Biography - Alfred Bliss
REV. ALFRED BLISS, a well-known pioneer Methodist minister of southern
Illinois, now superannuated and a resident of Effingham, was born in the
town of Fairlee, Orange County, Vt., May 29, 1811, and is a son of Solomon
and Jerusha (Strong) Bliss. His parents were natives of Connecticut, and
settled in Vermont in their youth. They were Congregationalists, and the
father for upwards of forty years was Deacon of his church. Our subject
received an academic education and was reared to agricultural pursuits.
On the 4th of March, 1834, Mr. Bliss and Miss Direxia H. Knowles were united
in marriage. Mrs. Bliss was born in Northfield, N. H., and is a daughter of
Joseph and Hannah (Haynes) Knowles, of that place. Both were descended from
old New England families.
In 1838, Mr. Bliss left Vermont with his family, in company with his wife's
parents and their family, for Illinois. They traveled all the way by teams,
over new and poorly-improved roads, and reached their destination after
eight weeks on the way. They purchased land in what is now Fillmore,
Montgomery County, Ill., and in that neighborhood Mr. Bliss engaged in
farming for fifteen years. They were poor and had much to contend with in
the natural disadvantages of living in a new country, but they soon had a
comfortable home and became well off on account of their industry and
frugality.
About the year 1820, in his early childhood, Mr. Bliss united with the
Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his wife became a member at the age of
eighteen. They were both devout Christians from their youth up and were
active in church and Sunday-school work prior to leaving the East. Mr. Bliss
was Superintendent of the Sunday-school of his church in Bradford, Vt., for
several years. On coming to Montgomery County, Ill., they found themselves
in a wilderness, without schools or churches and with few Christian
neighbors. As the country began to settle they succeeded in organizing a
church and Sunday-school. After a residence at Fillmore of fifteen years,
Mr. Bliss was licensed by the Methodist Episcopal Conference as an itinerant
minister and entered upon his sacred duties about 1853.
Mr. and Mrs. Bliss had six children who lived to maturity and married. Two
died in infancy. Eliza Ann, the eldest, is the wife of James S. Moody, of
Fillmore, and has eight children. Celesta J., wife of E. C. Devore, died in
February, 1890, leaving two children. George married Maggie Russell and
resides in Nokomis, Montgomery County, Ill. Alice, wife of Lyman Allen, died
in June, 1880, leaving three children. Charles W. married Elizabeth Phillips
and is a resident of Hillsboro, Montgomery County. Nellie J., the youngest
of the family, is the widow of John C. White, whose sketch appears in
another portion of this volume, and makes her home in Effingham. She has
three living children. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Austin
College, to which institution she has been a liberal contributor.
Mr. Bliss organized the first Sunday-school in Montgomery County and after
entering the ministry was engaged in active work in that and adjoining
counties, holding meetings wherever he could get a few together, supplying
pulpits, marrying, and burying the dead, rejoicing with the happy and
comforting those in sorrow and distress. During the late Civil War there was
much sympathy among his neighbors for those in rebellion; many were
Southern-born and had friends and relatives in the Southern army. The
nearness of Fillmore to the Missouri border made it a favorite resort of the
guerrilla raiders. Mr. Bliss had always been a strong anti-slavery man, and
being a Methodist preacher was suspected of being connected with the
so-called "underground railroad," by which fugitive slaves were being
conducted Northward to Canada. Consequently he had many enemies in the
secession element, who were only too glad to point him out to the guerrillas
as one deserving of death. It happened that during the war he owned and
operated a grist and saw mill not far from his home and it was while there
with his sons attending to the grinding of some grain that the first
demonstration was made against him. Three strange men came in, claiming to
have grist that had been neglected or not ground in their turn and sought a
quarrel with Mr. Bliss. They were armed, while he was not, but he took
matters coolly and tried to reason with them. The men went so far as to
admit that they came to kill him, when a neighbor, a friend, put in an
appearance and the gang concluded to postpone their work. The neighbor
informed Mr. Bliss that he had happened to overhear the plot and came down
to warn him. At another time a man very much resembling him was riding on a
road which Mr. Bliss much frequented, was surrounded by four guerrillas and
made to dismount. He was marched into the woods, away from the highway,
where they gave him to understand that he was to be killed. They called him
Bliss and the man seeing the mistake naturally took advantage of it and
succeeded in convincing the would-be murderers that they had the wrong man.
No doubt had they really seized the man for whom they were looking they
would have ended his days then and there. On another occasion, while driving
with a niece in a covered carriage, he met four armed men who seemed
disposed to stop him, but as he drew a revolver and acted on the defensive
they hesitated and he drove on. These are but a few instances where his life
was threatened and his many friends wondered how he managed to escape.
For nearly forty years Mr. Bliss was actively employed in the ministry, and
in the cause of education took a prominent part. He was especially
interested in providing collegiate advantages for young women. He built a
female college at Salem, Ill., which was in successful operation for several
years, there being as many as two hundred students in attendance. When the
management of McKendree College opened the doors to female students they
absorbed the Salem school, which was afterwards abandoned. In 1881, Mr.
Bliss, having been placed on the superannuated list, removed to Effingham,
which has since been his home. He has continued to work, however, and has
been instrumental in building up thriving church societies in many places
where there was but little encouragement. He organized a society and built a
church at old deserted Ewington, the former county seat of Effingham County,
another at Sigel, one at Montrose and another at Union, which are now
thriving and prosperous churches.
In starting what is now Austin College, Mr. Bliss was one of the original
movers and was a liberal contributor to the fund, giving $2,500 toward
building the college. He was chosen the first President of the institution.
He has always given liberally to the building of churches, many of which
were outside of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, and other worthy
charitable objects have met with his sympathy and support.
In early life our subject was politically a Democrat but joined the
Republican party at its organization. He was chosen a member of the County
Commissioners Court and was re-elected, serving for two terms in that
office. He continued to vote for the Republican nominees until 1890, when
having been a temperance man all his life, he joined the Prohibition party.
He possesses a farm of eleven hundred acres in Montgomery County, which he
leases and which he acquired by years of industry and economy. Both he and
his good wife have passed their eighty-first year and are in the full
possession of their faculties and likely to live for many years in the
enjoyment of life. They celebrated the fifty-ninth anniversary of their
wedding day on March 4, 1893. Their lives have been useful and contented and
in their old age they are esteemed and respected by a wide circle of
friends.
Extracted 11 Apr 2020 by Norma Hass from 1893 Portrait and Biographical Record of Effingham, Jasper and Richland Counties, Illinois, pages 210-212.
