Lockley, Fred.  "History of the Columbia River Valley, From The Dalles to the
Sea."  Vol. 3.  S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1928.  p. 690.
 
NELSON GALES BLALOCK, M.D.

     Nelson Gales Blalock, of Walla Walla, physician, was born February 17,
1836, on a farm on the Toe river,Yancey county, North Carolina.  Through his
father, Jesse Blalock, he was of Scotch and French descent, and on his mother's
side he came from German stock.  His grandfather, John Blalock, was a member of
George Washington's regiment, was associated with him throughout the
Revolutionary war, and received from him the Masonic degrees in Lodge No. 2 of
Virginia, over which Washington presided as master.  At the time of his death,
John Blalock was the owner of a Masonic emblem on which was engraved the date of
his being made a Mason by George Washington.
     Nelson Gales Blalock spent his youth and early manhood in the rural
sections of the Carolinas, pursuing agricultural and similar work for his
livelihood, and later teaching school and preparing for a medical education, the
object of his ambition.  His opportunities for a general school education were,
of course, very limited in that ante-bellum period, when throughout the country
districts of the south the facilities for book learning were of a most primitive
sort.  For some time he was a student at Tusculum College in Tennessee and to
pay his board and tuition there chopped white oak wood for fifty cents a cord
and made white oak rails at fifty cents a hundred.
     On the first day of August, 1858, he married Panthe A. Durham, daughter of
Macajah and Esther Durham, of High Shoals, Rutherford county, North Carolina.
One year before that event both he and his future wife were engaged in teaching
at places seven miles apart, he in South Carolina and she in North Carolina.
During the same time he was receiving his first instruction in medicine, walking
fourteen miles two nights a week to meet his preceptor.  In 1859, having decided
on a professional course in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, he
loaded a large four-horse wagon with an assortment of native country products --
chestnuts, dried apples and peaches, flaxseed, black walnuts and butternuts,
ginseng and Seneca snakeroot -- and attired in a blue jeans suit of wool shorn
by his own hands, carded, spun and woven into fabric by his mother and thence
fashioned into the finished habiliments by his wife, he set forth from his
Carolina home to Salisbury, the nearest railroad town, some one hundred and
fifty miles distant across the Blue Ridge mountains.  The journey occupied ten
days.  It was his expectation that he could dispose of his commodities at
Salisbury, but the market was not able to absorb so large and unexpected a
supply, and after selling what he could he was left with fully half of his load
on his hands.  This he shipped to Philadelphia with the necessary assistance of
the freight agent in billing the goods, for the young mountaineer had never
before seen a railroad and knew nothing whatever about shipping by rail.  Upon
arriving in Philadelphia he was so fortunate as to realize a good price for his
produce, and with the resulting funds paid his way through the first year at the
medical college.  While in attendance there he still wore the blue jean suit
and, being the only student of over six hundred thus arrayed, was very
conspicuous and was familiarly known as "Blue Jeans."  During the second year
his wife and their two-year-old son, Yancey, were with him.  The family reaches
Philadelphia with only seventy-five dollars, whereas the college fees which had
to be paid amounted to one hundred and thirty dollars.  Professor Dixon of the
college became responsible for the deficit and Mrs. Blalock assisted by boarding
eight medical students without hired help.  In this enterprise she was so
successful that the advance made by the Professor was repaid out of the first
two months' income.  Mr. Blalock was graduated as Doctor of Medicine in March,
1861, when after settling his debts he had fifty cents left.  Meanwhile he had
selected Decatur, Illinois, as his future home.  Professor Dixon again came to
the rescue, loaning him fifty dollars, with which the fares to Decatur were
paid.  After arriving at Decatur, Dr. Blalock settled in the neighboring town of
Mt. Zion, where he purchased a lot on one year's time for twenty dollars.  He
then went into the woods and cut logs, which he hauled to a sawmill with a team
borrowed from his uncle, assisted in sawing the lumber, and from it built a
small box-house, into which the family moved.
     By this time the Civil war was in progress.  A call was made by Governor
Yates of Illinois for army surgeons, and Dr. Blalock went before the state board
of medical examiners and received a certificate.  He was commissioned by
Governor Yates assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Regiment,
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with only two weeks' time to prepare for the
service.  Another child had now been born to him, and to leave his wife and
babies in a strange land without money seemed a very hard sacrifice; but without
hesitation he entered upon the course of duty he had chosen and at the appointed
time joined his command.  After three years in the army he was sent home in an
unconscious condition, suffering from typhoid fever followed by dysentery, and
for three weeks did not know that he was in his own house.  As soon as he was
able he commenced a private practice, in which he continued in Illinois until
1872.  He then crossed the continent by team with the object of selecting a new
home in the Pacific northwest, and, deciding to locate in Walla Walla, returned
to Illinois for his family.
     With his wife and family he joined a party consisting of several other
families.  The start was made in May, 1873, and they arrived at Walla Walla on
the 11th of October.  There were twenty-seven immigrants in the company, whose
total financial means did not exceed twenty dollars when they reached Walla
