Hancock County IL Archives Biographies.....Bliss, Isaac  September 9, 1824 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Sandy Morrey sandymorrey@yahoo.com November 9, 2009, 6:28 pm

Source: McDonout and Henderson counties, Ilinois
Author: Unknown

ISAAC BLISS has for many years resided in 
Hancock County, and is so widely and favor- 
ably known that this work would be incom- 
plete without the record of his life. He comes of 
an old family of England, that belonged to that 
class which considered coats of arms as indis- 
pensable appendages of gentlemen. At the time of 
the Reformation coats of arms were treated in a 
measure as idle trappings of aristocracy, and lost 
the prestige originally attributed to them. In 
America they soon began to be regarded as relics 
of former family vanity, and the stanch old 
Puritans would not allow themselves to tolerate 
even a thought that could remind them of the 
vain-glorious display and pomp of their persecu- 
tors in England; and so their children and de- 
scendants born in America grew up in ignorance 
of the heraldic standard of their ancestors in the 
mother country. The coat of arms of the Bliss 
family, as set forth in Edmundson's Heraldry, is 
thus described: "Gules a bend vaire between 
two fleur de lis," and bore the inscription "Sem- 
pei Sursum," meaning "Ever upward." 

  Ancient traditions represent the Bliss family 
as living in the south of England and belong- 
ing to the yeomanry. From time immemorial 
they had been inclined to Puritanism, through ob- 
serving the loose manners of most of the clergy 
and laymen of the established church. This 
led the family to undergo persecution, and their 
goods were seized, and some of their number were 
thrown into prison. Such treatment led them to 
look toward America with longing, and repre- 
sentatives of the family emigrated hither. Thomas 
Bliss and his brother George landed in Boston in 
the autumn of 1635. From the former in direct 
line is descended our subject. His fourth child, 
Nathaniel, was born in Springfield, Mass., and 
married Catherine Chapin, by whom he had four 
children. One of these, Samuel, was born No- 
vember 7, 1647, and lived to the advanced age of 
one hundred and one and a-half years. He wed- 
ded Sarah Stebbins, and the youngest of their 
nine children, Ebenezer, who was born March 4, 
1696, married Sarah Colton. They had ten chil- 
dren. Isaac, the sixth in order of birth, was 
born January 28, 1727, and became a prominent 
citizen of Warren, Mass. He served as one of 
the Selectmen and as a Deacon in the Congrega- 
tional Church. He took part in the Indian War 
in 1758. He married Hannah Hubbard and they 
had seven children, of whom Daniel was born 
April 10, 1761. The latter became a prominent
physician in Chandlersville, Ohio, and married 
Prudence Chandler, by whom he had twelve chil- 
dren. 

  Their second child, Samuel, was born May 22, 
1791, and became the father of our subject. He 
was united in marriage with Elizabeth Jordan, 
and they became the parents of eleven children. 
The Bliss family has furnished many men to the 
country who have been prominent in professional 
and business circles, and the honored name has 
remained untarnished through many generations. 

  Isaac Bliss of this sketch was the fifth in order 
of birth in his father's family, and was born Sep- 
tember 9, 1824, in Muskingum County, Ohio. 
His father, however, was a native of Vermont, 
and died in 1852, at the age of sixty-one years. 
His wife long survived him, and passed away at 
the advanced age of ninety-eight. She was buried 
on the anniversary of her birth, August 12, 1893. 
Two grand-uncles of our subject were soldiers in 
the Revolutionary War. Both were Englishmen, 
but one fought in the British service, while the 
other was in the Colonial army. The Jordan fam- 
ily is probably of Irish lineage. 

  In the State of his nativity Isaac Bliss spent 
the days of his boyhood and youth. In his early 
years he enjoyed excellent educational advantages, 
and, making the most of his opportunities, he be- 
came a well-informed man. In 1848 he deter- 
mined to try his fortune in the West and emi- 
grated to Hancock County, Ill. For many years 
he devoted his energies to teaching school during 
the winter season, being thus employed for more 
than a quarter of a century in the public schools 
of Muskingum County, Ohio, and in this locality. 
After his arrival in Hancock County, he was en- 
gaged during the summer months in farming and 
breeding Short-horned Durham cattle, of which 
he had a large and valuable herd. He also taught 
for a short time in Keithsburg, Mercer County, 
Ill. He was an educator of recognized ability, 
and his success along that line made him well 
known among other members of the profession in 
this State. 

  On the 4th of October, 1849, Mr. Bliss wedded 
Elizabeth M. Peairs, and to them were born four 
children. The mother died April 17, 1878, and 
on the 23d of May, 1888, Mr. Bliss married Mrs. 
Harriet M. Cherry. They have one daughter, 
May Elizabeth. Mrs. Bliss is a daughter of Alonzo 
and Eliza (Lyons) Sanford. Her father came 
from New York to Hancock County in 1837, and 
is now living in Wythe Township. The mother 
came with her family in 1831. Her father estab- 
lished a town that year which he called Mechan- 
icsville. He was a blacksmith by trade, built a 
smithy and a mill and opened a dry-goods store. 
This undertaking, however, proved unprofitable 
and he lost nearly everything he had. The town 
was situated about four miles west of the present 
site of Augusta. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bliss are members of the Presby- 
terian Church. In 1853 he aided in organizing a 
church of nine members and was Superintendent 
of its Sunday-school for twenty-five years. He 
continued his connection with it until 1892, and 
lived to see it become a prosperous and flourish- 
ing church. In politics, he is a stanch Republi- 
can, but in exercising his right of franchise he is 
guided not by party, but by principle. By virtue 
of his integrity of character, by his adherence to 
principle, and by his honesty of purpose he has 
embodied in his life the motto on the old coat of 
arms, "Semper Sursum." 

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