Charles Graham Blakely.—The prominent position held by Mr. Blakely in the business circles of Topeka has come to him through his long identification with the insurance and real estate firm of C. G. Blakely & Company, of which he is the founder and senior member. He is a son of John Chesnut Blakely, born Sept. 4, 1853, in the same Kentucky county in which his father was born, that of Laurel county, his father's birth having been in 1822. John Chestnut Blakely was reared to the occupation of a farmer and followed it throughout life. He died in the county where born, in 1897, at the age of seventy-five years. His parents were Charles and Martha Blakely, the latter before her marriage having been Miss Martha Chesnut. Charles Graham Blakely's mother was a Miss Sarah Brown prior to her marriage, and was the daughter of Leroy and Sarah (Graham) Brown. She died in 1901, when eighty-four years of age. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Blakely removed to Kentucky from North Carolina and the founder of the Brown family in Kentucky had removed to that state from Virginia, hence it will be seen that the ancestors of Mr. Blakely were from two of the noblest states of the original thirteen and undoubtedly were included among the early patriots whose force and energy, industry and bravery laid the foundation for this our great commonwealth. Charles Graham Blakely was reared on a Kentucky farm and after attending the common schools of his state, matriculated at the University of Kentucky at Lexington, in which he was graduated in 1879. Long prior to his graduation he had taken up the profession of teaching in order to secure the necessary means for completing his education, having taught his first term at the age of twenty. After his graduation in the university he continued the profession of teaching several years, both in Kentucky and in Kansas, to which state he came in 1883, teaching in all ten terms, during several of which he was employed as a high school superintendent. Upon coming to Kansas he first located at Hiawatha, where he remained nine years and where he engaged in the insurance business after having retired from school work. In 1892 Mr. Blakely located in Topeka in order to establish his business on a broader basis than it was possible to do in Hiawatha where during the eighteen years that have intervened since his removal to the capital city, he has evinced the same force as a business man that he did as an educator, and as senior member of the firm, by accuracy of business methods and sound judgment, has established one of the most reliable and successful insurance and real estate agencies in Topeka, with offices located in the Mulvane building. During his earlier years in the business Mr. Blakely wrote life insurance exclusively, but for many years past he has devoted almost all of his attention to fire insurance, representing many of the best and most reliable companies in the United States. Mr. Blakely is recognized as one of Topeka's best citizens and has gained his prominence as such not only by his success as a business man, but also by the dignity and uprightness of his character and the unswerving honesty of his dealings.

Mr. Blakely was married Oct. 30, 1894 to Miss Mattie Victor Kenney Dodge a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky. They have become the parents of two sons: Charles Graham, Jr., born July 26, 1895, and Victor Kenney Dodge, born Sept. 15, 1897. Mr. Blakely is a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and is a member of the official board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Topeka. In business, fraternal, social and religious circles in Topeka Mr. Blakely is known as a man of sterling integrity, strong personality, of kind and courteous bearing toward all, and royally endowed in those finer traits which attract and endear man to his fellow men.