Marion County GaArchives Photo person.....Mark Hardin Blandford ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Harris Hill http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002514 November 6, 2003, 11:12 pm Source: Unavailable Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/marion/photos/ph400markhard.jpg Image file size: 37.9 Kb Mark Harden/Hardin Blandford/Blanford (I have seen it both ways many times) was born July 13, 1826. Sources differ as to where he was born. One reference claims Warren Co. and another states near Hamilton in Harris Co. I don't know which is correct, but I put more faith in the Warren Co. statement. His parents were Charles Blanford and Martha Nancy Hardin Blanford. He was one of three children, having two sisters. The sisters names were Francis and Carrie. Francis married Richardson Roundtree Stevens and if Carrie married, I have no knowledge of it. Mark Blanford entered Pennfield College, which later became Mercer University while quite young and graduated with honors. He went into the study of law and passed the bar, being admitted at the age of eighteen. Legally he could not practice in Georgia until age twenty-one. A special act of the legislature was passed which entitled him to practice in Georgia. He began his practice in Tazewell in Marion County. When war was declared with Mexico, he enlisted with the rank of 4th Sergeant in the Columbus Light Infantry, leaving there for the Rio Grande on June 28, 1846. He served for the duration of the war and returned to his law practice in Marion County. He was also a large planter and had significant holdings in the Kinchafoonie District of Marion County. He married Sallie C. Daniel in Marion County on Dec. 7th (or 9th), 1853. She was the daughter of Young Daniel and Nancy Martha Brown. He was quite active politically and an eloquent speaker. He was appointed as a county commissioner for the Wiggins district in 1850. He was identified as a leader of the American party in Marion county in 1855. The 1855 tax digest shows him as a lawyer and by 1859 he was practicing in Buena Vista. In March of 1860 he was appointed as a delegate to the Democratic convention in Milledgeville. In the summer of 1860, he organized the "Marion Guards." he became their captain and they were called to active service on June 16, 1861. They then became Co. K, 12th Ga. Inf., part of the Army of Northern Virginia. He lost an arm as the result of wounds received in the battle of McDowell, Va. He was promoted to Lt. Col. on January 24, 1863. He resigned his commission on June 9, 1863 and returned to Georgia. Seeking another way to serve the Confederacy, he was elected a member of the Confederate Congress, representing the Second District of Georgia. I was able to locate this communication which he co-authored in his capacity as Congressman. RICHMOND, November 19, 1864. TO THE PEOPLE OF Georgia: We have has a special conference with President Davis and the Secretary of War, and are able to assure you that they have done and are still doing all that can be done to meet the emergency that presses upon you. Let every man fly to arms! Remove your negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from Sherman's army, and burn what you cannot carry. Burn all bridges and block up the roads in his route. Assail the invader in front, flank, and rear, by night and by day. Let him have no rest. JULIAN HARTRIDGE, J. H. ECHOLS, JOHN T. SHEWMAKE, MARK H. BLANDFORD, GEO. N. LESTER, JAS. M. SMITH, Members of Congress. After the war he moved to Columbus and was a justice of the Georgia Supreme Court in 1872. The 1889 Atlanta business directory shows him as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He filed for a Civil War Soldier's pension in Muscogee County and died in Columbus on January 31, 1902. He is buried at Linwood Cemetery, along with daughter Lucy M. The Constitution Atlanta, Ga. Saturday, February 1, 1902. JUDGE BLANDFORD CLAIMED BY DEATH Distinguished Columbus Citizen Dies Suddenly at His Home WAS A VETERAN OF TWO WARS Formerly Member of Confederate Congress, One of Georgia's Best Known Lawyers and an ex-Justice of the Supreme Bench. Columbus, Ga., January 31--(Special)--Judge Mark H. Blandford, one of Columbus' most distinguished citizens, died suddenly today at noon at his residence in Wynnton. He was an ex-justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, a veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars, and ex-member of the Confederate Congress, and one of the most widely known lawyers in Georgia. While Judge Blandford had been in feeble health for the past few years, he was at the court house day before yesterday as a witness in a case. Mark H. Blandford