Foreword

I never knew my grandparents Amos R. and Josephine Blake very well. Grandmother died when I was but four years of age. Though "Grandpa," as we called him, lived close to us as I grew up, I never came to know him with respect to the early years of his life.

The brief study which I undertook to construct the following paragraphs did much to give me a solid understanding of their joint background. It is my intent that these words will be preserved by future generations of the heirs of Amos and Josephine. All persons can gain only positively if they know about the struggles and sacrifices of those who preceded them.

Amos Russell Blake was born on October 23, 1872, the son of William H. and Matilda Spellman Blake. Amos' lineage on his father's side has been accurately traced to his grandfather Amos H. Blake, who was born July 3, 1793 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Family tradition has it that Amos H. was a descendant of the early settlers of the original Massachusetts Colony. His birthdate would lend credence to this supposition. Amos H. Blake migrated to New York State where on November 2, 1820, he was married to Mary Monroe in Schuyler County. Mary had been born in Albany, New York, June 15, 1800. She was a cousin of James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States. Amos H. and Mary Monroe Blake had four girls and two boys as they made their living farming. The oldest of the two boys was William H. Blake, the father of Amos R.

William Blake was born December 6, 1828 in Herkimer County, New York. He migrated to Illinois in the fall of 1852 at the age of 24 years. He made the trip from Rochester by crossing Lake Erie on a passenger boat to Detroit. From Detroit he traveled by train to Chicago and then proceeded by boat down the Illinois River to Peoria. He settled at a place called Orange Prairie which is near Mt. Hawley in Peoria County. He resided initially with a family named Huggins, former neighbors in New York. He immediately engaged himself in general farm work. Family records Show that he did travel back to New York to visit his family after the second year in Illinois. His sister Louise returned with him.

In the fall of 1856 William came in Stark County where he purchased an 80-acre tract of raw prairie for five dollars an acre. The land so purchased was the south half of the southeast quarter of Section 25. This stands one and one half miles southeast of Bradford, Illinois. William hired the initial plowing of the prairie sod by persons using four yoke of oxen. He rented the newly plowed land the first year, taking the money to purchase grain, seed, and to build a small house which he moved into in the spring of 1858. He also purchased a team of gray mares from which he bred his future stock. One horse, "Old Jinny," lived to be 30 years of age. William lived for two years as a bachelor and hired a helper, Mr. Bob Martin, to live with him. Martin enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War and he was severly wounded. William did visit Martin in Indiana prior to his death which resulted from these wounds. William's name was also placed in the draft list during the war, but he was not called to serve.

On January 15, 1860, William married Matilda Spellman. Matilda was the daughter of Allen and Eunice Spellman. She was a first cousin of Laura Spellman who was to become the Mrs. John D. Rockefeller. Mr. Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company. Matilda's family came from Ohio by covered wagon. They also purchased an eighty acre tract near Bradford and raised a large family, of which Matilda was one. The Spellman's were neighbors of William H. Blake. William and Matilda had eight children. They were: William Henry (1861), Mary Eunice (1863), Ida Jane (1865), Julia Anna (1868), Grant Allen (1870), Amos Russell (1872), Fred Wallis (1875), and Matilda (1877). The family prospered and by 1868 an additional 80 acre farm and homesite was purchased for sixty dollars an acre. For this purchase, money was borrowed at a ten per cent interest rate from a Jane Phenix, the daughter of an early settler in the Spoon River Basin. The debt was liquidated during the 1880's. In 1874 the original house was remodeled and enlarged. In November of that year it held the 54th wedding anniversary celebration of Amos H. and Mary Monroe Blake who had migrated to Illinois in 1864. Amos H. Blake died August 17, 1875 at the age of 82 years, being buried in the Bradford Cemetery.

On October 23, 1879, the youngest son of William and Matilda, Fred Wallis, died at the age of four years. On September 14, 1881, Matilda Spellman Blake died after several weeks of "serious illness." The oldest daughter, Mary, then acted as housekeeper for her father, brothers and sisters.

