THOMAS J. BLAKE, M.D.

 

     Thomas J. Blake, M.D., of Stockton, Mo., was born in Roane County, Tenn., in 1828, and is a son of Dr. William G. and Elizabeth (McKinney) Blake, who were born in Virginia and Roane County, Tenn., respectively, the formers birth occurring in 1800. At the age of five years he was taken to Tennessee by his father, Thomas Blake, who was a farmer and millwright by occupation, and there remained until 1837, when he came to Missouri, and located in Dade County, at the town of Cora, coming in 1844 to Stockton. He entered forty acres of land where the town now is, which he afterward deeded to the county for the county seat, on which he erected the first house. He practiced his profession here for many years, and became well known throughout the county, not only professionally, but socially. He died in 1884, and his first wife in 1831, after which he married Sarah Pennington, who yet survives him, and is 72 years of age. Thomas Blake, the grandfather, was a farmer and millwright by occupation, and died in 1860, at the age of eighty-three years. His father, William Blake, was killed in the Revolutionary War. Dr. Thomas J. Blake is the second of three children, and when nine years old came to Missouri with his father. The schools at that day were few and far between, consequently his early educational advantages were quite meager. In 1850 he took the overland trip to California, and at the end of four months and ten days was in the "Eureka State," where he remained for six years, working in the gold mines. He then returned to Cedar County, Mo., and commenced the study of medicine, his preceptor being Dr. William G. Blake, his father. He entered the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis in the spring of 1858, from which he was graduated as an M.D. in 1860. He went first to Stockton, but a short time after removed to Benton County, Ark., and in the spring of 1861, returned to Cedar County, Mo., enlisting in May of that year in the Missouri State Guard, and afterward in Shelby's Brigade, C.S.A., serving until the spring of 1865, when he surrendered in Texas. He participated in the fights at Oak Hill, Newtonia, Prairie Grove, Pea ridge, Wilson's Creek, West Port, Iron Mountain, Mark's Mill, and many skirmishes. After the war he resided in Benton County, Ark., until 1874, since which time he has lived in Stockton. In 1866 he married Miss Mary V. Barnes, of Fayetteville, Ark. She was born in Manchester, Mo., and is the mother of five children; William C., Clint H., Thomas J., Elizabeth, and a son not named. The Doctor is a Mason, a member of the I.O.O.F., a Democrat, and for four years served as coroner of Cedar County. His wife is a member of the Catholic Church.

From the History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade and Barton Counties, Missouri, 1889, p. 721

 

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