Thomas Lincoln Blodgett, late of Mt. Pleasant township, was born July 27, 1860, and lived and died in the township in which he was born in Atchison county, his demise occurring May 4, 1905. He was a son of George M. and Mary (Cline) Blodgett, his father having been born and reared in Michigan and came to Kansas when the State was created in the late fifties.
George M. Blodgett, the father of Thomas Lincoln Blodgett, was born in Livingston county, New York, October 6, 1834, a son of George W. and Lucinda (Garfield) Blodgett, and was a grandson of Thomas Blodgett. Thomas Blodgett, who was a soldier under Washington and fought for the independence of the American colonies, lived in Vermont, where he was a blacksmith and a farmer. He went to Michigan in 1856 and remained there to be near his son, George W., who had settled at Kalamazoo about 1846. Mr. Rowel, the father of Thomas Blodgett’s wife, was also a Revolutionary soldier. The children of Thomas Blodgett were named George W., Riley and Jared. Riley went to Rhode Island and became connected with shipping interests, navigating waters in the vicinity of Newport. Thomas died in Michigan in 1850, aged ninety years.
T L Blodgett
George W. Blodgett, the father of George M., was born in Vermont in 1800, and died in 1880, aged eighty years. His wife, Lucinda, was a daughter of Solomon Garfield, of Ontario county, New York. She died in 1840, leaving the following named children: Orinda, who married Thomas Sanders; George M.; Emma, who was Mrs. Nathan Allen, of Michigan, and John, deceased.
The education of George M. Blodgett was limited and he became used to hard work at an early age. He worked as hired hand and at logging in the pine woods of Michigan. When twenty-one years of age he left home and went to Winnebago county, Illinois, and took charge of a quarter section of land for which he had traded. Not liking his prairie surroundings he traded his farm for a small tract now within the limits of the city of Moline, Ill. He remained here for four years; then he traded this farm for a farm in Iowa which he sold. With his small means he came to Kansas, arriving in Atchison April 5, 1855. He took up a claim and bought land from the Delaware Indian lands and began developing his farm.
When volunteers were called for at the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. Blodgett offered himself for the defense of his country’s honor and was accepted as a member of Company F, Thirteenth regiment, Kansas infantry, (Colonel Bowen’s regiment), of the Seventh army corps, which was mustered into service at Leavenworth, Kan., and was in the military department of the West. Mr. Blodgett was a sergeant of his company and participated in many battles fought by his regiment in Missouri and eastern Arkansas and was once wounded by a bursting shell.
George M. Blodgett was married in 1857 to Mary E. Cline, a daughter of Henry Cline, an early settler of Atchison county. The children born to this union were: Thomas Lincoln, Frank F., Frederick, Luther, Mrs. Lavina Lawler, Mrs. Jessie Ellerman, and Lulu. The father of Thomas Lincoln Blodgett became quite wealthy and accumulated 500 acres of land. He served as deputy sheriff of the county in 1856 and filled many offices of trust in Mt. Pleasant township.
George M. settled on a pioneer farm in Mt. Pleasant township which he developed, reared a family, and died in the home which he built to house his family. He was the father of seven children, of whom Lincoln was the eldest.
Thomas Lincoln Blodgett was named in honor of Abraham Lincoln, who was greatly admired by the elder Blodgett. He was reared to young manhood on his father’s farm and learned to become an excellent farmer and stockman. After his marriage in 1881 he and his young wife lived on a farm owned by his father for four years, when they purchased 120 acres of land which formed the nucleus for a large farm which was later increased to 400 acres, now owned by Mrs. Blodgett. The first tract was bought on time, but by industry, economy and self-denial on the part of the ambitious couple, the debt was soon paid off and additional acreage was gradually added as the years went on. Mr. Blodgett was a successful live stock feeder and frequently fed one or two carloads of cattle on his farm each year. He was noted as a good judge of cattle and made money in his operations. The Blodgett farm is well improved and is considered to be one of the best in Atchison county.