Walla.  Dr. Blalock at once found employment in hauling wheat from Walla Walla
to Wallula, loading back with groceries and other merchandise, which had to be
laid in before navigation on the Columbia closed for the winter.  He was thus
engaged for a little over a month, when he embarked in professional business as
a physician -- the beginning of a long and noteworthy career in that relation.
     The practice of medicine in early time in eastern Washington was a very
arduous vocation, involving constant travel by buckboard or horseback for
distances of one hundred to two hundred and twenty-five miles, frequently on
urgent calls.  The following is a typical instance.  One day Dr. Blalock
received a message brought by an Indian by a stockman, the only white man living
with a family in the Yakima country, which read:  "Come immediately.  Wife
bleeding to death.  Indian waiting on north side of the Columbia.  Don't spare
horseflesh.  Money ready."  The message came at eleven o'clock in the morning
and at one o'clock in the afternoon the Doctor was at old Wallula on the
Columbia, thirty-two miles from Walla Walla.  He was rowed across and was met by
a large Indian with a buckboard and two very fine cayuses.  While waiting for
him the Indian had supplied himself with a dozen stout willow whips, which he
applied with much energy to the horses for a distance of sixty miles without
making a stop even to water the animals.  He then turned his jaded beasts loose
to take care of themselves, changed teams, hastened into the Yakima river for
water and continued the journey with equal speed.  The arrived at their
destination, two hundred and twenty-five miles from Walla Walla, in fifteen
hours, having averaged fifteen miles an hour.  At the ranch there was a large
assemblage of Indians, good friends of the stockman and his sick wife, among
whom there was much commotion when it was announced that the Doctor had come,
and they crowded around into the house to see what he could do.  The case was a
retained placenta, which was quickly removed, and although the patient was
exhausted from the loss of blood she rallied rapidly.  Great was the enthusiasm
of the assembled friends when the husband informed them that his wife would
live.  The Doctor slept four hours and then returned, making the trip homeward
in twenty-five hours.  When they came to the sixty-mile stations where the first
team had been left, they found one of the horses dead and the other so stiff
that it could not walk.  He began to express regret for the loss of so fine a
team, but was silenced by the Indian owner, who said, "Me no care.  Me have heap
cayuses.  Not many good white woman."
     Dr. Blalock, being the only surgeon in all the Inland Empire at a time when
there were no railways and only a few stage lines, had numerous experiences
similar to this, generally furnishing his own transportation -- a team and
buckboard or saddle horse.  He was at various times summond on professional
calls to Lewiston, Nez Perce and Lapwai.  At Lapwai he was called to see Henry
Spalding, whose parents came to Oregon with Dr. Whitman.  Mr. Spalding was
affected with appendicitis,  and as he could not be removed to a hospital and
the Doctor had to operate in very unsanitary conditions, he died some days
later.
     The professional career of Dr. Blalock covered a period of fifty-two years,
including his early practice while studying medicine.  His first case was on the
10th of September, 1858.  He preserved no record of the number of his surgical
cases and operations during his military, pioneer and civil life but kept a
complete record of his obstetrical cases, including the names, ages and
birthplaces of parents and the names and sexes of children, the last number on
the list being nearly seven thousand.  The child in his ninety-ninth case is now
a grandmother and is known by the name of Ninety-nine Davis; should her
granddaughter maintain the record of grandmother and mother, she may expect to
be mother in eight years more.  The Doctor hoped all the parties would live to
celebrate the event.
     Dr. Blalock's first wife died in Mount Zion, Illinois, May 17, 1865,
leaving two sons, Yancey C. and Plato.  The later died at the age of eight
years.  On the 10th of December, 1865, Dr. Blalock was again married, his second
union being with Mary E. Greenfield, daughter of Abraham and Sarah Greenfield,
and to them were born three children:  Luda, who died in 1876; May I., who is
the wife of Glenn B. Hite, of Portland, mentioned at length on another page of
this work; and Rose M., who married Phil M. Winans, of Walla Walla.  She is now
deceased, passing away in 1914.  Yancey C. became a physician of note and was
serving as county physician at the time of his death, which occurred May 14,
1921.  He was prominent in fraternal circles, being an honorary thirty-third
degree Mason, and had held nearly every important office in every branch of
Masonry in the sate of Washington, being at the time of his death grand recorder
of the Royal Arch Masons and grand secretary of the Knights Templar.  He was
also a grand master of the state and past eminent commander of the Knights
Templar.  Over one thousand Masons were in the funeral cortege.  The second Mrs.
Blalock died in Walla Walla, December 24, 1886. 
     Dr. Nelson G. Blalock took an active part in the promotion and conduct of
important enterprises in the Inland Empire.  He organized and was at the head of
Blalock, Son & Company, a corporation to build a mill and flume and to
manufacture and ship lumber, wood, etc., from what is known as Blalock mountain.
The company failed for one hundred and forty thousand dollars, with assets of
only fifty thousand dollars, whereupon the Doctor assumed the liabilities and in
less than five years paid every cent with interest at fifteen percent per annum,
in this matter acting against the advice of his lawyers.  He installed the first
telephone used in the state, which was employed in the mill and at the end of
the flume.
     His next noteworthy undertaking was what is known as Blalock Orchards, two
