The Portland daily press., 1880-03-09
Senator Blaine and His Ancestry.

lffttSDurS Gazette.
Mr.. Blaine came into public life If not by
law of heredity, yet by strong association in
his immediate family. His great-grandfather,
Colonel Ephraim Blaine, of Carlisle, Cumber-
land County, Pennsylvania, was Commissary-
General Of the Revolutionary army from ITS
till the close of the struggle in 1888. The high
esteem in which Colonel Blaine was held by
Washington and his great compatriot leaders
in the Revolution is attested by numerous let
ters from them, official and unofficial, still in
the possession of Colonel Blaines descendants
in this State
Mr.. Blaine's grandfather, for whom be is
named intended originally to enter upona
professional and political career, but some
what prolonged residence in Europe after he
had completed his studies, diverted him, as il
has so many young Americans, from following
his first and better ambition. He returned to
his home in 1793 bringing with him, as special
bearer of dispatches, celebrated treaty with a
foreign government, since become historic, and
afterwards led chiefly the life of private gem
tleman.
Mr.. Blaine's father was born and reared in
Carlisle, and after an extended tour in Eu-
rope, South America and the West Indies, re-
turned to spend the greater portion of his life
in the adjoining county of Washington, where
he died before his son was fully grown. He
came west about 1918. having the largest
landed possessions of any man of his age in
western Pennsylvania, owning an estate
which, had it been preserved, would have
amounted to-day to many millions.
As a single item in that estate, it may inter-
est the present generation of Pittsburgers to
recall that in 1926 Mr.. Ephraim L. Blaine (the
Senator's father decided to the Economics the
splendid tract of land on which their town
with all its improvements and all its wealth
now stands. Tho price was So, 900 br prop
erty whose value to-day, even il unimproved,
would be a princely fortune. There were
also timber tracts on the Allegheny and coal
tracts on the Monongahela, at that day OF no
special value, which now represent large for
tunes in the hands of those lucky enough to
hold them. Verv near the large tracts owned
by his father and grandfather. Senator Blaine
is now the possessor of one of the most valu-
able coal properties in the Monongahela Val
ley. In area it is but fraction Of that which
he might have hoped to inherit. but in value it
is manifold greater than the whole landed es-
tate OF DIS 1atner nfty years ago.
1t is not a matter of much interest in politi-
cal annals, but there are some still living who
remember that Mr.. Blaine's father and grand
father were especially and widely noted as
gentlemen of great elegance of manner and
culture Both had travelled in foreign lands
| in the early days when travelling abroad was
rare both We're highly educated, and both had
| a great deal of that aristocracy of bearing and
| pride of family from which the Senator is
| robustly and cheerfully free.
Special pains were taken by Mr. Blaine's
| father to give his son thorough intellectual
| training. He was under the best tutorage in
| his earliest years, and at the age of eleven was
| sent TO Lancaster, Ohio, to school, where he
| lived in the family of his relative, the Hon.
| Thomas Ewing, at that time Secretary of the
| Treasury. General Thomas Ewing, at present
| in Congress, his cousin, and of the same age,
| was his clasSmate under the tuition of an Eng
| lishman named William Lyons, a brother of
| the elder Lord Lyons, and nnce of the late
| British Minister at Washington
In November 1913, Mr.. Blaine entered the
| Freshman class of Washington College, and
| graduated in September, 1S47, at the age of
| seventeen years and eight months. In a class
| of thirty-three members Mr.. Blaine shared the
| first honor with John G. Hervey, now Super
| intendent of Public Instruction at Wheeling
| He was a diligent, ambitious student, specially
| excelled in mathematics and Latin and was
| marked also for his proficiency in Logic and
| Political Economy. His college guardian was
| his uncle, the Hon. John III. Ewing at that
| time Representative in Congress from the
| Washington District, and who still lives at an
| advanced age, with very lively interest in
| the fortunes of his nephew.