Biography - C. W. BLISS
C. W. BLISS, former president of the Illinois Press
Association, and a leading journalist of the central section of the state,
is the owner and publisher of the Montgomery News, the leading Democratic
paper of the county. He was born in Fillmore township, where the village of
Fillmore now stands, January 8, 1846. His father, the Rev. Alfred Bliss, was
a pioneer Methodist preacher of central Illinois long connected with the
southern Illinois Methodist Episcopal conference. His mother, who bore the
maiden name of Direxia Haines Knowles, was married to Alfred Bliss in New
Hampshire, March 4, 1834. In 1838 Alfred Bliss and his wife, accompanied by
their two children, sisters of our subject, came to Illinois, settling in
Fillmore township, Montgomery county, where he had purchased land. The trip
was made by wagon, and they reached their destination on the 24th of
September, 1838. Rev. Bliss afterward acquired a large body of land in
Fillmore township, and was not only extensively engaged in farming, but was
also prominent in public affairs and assisted in the substantial,
intellectual and moral development of his community. He was for two terms
one of the associate judges of the county court of Montgomery county, and in
1853 he began preaching, devoting the remainder of his life to the
itinerary, being sent to a number of charges in central and southern
Illinois. His wife died in 1894, but he passed away in 1899.
C. W. Bliss attended the public schools of Fillmore and in 1864 entered
McKendree College at Lebanon, Illinois, where he was graduated on the
completion of the classical course in 1869 with salutatorian honors of his
class. The degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon him, and in 1874 he
received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from the same institution.
Mr. Bliss entered upon his business career as a school teacher and followed
that profession for two years, during which time his leisure moments were
devoted to the reading of law. He was admitted to the bar at Edwardsville,
Illinois, in the fall of 1871 and located for practice in Hillsboro, where
for two terms he held the office of city attorney, and in addition enjoyed a
good private practice. He has been master in chancery in Montgomery county
for three terms and has performed other official service, having in 1892
been appointed by Governor John P. Altgeld a trustee of the Southern
Illinois Normal University at Carbondale, serving for four years as
president of that board.
In February, 1892, Mr. Bliss purchased the Montgomery News, the leading
Democratic paper of the county, and has devoted his time and energies to
newspaper work since then, having secured the largest subscription list of
any paper the county has ever had and larger than any other in this part of
the state. The News is a sixteen-page journal, all home print, and the
office is one of the best equipped newspaper plants in the central section
of the state. The building, a large brick structure, was erected by Mr.
Bliss in 1894 as a home for the News, and is furnished with a large power
press, job presses, folders and other equipments all operated by
electricity. His standing as a representative of the profession is indicated
by the fact that he was chosen president of the Illinois Press Association
for the year 1902-3. His business interests have not been confined entirely
to the law or to his newspaper work. He is a director of the First National
Bank of Litchfield, also of the Hillsboro National Bank and of the Hillsboro
Building & Improvement Association, and he is the president of the
Montgomery County Telephone Company. He owns about five hundred acres of
land in Fillmore township.
Mr. Bliss was married October 15, 1872, to Miss Elizabeth W. Phillips, a
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Burrell Phillips, of Hillsboro, and a niece of
Judge Jesse James Phillips of the supreme court. To this union three
children were born: Noi Celecta, born July 25, 1873, is the wife of Dr. H.
A. Seymour, of Hillsboro; Clinton P., who was born July 30, 1875, is private
secretary to Congressman Ben F. Caldwell, of the twenty-first Illinois
district; and Marguerite was born May 23, 1890.
Mr. Bliss is a Mason, a member of Litchfield Commandery, K. T., and is also
identified with the Knights of Pythias lodge and with the Benevolent
Protective Order of Elks. He holds membership relations with the Methodist
Episcopal church of Hillsboro, and is a liberal contributor to every public
enterprise.
Extracted 11 Apr 2020 by Norma Hass from 1904 Past and Present of Montgomery County, Illinois, by Jacob L. Traylor, pages 8-11.