was born in Warren County, Georgia, July 13, 1826. His father was Clark Blandford, who was the first clerk ofthe superior court of Harris County. Judge Blandford was raised in Jones County and studied law at Clinton with the late Colonel Robert U. Hardeman. He was admitted to the bar in Jones County by a special act of the legislature, owing to the fact that he was a minor at the time. He volunteered and entered the Mexican war in the regiment of the late Colonel Henry R. Jackson. He returned from the war and in 1847 settled at Hamilton for the practice of law. The next year he removed to Buena Vista, where he remained until the war broke out between the states. He commanded a company from Marion County, in the Twelfth Georgia regiment, and was afterwards colonel and lieutenant colonel. He lost his right arm in the battle of McDowell, Va., after which he entered the Confederate Congress and defeated Colonel Hines Holt. He remained a member of this congress until the close of the war, when he returned to Buena Vista and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1868 he came to Columbus and formed a copartnership with the late Colonel Beverly A. Thornton. Later he was associated with Captain Reese Crawford. He next formed a copartnership with Hon. Louis F. Garrard, which was continued until 1882, when he was elected associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, which place he held for the following eight years. He then returned to Columbus and formed a partnership with Hon. Thomas W. Grimes. This firm was continued until the death of Judge Blandford today. Judge Blandford was one of the most profound lawyers in Georgia, and his decisions while an associate justice rank with the best. Judge Blandford possessed a wonderful memory. He was a generous, noble-hearted man, and was exteemed and beloved all over Georgia by bench and bar. He is survived by two sons, Robert H. and John Blandford, and one daughter Miss Lucy Blandford. He is also survived by one sister, Miss Carrie Blandford, and several garndchildren. A meeting of the Columbus bar has been called for tomorow to take action upon Judge Blandford's death. The funeral will be held from Judge Blandford's late residence tomorrow. The Constitution Atlanta, Ga. Friday, February 7, 1902. THE LETTER CAME TOO LATE From the Surgeon Who Amputated Judge Blandford's Arm. Columbus, Ga., February 6, 1902.__Judge Mark H. Blandford, Columbus, Ga.--Mark H. Blandford, Columbus, Ga.--Dear Sir: The writer and undersigned, an old Confederate surgeon, formerly surgeon of the Forty-fourth Virginia regiment (now for a long time a resident of Denver, Colo., but visiting southern Georgia at Tifton for his health, temporarily impaired), amputated at the shoulder joint the arm of a Captain Blandford, of the Twelfth Georgia regiment, who, shortly afterwards, was elected to the confederate congress. Is the eminent jurist, distinguished judge of the supreme court of Georgia, and one of its most esteemed citizens, Mark H. Blandford, identical with the one-armed captain and genial, bright member of the congress of the dear old southern confederacy, whom the writer of this note so pleasantly remembers? Yours truly, "WILLIAM R. WHITEHEAD, M.D." The letter was answered by Hon. Thomas W. Grimes, Judge Blandford's law partner, who informed him that his surmise was correct. Judge Blandford had often remarked that the man who amputated his arm was a Virginia surgeon. The Constitution Atlanta, Ga. Sunday, February 9, 1902. AARP HAS THE GRIP (in part) (Copyright, 1901, by The Constitution.) "I knew him well, Horatio. A man of infinite jest and most excellent fancy." It has been years since I met my friend, Mark Blanford. I see by the press dispatches that he is dead--died in Columbus last week. It grieved me for a time, although he was old enough to die. Eighty years is a good old age if the man is good. Every time one of these old trees falls, it shocks me. George Barnes died not long ago in Augusta, and I was grieved, for I loved him and I unconsciously whispered "Next!" Only three of us left of the senate of 1866. There were forty-four, but the old reaper has cut down all but our Cheif Justice Simmons, our chaplain, Brother Yarbrough, and myself--and I am sick--But I was ruminating about Judge Blanford--men called him Mark--we who knew him best. He was, as Hamlet said of Yorick, a man of infinite jest and most excellent fancy. When the spirit moved him, he could entertain his friends most pleasantly and it was our delight to get him and Judge Underwood and Judge Buchanan together with Evan Howell as a teaser and spend the evening hours during the session of the supreme court when Mark was one of the