Champaign County IL Archives Biographies.....Blackshaw, Edward 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Celia Snyder cgsnyder@uiuc.edu September 1999

Biography of Edward BLACKSHAW, Champaign County, Illinois

From:  "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878

EDWARD BLACKSHAW

Was born in the village of Burnley, on the 1st day of September, 1831. His
parents, Joseph and Hannah BLACKSHAW, were native residents of that
village, as were their ancestors before them. Ten children were born to
them, of whom the subject of our sketch was the sixth.

All the children survived the parents, who departed this life about twelve
years ago in their native village. The father entered the service of his
Majesty, King George the Fourth, and did noble service for his country
during the Indian campaign. While in this service he lost an eye and an
arm, on account of which honorable wounds received in defence of his
country, he drew an extra pension from the government during the balance of
his life. After his retirement from the service by reason of his wounds he
became paymaster and clerk for John Wheely & Co., who were extensively
engaged in iron works and coal mines, and in whose service he remained for
thirty years, and until his advanced age compelled his retirement from
active life.

His son Joseph succeeded him in the position. The subject of our sketch,
for the greater part of his early life, engaged in the mines where his
father was engaged. At the age of twenty-three he was married to Elizabeth
JONES, of Birmingham, and in three days thereafter set sail for America,
and landed in New York, June, 1855. He at once started for the great West,
and made Ripon, Wisconsin, his first stopping-place. After remaining there
for eight or nine months he went to Fon- du-Lac, in the same state, where
he remained until the fall of 1858, when he settled in Urbana, his present
home. While in Fon-du-Lac he studied dentistry in the office of J. R. Cole,
and on his arrival in this city commenced the practice of his profession.
The Doctor also practiced taxidermy, more for pleasure and pastime than for
any profit there was attached to the work. And right here we may remark
that Mr. Blackshaw is regarded as one of the most skilful taxidermists in
the state, as the splendid specimens of stuffed birds and animals in his
office testify. For twenty years the Doctor has steadily adhered to the
practice of his profession, and during that time has regularly visited the
towns in this county in *	*	. From his long residence here and
monthly visits to different parts of the county, as above stated, the Doctor 
is, perhaps, aside from the public officers, one of the best known men in 
the county.

Mr. Blackshaw has in the time that he has practiced here established for
himself a reputation not only as a first-class and skilful dentist, but
also a reputation for honest and fair dealing, which, after all, is and
ought to be the grand desideratum of a man's life.

The subject of our sketch, in the time that he has been a citizen among us,
has acquired by hard, steady labor at his profession, and thorough,
careful, frugal habits, enough of this world's goods to insure him a
competency in his old age.

He is temperate to a fault, not indulging in ardent spirits of any kind,
nor tobacco.

Dr. Blackshaw at an early age became a member of the Masonic Order, while a
resident of Fon-du- Lac, and in that Order he has a reputation that is
co-extensive with the state. He was and is yet the mentor of masonic law
and jurisprudence in this section of the country. He has taken all the
symbolic Capitulantry, Cryptic, and Chivalric Orders in Masonry. He was for
a great number of years at the head of the Chapter and Council, and is at
present the Master of the Blue Lodge in Urbana, and in 1875 was honored by
his being placed as Puissant Grand Master of the Grand Council of Royal and
Select Masters of the State of Illinois. Mrs. Blackshaw, who, a year later,
accompanied by his brother T. B., came to this country, is a lady of
extensive and varied information, and is of an exceedingly social
disposition. She has of late years suffered from physical infirmities that
prevent her having that extensive intercourse with her friends and
neighbors as formerly.

The Doctor has two brothers and one sister in this country, namely, T. B.,
who accompanied his wife, as previously mentioned; and Joseph, who arrived
about seven years ago, and who at present is a resident of Pittsburg; Rose
Hannah, who married a gentleman by the name of S. W. MATTHEWS, and also
came to this country about the year 1873.

The cut of the building, which appears on another page, is the private
residence of the Doctor, and in its plan of construction, design, and
adornment, which are his work, display his excellent judgment and artistic
taste. In the early part of his profession, and before the introduction of
vulcanized rubber for artificial dentures, the practice was to use gold and
silver plates only. He was the first to introduce into this section this
valuable improvement, which has more recently come into general use in the
profession.

In conclusion, there is one point in the character of the Doctor, which has
been entirely ignored in the foregoing sketch of his life, and which is
nevertheless one of the brightest stars in the constellation of virtues
that adorn his life, and that is his social qualities. Without this a
picture of him would be incomplete, and lacking in one of its most
essential features, one of its most pleasing aspects. And it will not be
thought detracting in any wise from his skill as a dentist to say, that in
our opinion he owes in no small degree the success that has crowned his
professional life to that very marked trait in his character.


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