miles west of Walla Walla.  In 1876, he purchased, for two dollars and a half an
acre,  four hundred acres of desert land, which he leveled, put under water and
planted with apple, pear and cherry trees and small fruits.  He shipped the
first two car loads of pears from the state of Washington east of the Rocky
mountains, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company giving him free
transportation for them to the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.
After exhibiting them there for two weeks he sold them at a net profit of two
thousand dollars.  The Blalock Orchards were enlarged to sixteen hundred acres
and proved a valuable advertisement to the northwestern country.  Eight artesian
wells afforded ample water supply, irrigating the sixteen hundred acres by a
system of pipe lines twenty miles in length touching every acre.  Following his
orchard venture he bought twenty-three hundred acres of dry land six miles south
of Walla Walla, at the price of ten bushels of wheat an acre, equal to two
dollars and a half an acre.  A third of the first crop paid for the land.  The
transaction was regarded so unfavorably that the church session of which Dr.
Blalock was a member sent a committee to interview him and advised abandonment
of the project, as he would surely be bankrupt if he persisted.  He thanked the
committee and went on with the work.  The second summer's follow crop averaged
forty bushels an acre for the whole farm, and on a thousand acres he raised
fifty thousand bushels.  He sold the tract at twenty-five dollars an acre to
meet the indebtedness of Blalock, Son & Company, and the wheat was sold for
seventy-five thousand dollars, which was applied to the same purpose.
     Another great and successful enterprise was the purchase of seven thousand
acres of wheat land in Gilliam county, Oregon.  This acquisition was
incorporated with other lands amounting to nineteen thousand acres, and the
whole property was operated under the name of the Blalock Wheat Association, of
which the Doctor was president.  The association was conducted a few years ago
on the cooperative plan with satisfactory results.  Roads were built and fences,
houses and other improvements were constructed, all the business of the
association working smoothly and successfully.  He established an orchard at the
town of Blalock, which is now owned by J. W. Langdon and known as the Blalock
Orchard of that place.  He also set on foot the Blalock Island venture, covering
four thousand acres on the Columbia river in Benton county, Washington.  The
project is one of exceptional attractiveness to those desiring healthful homes,
and especially inviting to person who may wish to establish sanitariums, as the
climate is remarkably fine, there being over three hundred bright, sunny days
during the year.  Dr. Blalock's largest and last enterprise was the development
of three hundred thousand acres of desert land under the Carey act in Morrow
county, Oregon.
     He was a member of the constitutional convention which framed the state
constitution in 1889, was president of the Columbian Exposition for the state of
Washington, served two terms as mayor of Walla Walla and was a member of the
city school board for eight years.  For a third of a century he was a member of
the board of trustees of Whitman College and for the last twelve years and was
president of the board.  He was one of the members of the national rivers and
harbors congress from the time of its organization and he was also a director
for the state of Washington from the beginning.  For a period of eleven years he
served as president of  the Northwest Fruit Growers Association, which increased
in membership from one hundred when it organized to over five thousand and was
the prime factor in building up the fruit industry in the northwestern country.
From the time of its establishment he was a member of the American Medical
Association, of which he was a charter member.  He was also a member of the
Washington State Medical Association and an honorary member of the State of
Idaho Medical Association.
     Dr. Blalock died at Walla Walla, Washington, Friday, March 14, 1913.  We
clip the following press notices:
     Oregon Sunday Journal, March 16, 1913:  "Dr. N. G. Blalock died Friday,
March 14, 1913, at Walla Walla.  Few men have labored so long, so faithfully and
so effectively for the public good as Dr. Blalock.  He died in the harness at
the age of seventy-eight years.  For fifty years he has been one of the leading
physicians of the west.  For more than fifty years he held the serving of the
public as his highest ideal.  He preached in season and out the merits of the
Inland Empire.  Without hope of personal reward or financial gain, he worked
persistently and aggressively for the open river and for water transportation.
His last visit to Portland, which occurred only a few weeks ago, was to consult
with Joseph H. Teal on traffic matters of vital interest to the public.  His
best monument will be the universal regard in which he is held by all those with
whom he came in contact during his long, busy and useful life."
     The Sunday Oregonian, Portland, March 16, 1913:  "The name of Dr. N. G.
Blalock will not soon if ever disappear from the annals of the Inland Empire.
An active and successful practitioner of medicine, the scope of his activities
extended to farming development and public affairs.  He was a pioneer in
agriculture and horticulture as he was in his own profession.  He was
unselfishly devoted to the public interest and he thought of others long before
he gave a moment's heed to his own welfare.  It is pleasant to know that in his
latter years he was active and in touch with professional and public concerns,
and that his enthusiasm was never dulled by any temporary failure, though of
course his life was a distinct success measured by the confidence of his friends
and the esteem of the public and by the great share of personal happiness and
satisfaction that were assuredly his portion."
 
