Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/352

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BLISS.
BLISS.


upwards of three years, and rose to the rank of captain. He spent six months of this time in the prisons at Andersonville, Charleston, Macon and Columbia, from which last he made his escape, and after eighteen nights of perilous travel through hostile territory, reached the Union lines. In 1865 he removed to Michigan, and engaged in the manufacture of lumber at Saginaw. In 1882 he was elected to the state senate, and in 1888 a representative to the 51st Congress. He was elected governor of Michigan in 1896, and re-elected in 1900, for the term ending 1904.

BLISS, Cornelius Newton, merchant, was born in Fall River. Mass., Jan. 26, 1833. In 1846 he removed to New Orleans, La., where he was employed in the counting-house of his step-father, Edward S. Keep. Returning to Massachusetts, he accepted a position in the wholesale dry goods house of James M. Beebe & Co. of Boston, of which he afterwards became a partner. Upon the dissolution of the firm, in 1866, Mr. Bliss became connected with the commission house of John S. and Eben Wright & Co., of Boston, from which firm he later established a branch house in New York city, and on the death of John S. Wright was admitted into partnership, the firm name being Bliss & Fabyan. Another branch house was established in Philadelphia, and in 1851 the firm name changed to Bliss, Fabyan & Co., a large business being transacted and many important mills represented, among them the Pepperell, Androscoggin, Otis and Bates mills, and the American printing company. Mr. Bliss was made president of the fourth national bank, a director of the Central trust company, of the Equitable life assurance company, of the Union league club, and a governor and treasurer of the society of the New York hospital. He served as a delegate to Republican conventions, city, county and state, and in 1884 he was made head of the state committee to the national Republican convention in Chicago. He was secretary of the interior, 1897-98, and a member of the board of arbitration in the Industrial department of the National Civic Federation in 1901. He was treasurer of the national Republican committees in 1892 and 1896.

BLISS, George, lawyer, was born in Springfield, Mass., Nov. 16, 1793. In 1813 he was graduated from Yale college and in 1816 he opened a law office at Monson, Mass. In 1822 he returned to Springfield, and in 1827 was made a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives. He was twice re-elected, and in 1835 became president of the state senate. He was a prominent railroad man, at one time acting as president of the railroad running between Worcester, Mass., and Albany, N. Y. In 1853 he was elected again to the state legislature, and filled the speaker's chair during his term. The last twelve years of his life were spent quietly in Springfield, where his death occurred April 19, 1873.

BLISS, George, Jr., lawyer, was born in Springfield, Mass., May 3, 1830; son of George and Mary S. Bliss. His father and grandfather were prominent lawyers of western Massachu- setts. The son received his early education at home and in Europe. He was graduated at Harvard in 1851. During An image should appear at this position in the text. his college course he was associated with David A. Wells in the publication of the "Annual of Scientific Discovery" and of "Things not Generally Known." After his graduation he spent two years in Europe, studying at the University of Berlin and in Paris, and travelling through Sweden, southern Germany, Switzerland, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal. Returning to the United States, he studied law in Springfield, Mass., and at the Harvard law school, and entered the office of William Curtis Noyes, in New York. In the following year he was admitted to the bar. During 1859 and 1860 he was private secretary to Governor Morgan of New York, and in April, 1861, was made a member of his staff. In 1862 he was appointed paymaster-general of the state, with the rank of colonel. In the same year, as captain in the 4th New York heavy artillery, he was detailed to the staff of Major-General Morgan, commanding the department of New York. In 1862 and 1863 he organized, under authority of the secretary of war, the 20th, 26th and 31st regiments of United States colored troops, representing in this service the Union league club of New York. In 1866 he became the attorney of the metropolitan board of health and metropolitan board of excise, and with Dorman B. Eaton, as counsel, carried the litigation as to the constitutionality of the boards, and to enforce the acts creating them to a successful close, the final decisions in both being reached only in the court of appeals. Pending the litigation in the excise cases, a thousand injunctions were granted in the common pleas court alone. On Jan. 1, 1873, he was appointed United States attorney for the southern district of New York, which position he held for more than four years. Notable among the important cases during this period were the Robert Des Anges and Lawrence,