Bios: JOHN BLEVINS: Lawrence County, Pennsylvania

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  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lawrence Co transcribers.
  Coordinated by Ed McClelland

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
 
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  Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
  Lawrence County Pennsylvania
  Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
  
  An html version with search engine may be found at 
  
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/lawrence/1897/
  
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    JOHN BLEVINS,
    
    [p. 407] city treasurer of New Castle, is a native of Ireland, that
  oppressed dependency of the English Crown, which has furnished so many
  sturdy, industrious citizens to our country, whose presence has been
  especially felt in the growth and development of this section of the State.
  He is a son of John and Elizabeth (Anderson) Blevins; the mother passed away
  in 1870, aged seventy-six years, and the father followed six years later at
  the same age. John Blevins, Sr., emigrated to America in 1831, and after the
  first two months spent in Canada came to this State to that part of Mercer
  County which was set off to make Lawrence County; in what is now Washington
  township, he found a cousin of his wife's named Anderson, and there he bought
  a farm, and set out to acquire a comfortable competence and rear his children
  decently.
    
    Till the age of seventeen years, our subject attended the country schools,
  where the whole year's instruction never exceeded a three months' term in the
  winter. When seventeen years old, he came to New Castle, and learned the
  tailor's trade with T. D. Morgan, then in 1846 he went to Mercer, and worked
  at his trade, and in the spring of 1847 he came to New Castle again, and this
  city has since been his home. The first ten years were spent at his trade, and
  then he embarked into the grocery business, in which he continued until 1875,
  in which year he was elected county treasurer on the Republican ticket, and
  served a full term of three years; he then became a clerk in a grocery store
  and was so occupied until 1884, when he was elected city treasurer, which
  office he has held continuously ever since. Mr. Blevins has been an active
  supporter of the Republican party ever since its birth and inception in 1856.
    
    Mr. Blevins was joined in the marriage bond with Ruth J. Thorne on Jan. 3,
  in Washington; the bride was a daughter of Smith and Mary (Stewart) Thorne,
  and a granddaughter of James and Ruth (McLean) Thorne. James Thorne was a
  soldier on the side of the Union in the War of 1812. Our subject is one of
  three children, James, a resident of Washington township, and Elizabeth, wife
  of R. C. Rice, being the others; four children born to his parents are
  deceased. To our subject and his much-esteemed wife have been given six
  children, the three of whom that now live are: Mary Elizabeth; John Smith,
  who married Mary Gantz, a daughter of the well-known Prof. Gantz; and William
  James. Mr. and Mrs. Blevins are devout members of the United Presbyterian
  Church. Mr. Blevins has with credit established and sustained a splendid
  record through many years of public service as an honest and capable servant
  of the people.