The years passed for the family of William H. Blake with the children moving into adulthood and the worlds of marriage and work. In 1886 the oldest boy, "Brother Will," (William Henry) went to Kansas to homestead. His leaving left the bulk of the farm work to Grant and Amos Russell, under the direction of father William. In January of 1888, the latter went to Kansas to visit the Moore family, cousins of his wife Matilda. On January 25, 1888, he married Anna, whereupon he returned to Illinois and the family farms.

In 1893 brothers Grant and Amos took full charge of the farming. They had previously also begun to farm the 80 acre Spellman farm, and in 1894, added to this an additional 75 acres. The crops were excellent and prosperity seemed to be fully insured. On March 8, 1899, Grant married Helen Shaw, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Gillman G. Shaw. On January 1, 1901, brother Amos R., age 23, married Josephine Shaw who was the sister of Helen. William H. Blake moved to Bradford in the fall of 1901, allowing Amos R. and "Josie" to occupy one of the houses on the farms. William H. died April 26, 1902 after a period of failing health which began the winter of 1901. Anna moved to Eldorado Springs, Missouri, where she lived with her sister Marie until death took her in 1910.

Josephine Elmetta Shaw, the wife of Amos R., was born on December 14, 1877. She, along with two brothers and two sisters, were children of the above mentioned Gillman Shaw and Lucy Taft Shaw. Lucy Taft was a cousin of William Howard Taft, the twenty-seventh President of the United States. Her father, Dr. Shaw, was born in the state of Maine on December 14, 1842. He was the fourteenth of sixteen children. Josephine moved with her family to central Illinois and the village of Lombardville where her father set up his medical practice. Josephine's formal education was limited to elementary school and a brief enrollment in high school. The latter training did allow her to teach public school before her marriage to Amos R. at the age of 23.

Amos and Josephine Blake had five children. They were: Isabelle Blake Kent (1904), Julia Blake Manning (1907), Bertha Blake Hughes (1910), Clarence Gillman (1913) and Ralph Grant (1917-1951). In 1911 a major change came to their lives as Amos moved the entire family to North Dakota. Land speculators had aroused his curiousity which led him to visit that wheat growing state. Acting on the faith of the future and hard work, Grant and Amos sold the family farms. Grant sought his fortune on the plains of Kansas while Amos R. went to North Dakota.

The Blakes' stay in the Dako ta Territory lasted for eleven years where a series of reversals left the family in a state of economic collapse. At the end of the sixth year, the original purchase of land had been lost to debt. The next five years were marked by the moving from farm to farm on a rental basis.

Poverty and unhappiness probably rested heavily upon the Blakes at this time. Josephine was unable to return home at the death of her mother due to the lack of funds. In late 1921 or early 1922, she did return to Bradford with the youngest son, Ralph, for a visit. Amos and the rest of the family followed in 1922. During the first winter the family resided in a house in Bradford. The type of employment Amos attained at this time cannot be recalled. The following spring the family moved to a farm south of Bradford where Amos engaged in tenant work. Josephine earned extra cash by selling homemade butter and cottage cheese to the residents of Bradford. A later move was made to a farm located between Bradford and Wyoming. In 1933 Amos and Josephine purchased a small four acre farm on the north edge of the village of Lafayette, Illinois. Amos farmed these acres and hauled coal to make a living. Josephine's last years at this home were described by her dauthter Bertha as being "most pleasant as life was settled and predictable." Josephine died in 1940 of Parkinson's disease. Amos continued to live on his small place until failing health forced him to enter nursing home care in 1947. He suffered greatly in his later years from arthritis. In July of 1951 his youngest son, Ralph Grant, was taken by cancer. Amos died in 1954.

Much speculation can be drawn about the lives and marriage of Amos and Josephine Blake. They escaped from a life of assured plenty to one of poverty and hardship. Their daughter and my mother, Bertha Helen, has described to me that at no time did they ever complain or comment on the evident error they made with respect to their sale of the Bradford area land. Amos stated in a letter near the end of his life that their marriage was free from "dissension." We would truly hope so.

