Biography of Alonzo Lasbrook Blalock, Madison County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 279, 1923.

BLALOCK, M.D., ALONZO LASBROOK, is assuredly not like the prophet of scriptural mention, who 
was not without honor save in his own country, for in his native county the prestige which 
the doctor has long maintained as a leading physician and surgeon and progressive citizen 
stands as voucher for the unqualified popular esteem in which he is here held.  He is engaged 
in the practice of his profession at Madison, county seat of Madison County, and his birth 
occurred at Cherry Lake, this county, on the 17th of March, 1862.  He is a son of THOMAS 
JEFFERSON BLALOCK and MARY E. (FRINK) BLALOCK, the former a native of Augusta, Georgia, and 
the latter of South Carolina.  Her father, the late SAMUEL FLETCHER FRINK, became an extensive 
planter, slave owner and sawmill operator in the Cherry Lake District of Madison County, 
Florida, where he had a large landed estate.  Mr. FRINK was a scion of an English family 
founded in South Carolina in the Colonial days, and came to Florida in 1858.  THOMAS J. 
BLALOCK was reared and educated in Georgia.  He established and operated the first steam 
saw mill in Madison County, where he became also an extensive planter, operated both a saw 
mill and cotton gin, and was active and influential in community affairs of public order. 
He served as county commissioner and as a member of the School Board, was in service in 
the commissary department of the Confederate Army in the Civil war, and both he and his 
wife were earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  Their children were 
eight in number.  After retiring from active business THOMAS J. BLALOCK moved to Madison, 
and here he died in 1915, at the age of seventy-seven years, his widow having here passed 
away in 1920, likewise at the age of seventy-seven.

The early education of Doctor BLALOCK was obtained in private schools, and in 1883 he graduated 
from Emory College at Oxford, Georgia, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.  Thereafter he 
made an excellent record as a teacher in the schools of Florida, but he bent his course to 
his ambitious purpose and entered the celebrated old Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1886 and with 
the degree of Doctor of Medicine.  He initiated his professional work at Madison, but later 
was engaged in practice at Macon, Georgia, four years, and three years at Ocala, Florida.  
He then returned to Madison, where he has continued his able and effective professional 
endeavors during the long intervening period.  For the past ten years, he has specialized 
in the diagnosis and treatment of the diseases of women and children.  The doctor was a 
member of the First Medical Examining Board in this judicial district, and when the State 
Medical Examining Board was created, in 1905, he was appointed by Governor Broward a member 
of the same, his service in this capacity having continued until 1913.  Doctor BLALOCK has 
been a close student of the best standard and periodical literature of his profession, and 
has kept in close touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science.  He is 
affiliated with the Madison County Medical Society as one of its veteran members, as well 
as with the Florida State Medical Society, the Southern Medical Society and the American 
Medical Association.  He was a zealous and effective worker in behalf of prohibition long 
before the national prohibition law came into effect through constitutional amendment, and 
he has taken deep interest in educational and religious work, he having served as chairman 
of the Board of Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Madison, and also as 
superintendent of its Sunday School.  He gave eight years of service as master of Madison 
Lodge No. 11, A. F. and A. M., and has been an appreciative student of the history and 
teachings of the time-honored Masonic fraternity.  In the passing years the doctor has 
found his chief recreation in hunting trips.

At Bellville, Hamilton County, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor BLALOCK and Miss EMMA 
ALINE JELKS, daughter of JOHN JOSEPH JELKS, who likewise was born in that county, where his 
father was a pioneer settler, besides having served in the Seminole Indian war.  JOHN J. 
JELKS was a merchant at Bellville, had large farm interests, and was a member of a Hamilton 
County Confederate regiment in the Civil war.  His wife, EMMA, was a daughter of Capt. J. 
R. STAPLER, a Hamilton County pioneer, extensive planter and slaveholder, and a Confederate 
soldier in the war between the states of the North and the South.  Of the children of Dr. 
and Mrs. BLALOCK the eldest was THOMAS EDWIN, who was in the employ of the Atlantic National 
Bank at Jacksonville at the time of his death.  THEOPHILUS PARVIN the second son, was with 
the Bank of Bartow at the time of his death.  CLARENCE A. and JOHN JOSEPH are engaged in 
business under the firm name of Blalock Brothers, in the handling of automobile tires at 
Madison and Ocala.  CLARENCE A. served with his regiment of the Florida National Guard on 
the Mexican border in 1916, and at Camp Wheeler in the World war period.  He has charge 
of the firm's business at Madison and JOHN J. that at Ocala.  JOHN is married and has two 
children, BETTY and THEODORE.  CAROL S., the next younger son, is engaged in the automobile 
tire business at Live Oak.  JAMES, EMMA ALINE, MAURY and WILLIAM remain at the parental home.