 
Transcriber's additional notes:
 
Census:
1850, September 7; Yancey Co, NC; p 423
Jesse Blalock, 36, m, w, NC, farmer, 400 real estate
Nelson, 14, m, w, NC, att. school
Uri, 33, f, w, TN
Cynthia, 12, f, w, NC
Huldah, 8, f, w, NC
Myra, 3, f, w, NC
 
1860, August 16; Yancey Co, NC; Spruce Pine P.O., p 455
Jesse Blalock, 45, m, w, NC, 500 / 1261
Uere, 42, f, w, TN, cannot read or write
Polly M, 13, f, w, NC, att. school
James L, 4, m, w, NC
Jacob Lipps, 73, m, w, NC, farmer
Cecilia Smith, 18, f, m, NC, servant
Nelson G, 24, m, w, NC, physician, 50 / 350
Panthe A, 24, f, w, NC
Yancy C, 1, m, w, NC
 
1870, July 16; Macon Co, IL; Mt. Zion, p 563
Nelson Black, 34, NC, physician
Mariah, 22, OH
Yancy, 11, NC, att. school
Plato, 9, IL
Lidia, 1, IL
 
1880, June 8; Walla Walla Co, WA; Walla Walla city, p 181, Second st.
Nelson G. Blalock, 44, NC, NC, NC, physician, surgeon
Marie C, 33, OH, OH, VA, keeping house
Yancy C, 20, NC, NC, NC, farmer
May, 8, IL, NC, OH, att. school
Rose, 6, Wa. Terr, IL, OH, att. school
(no relationships given)
 
1900, June 5; Walla Walla Co, WA; Walla Walla Wd 3, p 197; 1 E. Main
Albert Tout, 25, Sept 1874, IL, IL, IL, single, dry goods clerk
N. B. Blalock, lodger, 64, Feb 1836, NC, NC, NC, Wd, physician
J. M. Corpening, 30, Apr 1869, NC, NC, NC, single, physician
T. R. Eastman, lodger, 51, May 1849, NH, NH, VT, single, merchant
 
1910, April 21; Walla Walla Co, WA; Lewis Pct, Walla Walla city Wd 1, p 74; 253
Marcus st.
Nelson G. Blalock, 74, NC, NC, NC, mar 2, 5 children-3 living, physician, owns
home free
May F, dau, 38, IL, NC, OH, single, keeping house
Horace G. Mauzey, lodger, 61, NY, CT, CT, mar 22 yrs, retired physician
Minerva Mauzey, lodger, 54, IN, VA, IN, mar 22 yrs, 1 child-1 living
Virginia Byrd, lodger, 31, CA, NY, IL, single, teacher
Cassandra Resseger, lodger, 31, WA, Turkey, NY, single, teacher

* * * * 

Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in July 2006 by Diana Smith.
	
Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.