At this point my linkage to Amos and Josephine is properly discussed with respect to their daughter and my mother, Bertha. Bertha Blake Hughes, the third child of Amos and Josephine, moved with her husband and family to Lafayette in 1936, residing in a house immediately south of her parents. Bertha Blake, after graduating from Bradford High School, was married to Raymond H. Hughes in 1929 at the age of 19. She and Raymond had five children: Norma (1931--stillborn), Raymond Hadley (1932), Julia Helen Watson (1935), Clarence Russell "Pete" (1936) and John Wayne (1939). Husband and father Raymond Hughes, after a long history of heart problems resulting from rheumatic fever, died December 10, 1945, of a heart attack in Oak Park, Illinois, the home base of his construction career. Through all of the ensuing years, the family continued to reside in Lafayette, attending school and living the best they could on social security and the earnings of Bertha. In 1954, Bertha enrolled at Western Illinois University where she earned a B. S. degree in teaching, a career she followed for fifteen years. Bertha remarried on June 23, 1961, to Harold Morris of Lacon, Illinois.

The lives of the children of Bertha and Raymond Hughes followed similar patterns. All worked and attended college, with Raymond, Clarence and John graduating from the Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois. Julia attended Illinois State University. Raymond was married to Gladys Greening in 1954 and had two children, Thad (1955) and Lisa (1957). His academic training led him into a career with the Marathon Oil Company as an executive officer. Julia married Robert Watson in 1958, who was to become an attorney-at-law. She and Robert had four children: Dale (1960), Jeffrey (1962), Linda (1964) and Jennifer (1970). In 1958 Clarence married Carol Nielson of Rockford, Illinois and also a Blackburn graduate. He entered the teaching profession, advancing to a Doctor's Degree in Educational Administration in 1970 from the University of Illinois. Clarence taught high school, coached basketball, served as a professor at Blackburn College from 1970 to 1973 and in the latter year assumed the superintendency of the schools of Annawan, Illinois. Clarence and Carol had two children, Natalie (1959) and Christopher ( 1970). John Hughes was married to Ann Howard of Carlinville, Illinois in 1961. He earned a medical degree from the University of Illinois, later training to specialize as an orthopedic surgeon. John and Ann had four boys, Peter (1962), Jonathan (1963), Joseph (1964) and Samuel (1968).

In July of 1976 I secured from my mother, Bertha Blake, portraits of Amos R. and Josephine Blake. I commissioned Steve Adams of Annawan, Illinois to recreate by pencil sketch these portraits to hang in my home. These drawings were completed in August, 1976. Their completion sparked a great interest on my part to explore the background of my grandparents. The speculation led to this biographical summary of my family with respect to the Blakes. My information was secured from an interview with my mother, Bertha Blake Hughes, Phyllis Cederberg Blake (the wife of Ralph) and from letters written by both Grant and Amos R. Blake.

History, whether of nations or families, is beneficial as we learn from it. It is my wish that my daughter Natalie Ann Hughes keep the picture of Josephine and my son Christopher Raymond keep that of Amos Russell. Their great grandparents did not amass a fortune nor did they build lasting physical monuments. It is my hope, though, that their qualities will serve to remind both Natalie and Christopher that success in life can be measured in many ways. The quiet but resolute qualities of Amos and Josephine were many. They exhibited the endless willingness to work, they perservered against great odds and they showed great patience with the misfortunes of life. Throughout all of their trials and times of happiness, they exhibited love and admiration for each other. It is my hope that their example will serve as an excellent model for both Natalie and Christopher and all of their descendents.

[Attached to this hand-typed manuscript is a note from Lois Manning, directing it to Cynthia Jane, Randall Scott and Emily Jean -- the children of Jerry, her younger brother.)

"This was written by your dad's (Jerry Paul Manning) first cousin, "Pete" (Clarence Russell Hughes). His grandmother (Josephine Elmetta Shaw Blake) and his grandfather (Amos Russell Blake) were also your dad's Grandma and Grandpa as his mother (Bertha Blake Hughes Morris) and your Dad's mother (Julia Mildred Blake Manning) were sisters. L. Manning"]

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