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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Counties of PORTER and Lake Indiana.
Historical and Biographical
Weston A. Goodspeed, Historical Editor
Charles Blanchard, Biographical Editor
F. A. Battey & Co., Pub., Chicago - 1882

   -291-

        THOMAS BLACKWELL, proprietor of the Chesterton Mills (or Poplar
     Tree Mills), was born in 1845, in Isham, England.  He is one of
     seven children born to GEORGE and MARY (BRAINS) BLACKWELL, both
     natives of England.  The elder BLACKWELL was a shepherd, and from
     near the home of OLIVER CROMWELL.  The ancestors all led a pastoral
     life.  When ten years of age, Mr. BLACKWELL was apprenticed to
     learn his trade, and went to school no more, on account of a dis-
     taste for an overbearing "master" of the times.  His indentures
     provided for seven years, but the firm failed, and he was given his
     liberty at fifteen years of age.  From that time until his twenty-
     first year, he worked as a journeyman miller in England, and was
     always successful and determined in anything he essayed.  He was
     now in poor health, on account of hereditary consumption, so he
     emigrated to America and spent a year and a half in studying
     American systems of milling, and with health improved returned to
     England expecting to stay.  He married MILICENT H. LEESON, a native
     of England, and a lady of taste and refinement. His health failing,
     he went to Canada, and had charge of two mills, one "three-run" and
     one "five-run," but after about two years he came to Illinois.  He
     was at St. Charles about six years engaged in his trade, including
     millwrighting, as all apprentices of that time had to learn.  In
     December, 1875, he came to Chesterton and bought his present mills,
     including a grist of "three-run," saw-mill, planer, matcher and
     machine shop, now valued at of $10,000.  His residence, situated
     near the mill, is a fine two-story frame, valued at over $2,000,
     finely situated.  In politics, he has always been thoroughly
     independent.

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