Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Blood, Charles F ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 10:19 am Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County CHARLES F. BLOOD, of Joliet, was elected justice of the peace in 1891 and re- elected in 1893 and 1897, having had his office in the Barber building since 1895. At different times he has held other local offices. For three years he has served as deputy assessor. In 1888 Mayor Paige appointed him chief of police, and he filled the office for two years, meantime accomplishing much toward ridding the city of toughs and desperadoes. The position was one of the greatest responsibility and required much night work, but he filled it in a manner highly creditable to himself. When he first came to Joliet, in 1872, he was employed as superintendent of the J. D. Paige bottling works, where he remained until 1878. He then became engineer of steamer No. 2 of the fire department, continuing in the position for ten years, when he resigned to accept the position of chief of police. The Blood family originated in Scotland, but was early established in Vermont. Jonathan Blood, a native of Rutland County, that state, and a soldier in the war of 1812, spent his last days in Erie County, N. Y. His son Horace, who was born in Rutland, moved to Erie County, N. Y., in an early day, and followed the harness maker's trade there. He held numerous local offices, among them those of commissioner and school treasurer. In 1869 he came west and settled in Remington, Ind., afterward engaging in farm pursuits near that place. He died in Remington, Ind., when eighty-six years of age. During the patriot war he served as a sergeant. He married Nancy Fairbank, who was born in Rutland, Vt., of English descent, and died in Indiana at eighty-three years of age. Her father, Willard Fairbank, a farmer in Vermont, spent his last days in Aurora, Erie County, N. Y. In religion Horace Blood was a Universalist and his wife affiliated with the Baptists. They were the parents of four sons and seven daughters, of whom four of the daughters are deceased. Dorr J., who was a soldier in the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh New York Infantry, resides in Remington, Ind.; Horace W. is a retired business man of Joliet; and Anson carries on a coal business in Omaha, Neb. The third of the sons, Charles F., was born in Aurora, N.Y., February 14, 1844. In youth he attended the public school and academy in his home town. With six other students of the academy he left school at noon one day in September and traveled by stage fourteen miles to Buffalo for the purpose of placing his name on the recruiting list. He was mustered into Company B, Tenth New York Cavalry, which was sent to Gettysburg, Pa., for the winter. By a strange coincidence, this was the first regiment to enter Gettysburg after Lee's evacuation in 1863. In 1862 he was sent to join the army of the Potomac, and took part in a number of cavalry dashes and skirmishes in old Virginia. Returning north for the battle of Gettysburg, after that engagement his regiment pursued Lee into Virginia, fighting in front of Petersburg and at other points. He was present at the mine explosion. At Trevilian Station he was struck in the left foot by a ball, but his heavy cavalry boot protected the foot to such an extent that, although he was unable to accompany his regiment for a time, amputation was avoided. At the close of the three years of service he was taken ill with malaria, and was sent to the hospital. On account of physical disability he was honorably discharged in front of Petersburg, in October, in 1864. Returning to his studies in the academy, Mr. Blood found in a short time that his experience in the army had rendered the confinement of the schoolroom distasteful to him. Thereupon he left and started for the west, intending to go to California. However, reaching Plainfield, Ill., in 1865, he found his brother Horace ill, and so remained. In 1867 he went to Indiana, but four years later returned to this county, and for a year remained in Wilmington, since which time he has made Joliet his home. June 29, 1871, he married Caroline, daughter of William Foncannon, a soldier in the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Indiana Infantry during the Civil war. Six children were born of their union, three of whom are now living, Ernest, Christine and Horace. Politically Mr. Blood was a Democrat prior to the war, but since then has been a stanch Republican. Fraternally he is connected with Mount Joliet Lodge No. 42, A. F. &A. M., and Bartleson Post No. 6, G. A. R. Additional Comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/blood1112gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb