GEORGE M. BLODGETT 

George M. was born in New York. His mother died when he was six and his father moved to Kalamazoo Michigan and remarried. His education was limited and he became used to hard work at an early age. He worked as a hired hand and at logging in the pine woods of Michigan. When he was 21 years of age he left Michigan and went to Winnebago County Illinois and took charge of a quarter section of land for which he had traded. Not liking his prairie surroundings, he traded his land for a small tract, now within the city limits of Moline, IL. He remained there for four years when he traded that farm for one in Iowa which he then sold. With his small means he came to Kansas, arriving in Atchison on April 5, 1855. He took up a claim and bought land from the Delaware Indians and began developing his farm.

When volunteers were called for at the outbreak of the Civil war, he offered himself for the defense of his country's honor and was accepted as a member of Co. F, 13th reg. Kansas Infantry(Colonel Brown's regiment) and mustered into service at fort Leavenwotrth, Kans. He was a Sgt in his company and participated in battles in Missouri and Eastern Arkansas and was once wounded by a bursting shell.

George M. married Mary Elizabeth Cline, a daughter of Henry Cline, an early settler of Atchison County and has six children viz: Thomas Lincoln, Elvina, Frank, Fred, Josephine and Louie.. Their farm was in Mt. Pleasant township, east of Cummings KS. They did quite well and eventually owned over 500 acres of land. He served as a deputy sheriff of the county in 1856 and filled many offices of trust in Mt. Pleasant township