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- PROFESSOR J. J. BLAISDELL, was born in Canaan, Grafton Co.,
- N.H., Feb. 8, 1827. His father was Hon. Elijah BLAISDELL,
a distinguished member of the New Hampshire bar, and his grandfather,
Hon. Daniel BLAISDELL, who served in the Revolutionary army,
and was a member of Congress during the early part of the century.
At the age of seven years he removed with his family to Lebanon,
N.H., where his father resided until his death in 1857. Here
he enjoyed the advantages for education common to the better
New England towns in that time; but the best part of the influence
which came to him in these early years of life was due to the
free and abundant association he had with nature in that magnificent
region. It was his contentment to trudge and live amid the mountains
and forests, its lakes, its brooks and springs in all seasons
of year, winter and summer alike. At the same time, in all sports
and contests of boyhood, he was equally
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- at home. Especially he had the blessing of being trained
amid the plain and simple ways of a strenuous and genuine people,
and in a thoroughly Christian home. After his eleventh year he
was under the private instruction of the venerable Professor
Ebenezer ADAMS, for many years Professor of Mathematics in Dartmouth
College, until the age of fourteen, when, after a single term
of study at Kimball Union Academy, then under the care of Rev.
Cyrus RICHARDS, he entered Dartmouth College in 1842, graduating
at that institution in 1846. The next year was spent in teaching
in Montreal, Canada, after which, for nearly three years he studied
law with his father in Lebanon. It had been the tradition of
the family from his childhood, that he should follow the father's
profession, and these studies of his early manhood, pursued with
great avidity and enjoyment, no doubt contributed much advantage
in his subsequent work, while they all established a fondness
for this and kindred departments of study, which have made them
more than a pastime until now. Having completed the requisite
course of reading, and entered upon practice with his father,
in consequence of mature views regarding his life work, Mr. BLAISDELL
entered Andover Theological Seminary, and graduated at that institution
in 1852. On leaving the Seminary he immediately became pastor
of the Third Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and remained
in that pastorate seven years - a period which is cherished by
pastor and people alike in grateful and loving memory. In 1859
he was called to the service of Beloit College as Professor of
Rhetoric and English Literature, from which position he was transferred,
in 1865, to his present department of Mental and Moral Philosophy,
in the same institution. He has been teacher in the college,
of thirty successive classes, and his pupils - among the best
of men in all the various callings in which men may be honorable,
are a bond of affiliation which connects him, through themselves,
with the work of doing good in all parts of the earth. His work
in the college has been to him one of extreme enjoyment, truly
a labor of love, from which offers of large emolument and wider
fame have had no charm to call him, satisfied if the sons of
the college are true and affective in maintaining the principles
of intelligent loyalty to Christ, which it is the mission of
the college to teach and make prevalent.
- Professor BLAISDELL has been identified from early life with
the work of public instruction in
- the common schools. He was Superintendent of schools in Lebanon
H.H., in 1847, '48 and '49, and in Beloit from 1864 to 1869.
He has been a diligent and thoughtful student of social questions,
and has made frequent addresses on Methods of Penal administration
and kindred subjects. In the War of the Rebellion he was chaplain
of the 40th regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers, a regiment composed
in a large measure, of members - teachers and students - of Wisconsin
colleges. He has taken active part in the cause of temperance,
and has identified himself from the first, with the agitation
in behalf of prohibiting and making criminal the outrage of the
brewery and the saloon. A student and scholar, loving nature
and books, he is more interested in men, and no good interest,
private of public, has failed to command his sympathies, and,
to the extent of his ability, his active support. He received
the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dartmouth College, his
Alma Mater, and from Knox College in the sane year - 1873. He,
with all his family, is a member of the First Congregational
Church, in Beloit.
- Professor BLAISDELL married, Feb. 1, 1853, Susan Ann ALLEN,
daughter of Abner
- ALLEN, of Lebanon, N.H. A simple and sincere hospitality
has been to them a constant joy, in having in their home among
the best of all the earth. They have had three children; Abner
Allen, who died in 1875, while a senior in Beloit College; Phillip
VanBergen and James Arnold. Professor BLAISDELL is in the full
vigor of life, and gives promise of not a few years of active
work.
- Professor J. J. BLAISDELL is an extempore speaker who always
lights up his subject, a true
- orator. With wonderful memory and ample culture, an instructed
scribe, he brings forth out of his treasure, things new and old.
His style, whether as a speaker or as a writer, is that of sound
logic, a wealth of accurate verbal expressions, clear, progressive
thought and ever present impressive earnestness. His penmanship
could hardly be worse and his writing on the hearts of men could
hardly be better than it is. As a man Prof. BLAISDELL seems to
strangers somewhat reserved yet genial and scholarly. To old
acquaintances, and especially to his former pupils, he is a lifelong,
manly, Christian friend, for whom they all cherish feelings both
of reverence and strong affection. His unselfish and untiring
devotion to the best welfare of those under his charge has impressed
on each the nobility of self-sacrificing service for the good
of others. His published works are chiefly comprised in these
living editions. On the lives of many honored Beloit graduates,
in our own and other lands, lives which well illustrate noble
character, all who have eyes to see may read this stamp: James
J. BLAISDELL, his mark.
- On another page will be found an admirable portrait of our
subject.
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-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 203-204; lithograph from
same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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