judges. During the court hours Cheif Justice Warner was sitting as serious and aolemn as a Presbyterian preacher drinking in the record and digesting the law of the case, while Mark took in the surroundings and absorbed the humorous side of everything. He as a good lawyer, but jumped to conclusions like a woman and never saw much difference between the plantiff and defendant unless one of them was a woman or a widow. One night we visited Mark in his room and he regaled us with his experiences in justice's courts when he was young and devilish. The old time justice court was a good school for a young lawyer. He not only practised law in it, but the arts of oratory and could use big words with impunity, for neither the old squire nor the jury knew their meaning, but were impressed with their learned length and lingering sound. I still remember the Freeman case that Mark rehearsed that night. A yankee school teacher from the Nutmeg state had sued Jim Jenkins for $18 worth of schooling for his two boys, Troup and Calhoun. Jenkins wouldn't pay it because the two little nullifers hadn't learned anything hardly and they told him that Fretman gave powerful long recesses and carried on with the big girls amazing, especially with Sally Amanda Jones. Fretman was a good looking yankee, with pink cheeks and winning ways, and was popular with the girl scholars. Sometimes Salamander, as they called her, didn't go out at recess, but pretended she had some sums to do, and wanted the teacher to show her how. Troup said he heard her squeal one day, and peeped thriugh the crack and saw Fretman squeezing of her. She was a red-headed gal. Old Phil Davis was the justice court. Mark's plea was that Fretman wasn't a scholar, and not fittin to teach, that he couldn't read writin nor write readin nor spell all the in Daniel Webster's blue-back spellin book, and he made a motion to put him on the standand spell him. Fretman's lawyer fought it, but the old squire said he must spell. Fretman was scared. He trembled all over like a cold wet dog. "Spell Phthistic," said Mark, and he spelled it correctly. He then spelt him right along on all sorts of big words and little words and long words, and afterwood, but Fretman never missed until finally Mark says, "Now spell Ompompynusuk." Fretman drew a long breath and said it wasn't in the book. But Mark proved by an old preacher that it was in his book, and so old Phil spoke up amd said: "Mr. Fretman, you must spell it, sir." He was then sweatin like a run-down filly. He took one pass at it and missed. "You can come down, sir." said Mark; "you've lost your case." And sure enough, old Phil gave a judgement against him and he had the cost to pay. But, he was good grit, for he stuck to his school and his Salamander. "On one occaion a doctor sued a man for his medical bill of fifteen dollars and the man employed Mark Blandford, who had just hung out his shimgle, to fight the case; for he said the doctor was no account and he discharged him. The doctor swore on his account and Mark called for his license or his diploma, and made the point that no doctor had a right to practice without one, and he read the law to the squire. And so the old judge told the doctor to show his sheepskin. He said he had one at home, and asked for leave to go get it. It was just six miles to town and he rode in a hurry and returned in a sweat of perspiration. With an air of triumph he handed it over to Mark and said: Now what have you got to say? Mark unrolled it and saw that it was in Latin. That was enough for Mark. He made the point that it was not a diploma, but an old land-grant that was issued in old colony times to a man by the name of Caput. The doctor raved furiously, but Mark stuck to it that there was no mention in the document of John William Head--that it was issued to Johannes Gulielmus, filius, Caput--an altogether different person, and he asked the doctor please to read the thing to the court. Of course the doctor couldn't do it and he lost his case. The old squire said that he didn't know whether it was a land-grant or a diploma or a patent for some machine; and if the doctor couldn't read it, he wasn't fitten to practice medicine." (continues at length.....) Additional Comments: This is a compilation of the data I was able to locate about Mark H. Blandford. You will note slight inconsistancies in the data from time to time as the sources were not always in exact aggrement. The sources for this bio were Judy Gresham, who supplied much information and confirmed some I had, The Atlanta Constitution, The Political Graveyard, and The History of Marion County by Miss Nettie Powell. This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 14.6 Kb