Blake, James D. (1838-1919)

BLAKE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 11/1/2017 at 13:28:04

BLAKE, JAMES D., Palmyra Township, Physician and Surgeon; P. O. Palmyra; born in Olive county, Ohio, November 25, 1838; he was educated at Marietta College, and studied medicine at Columbus, Ohio, Starling Medical College, whence he graduated M. D., in 1869; he settled first at Lowell, Ohio, in partnership with Dr. Echelberry, and moved to his present location at Palmyra in October, 1870; his practice is general, surgery however, and diseases of the eye being his specialty: he has performed nearly all the Capital operations with success; he is a member of the Noble County Medical Society, and has been President and Secretary and also a member of the Warren County Medical Society, of which he has been Vice- President and Treasurer, and a member of the Iowa State Medical Society; his contributions to medical literature have been "Puerperal Fever," its causation and treatment, Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal, December, 1876. "A case of poisoning and death with Veratrum Viride." American Medical Weekly, November, 1874. "Case of a white girl twelve years old, giving birth to a mulatto child weighing nine pounds," American Medical Weekly. "No Humbuggery," Warren Record. Articles contributed to Medical Societies, "Inflammation, its Etiology, "Tubercular Consumption," Typhoid Fever of the West," "Spinal Concussion," "Railway Spine," "A new Cephalus Monster, with drawing," American Bi-weekly Medical Journal. "Abscess of the Womb," &c. In April 9, 1863, he married Miss Hannah E., daughter of James Kelley, Esq. of Banesville, Ohio; they have a family of two sons and one daughter; Eugene Lind, Byron Storer, Luna May.
Source: History of Warren County, Iowa, containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, & etc., Union Historical Co.; Des Moines, IA, 1879, p.708

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.700
JAMES D. BLAKE, M. D.
Dr. J. D. Blake is now one of the oldest practitioners of medicine in Warren County, having been engaged in active practice in Palmyra for thirty-eight years. He was born in Noble County, Ohio, on the 25th of November, 1838, and there grew to manhood, his primary education being obtained in the common schools of the county. Later he attended Marietta College for four years and having thus gained an excellent education he taught school for eleven winter terms. Having decided to enter the medical profession, he took his first course of lectures at the Starling Medical College, and later engaged in practice under Dr. Echelberry, at Lowell, Ohio, for four years. He then reentered college and was graduated with the class of 1869, receiving the degree of M. D. He continued practice at Lowell for a year longer and then returned to Noble County, where he remained until coming to Iowa.
In the meantime Dr. Blake was married in Zanesville, Ohio April 9, 1863, to Miss Hannah E. Kelley, who was born in Mansfield, Ohio, but was reared in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. They have two sons living: E. L. and B. S. Blake, both prominent lawyers of Des Moines; but their only, daughter, Luna May, died when a young lady.
It was in 1870 that Dr. Blake located in Palmyra, Iowa, and he was not long in building up a good practice which extended for many miles into the surrounding country. There were two physicians here at the time of his arrival and fifteen others have since come and gone, but he has remained to enjoy an uninterrupted practice among some of the best families of the county. For forty-four years he has followed his chosen profession with most excellent success and his patients have the utmost confidence in his ability. He is a member of the county and state medical societies and he has the respect and confidence of his professional brethren as well as the community at large.
The Doctor owns a nice home and a tract of eight acres of land in the east­ern part of Palmyra. He walked fifteen miles to cast his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and with two exceptions has since sup­ported every presidential nominee of the Republican Party. He has filled all the offices in the Odd Fellows lodge at Palmyra, to which he belongs, and his estimable wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church at Hartford.