on the ist of January, 1812, at South Manchester, Connecticut, wedded Rhoda Cheney, who was born December 5, 1794, at South Manchester, a daughter of Timothy and Rhoda (Skinner) Cheney. Colonel Sylvester and Rhoda (Cheney) Blish were the parents of Charles C. Blish and William H. Blish and the grandparents of James K. Blish, whose name introduces this review. As Colonel Sylvester Blish and his descendants have been prominently identified with the history of Henry county they are mentioned more at length on another page of this volume.

James K. Blish, whose name introduces this record, acquired his early education in the Union school of Wethersfield and Kewanee and afterward became a student in the preparatory school at Ann Arbor, and in 1862 he entered the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1866. His college days being ended, he returned to his home in this county and was identified with farming interests in Wethersfield township for three years. His alma water conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree in 1876. After devoting three years to farming he went to Council BluflFs, Iowa, where he entered the firm of Kiter, Bonar & Blish, manufacturers of blank books, his identification with that house continuing for two years, after which he disposed of his interest there and went to Chicago, where he entered the employ of J. W. Middleton, engaged in the same line of business, until the disastrous fire of 1871. He then returned to Kewanee and with the determination of entering upon a professional career became a law student in the office of Howe & North, the senior partner being Judge John H. Howe, who a year later was appointed by President Grant as chief justice of the territory of Wyoming. Mr. Blish then continued his law studies under the direction of Hon. Levi North, and while pursuing his law course was elected justice of the peace, being the youngest man who has ever filled that position in Kewanee.

In 1873 Mr. Blish passed the required examination before the judges of the supreme court at Springfield, among whom was the venerable Sidney Breese, and being thus admitted to the bar opened a law office in Kewanee, where he has since successfully followed his profession. He is today one of the oldest representatives of the bar of this city in years of continuous practice here. He has won for himself very favorable criticism for the careful and systematic methods which he has followed. He has remarkable power of concentration and appHcation, and his retentive mind has often excited the surprise of his professional colleagues. As an orator he stands high, especially in the discussion of legal matters before the court, where his comprehensive knowledge of the law is manifest and his application of legal principles demonstrates the wide range of his professional acquirements. The utmost care and precision characterizes his preparation of a case and has made him one of the most successful attorneys of Henry county. Mr. Blish has also become known in business circles and since 1894 has been the honored president of the First National Bank, which was organized in 1870, at which time his father was elected president and so continued for about twenty years. Various other corporate interests have benefited by his wise counsel and sagacious judgment in business affairs. He took a leading part in the organization of the Kewanee Building & Loan Association and was chosen its first secretary. He also assisted in organizing the Kewanee Electric Light Company and has been prominently identified with a number of other business enterprises that have promoted the welfare of the city.

While the life work of Mr. Blish has been preeminently that of a successful practitioner of law, he has ever been mindful of his duties and obligations of citizenship and has labored earnestly and effectively for the benefit of the city along many lines. He was one of the organizers of the Kewanee public library and served for twelve years on its board of directors. For thirteen years he was president of the Kewanee Fair Association, which he had aided in organizing, and for four years he was a member of the board of county supervisors, during which time he served on the building committee for the erection of the Henry county courthouse. His service as a member of the school board covers eighteen years, during which period he acted for a part of the time as its secretary and at all times was a stalwart champion of the cause of public education, promoting its interests through the employment of competent teachers and the adoption of improved methods of instruction. Called to the city council, he served as alderman for several years and exercised his prerogatives in support of every measure which he deemed of municipal benefit. In politics he is a democrat but not an advocate of free silver. He has been a delegate to nearly all the state conventions of his party and in 1888 was one of the presidential electors. His highest political honors were conferred upon him in 1902, when he was elected minority representative to the general assembly of IlHnois for the thirty-seventh district composed of Bureau, Henry and Stark counties.

Mr. Blish has been married twice. On the 25th of December. 1867, in Chicago, Illinois, he was married to Miss Mary E. McManus, who was born January 31, 1846, in Sherburne, New York, and died September 18. 1883. There were three children of that marriage: Carrie Elizabeth, who was born Februarv 7, 1869, at Wethersfield, Illinois, died June 8, 1870, at Council Bluffs, Iowa. James Louis was born July 18, 1871, in Chicago. Bertha Belle was born September 19, 1877, in Kewanee, Illinois. Mr. Blish's first wife died September 18. 1883, and he was again married October 5, 1886, in Cambridge, Illinois, to Mis? Amy Mason Rhodes, who was born in Providence. Rhode Lsland, September 15,

1855, and is a daughter of Albert and Ann Elizabeth (Read) Rhodes, who came to this state during her infancy and settled on a farm at Bunker Hill, Bureau county. There Mrs. Blish attended the local schools until the failing health of her father compelled him to quit farming and the family removed to Buda, Illinois. She finished her education in Providence, Rhode Island, and at once began teaching, which she followed for more than ten years, during most of which time she was first assistant in the high schools of Buda, Sheffield and Cambridge. Since her marriage she has been an active participant in social, charitable and literary circles of Kewanee, is a member of the Ladies Reading Club and was the organizer and for several years the regent of the Kewanee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. For fifteen years she was an officer and one of the managers of the Dorcas Society, an organization supported by voluntary contributions for the benefit of the worthy poor. By her marriage she has become the mother of three children: Elizabeth, born March 22, 1888; Matthew Rhodes, born April 28, 1889; and Asa Rhodes, born June 8, 1893.

Mr. Blish is numbered among the pioneer residents of Henry county, where he has spent his entire life and has served for several terms as president of the Old Settlers Association. The county might well be proud of her native sons if their records were all as clean and honorable and their work as valuable in the upbuilding and promotion of public interests as that of James Knox Blish — a man respected and honored wherever known and most of all where best known.

As printed in History of Henry County, Illinois (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.