Aaron T . Bliss Aaron Thomas Bliss ( May 22 , 1837 – September 16 , 1906 ) was a U . S . Representative from and the 25th Governor of the US state of Michigan , and was from Saginaw Early life in New York . Bliss was born to Lyman and Anna M . ( Chaffee ) Bliss in Peterboro , New York and attended the common schools . He was employed as a clerk in a store in Morrisville , New York , in 1853 and 1854 and with the $ 100 he made there he attended a select school in Munnsville , New York , in 1854 . The following year , Bliss moved to Bouckville , a small town in Madison County , New York , where he engaged in mercantile pursuits . Civil War . During the American Civil War , Bliss enlisted as a private in the Peterman Guards of the Tenth New York Volunteer Cavalry , October 1 , 1861 and reported for duty at Elmira , New York . After a quick advancement to lieutenant , his regiment formed a part of Kilpatrick ’ s Brigade and was ordered to the front , joining the Army of the Potomac . He commanded a squadron from Washington , D . C . during the Second Battle of Bull Run and his rank advanced to captain . He also fought in the battle of Fredericksburg , the Wilderness , Petersburg , Ground Squirrel Church , Stony Creek , South Mountain , Falls Church and Warrenton . Then he was captured on General Wilson ’ s raid near Richmond . For six months he was held at the Confederate prisons of Andersonville , Georgia , Charleston , South Carolina , Macon , Georgia , and Columbia , South Carolina , where on November 29 , 1864 , like the man who would later precede him as governor , Hazen S . Pingree , Bliss escaped from a Confederate prison . He walked near three weeks until he reached General Sherman ’ s army at Savannah , Georgia just two days before its evacuation . Bliss soon rejoined his own command at Petersburg , Virginia , where he remained until the war ended . Life in Michigan . In December 1865 , he moved to Saginaw , Michigan and found employment at a shingle mill . With his brother , Lyman W . Bliss , and J . H . Jerome , he formed A . T . Bliss & Company and engaged in the manufacture of lumber and the exploitation of lands along the Tobacco River . On March 31 , 1868 , he married Allaseba Morey Phelps of Solsville , New York north of the town of Madison . That same spring the brothers bought the Jerome mill at Zilwaukee , and it became A . T . Bliss & Brother . In 1880 , Bliss was one of the organizers and a director of the Citizen ’ s National Bank , which was reorganized into the Bank of Saginaw , and was president and director of the Saginaw County Savings Bank . Politics . In 1882 , Bliss was elected member of the Michigan Senate from Saginaw County ( 25th district ) , and during that time helped establish a soldiers ' home in Grand Rapids . He was appointed aide - de - camp on the staff of Governor Russell A . Alger in 1885 , with the rank of colonel , and held the same position on the staff of the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1888 . In 1888 , Bliss was elected as a Republican from Michigan ' s 8th congressional district to the 51st Congress , serving from March 4 , 1889 to March 3 , 1891 . Among notable bills he introduced were for appropriating $ 100 , 000 for a federal building in Saginaw and $ 25 , 000 for an Indian school at Mt . Pleasant . He was an unsuccessful candidate for re - election in 1890 to the 52nd Congress , being defeated by Democrat Henry M . Youmans . After leaving Congress , Bliss resumed the lumber business and also engaged in banking . He was department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in Michigan in 1897 . In 1900 , Bliss was elected Governor of Michigan , defeating mayor of Detroit William C . Maybury , and was re - elected in 1902 , serving from 1901 through 1904 . During his four years in office , the Michigan Employment Institution for the Adult Blind was established in Saginaw , a state highway department was formed , and railroad taxation was sanctioned . Retirement and death . Bliss was a patron of the Home for the Friendless , the Y . M . C . A . , the Methodist Church and was also a member of the Freemasons and Knights Templar . Bliss died less than two years after leaving office at the age of sixty - eight in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , while on a visit for medical treatment . He is interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Saginaw , Michigan .