George Westfield Blanchard, 1840-1907

BLANCHARD, TUCKER, BUCK, PERRY, KESTER, FRANCIS, KIRKLAND

Posted By: Mike Peterson
Date: 7/5/2013 at 01:36:04

The Spirit Lake Beacon
Dickinson County, Iowa
August 23, 1907

BLANCHARD. In Spirit Lake, August 18, George Westfield Blanchard, aged 66 years, 9 months and 13 days.

The old soldier has fought his last battle. Lights are out and taps have sounded. He "dreams of battle fields no more." No more he treads the rugged paths of life that lay before him in all the years of his manhood. He saw hard fighting in war and in peace he found no "flowery beds of ease."

At Trumble, Ohio, George Blanchard was born. In April, 1861, he enlisted in company C, 2d regiment Wisconsin volunteers, and was in January, 1864, transferred to company C, 22d regiment Veteran Reserve corps in which he rose to the rank of 1st sergeant. Mustered out October 30, 1865, his army service covered a period a period of four and a half years. He was in the bloody campaigns of the famous Iron Brigade, and few veterans of the civil war saw harder service. He was among the first to enlist in the defense of the union, and he stayed with the awful civil war until the rebellion was shot to pieces.

August 3, 1866, Mr. Blanchard married Miss Julia Elizabeth Tucker, at Dalton, Wisconsin, and a home was made in Waucoma, Fayette county, Iowa, in 1867. In 1879 the family came to Spirit Lake, and have since lived in this county. Twelve children born to Mr. and Mrs. Blanchard, eight of whom survive, with the widow. Mrs. W.M. Buck, Pipestone, Minnesota; Mrs. C.H. Perry, Manzanola, Colorado; Mrs. L.L. Kester, Mrs. B.L. Francis, Miss Lillian Blanchard, Spirit Lake; Mrs. E.H.Kirkland, St. Paul; B.W. Blanchard, Pasadena, California, and G.M. Blanchard, Spirit Lake.

In early life Mr. Blanchard learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed as long as he able after the war. He was a model workman and one of the most trustworthy men that ever handled tools. His handiwork is manifelt all through the community. At least five houses here were built for his own use during his long residence.

For years disease sapped his strength, and with all his powers of endurance Mr. Blanchard has been able to do little for a year past. The end came with weeks of intense suffering from complications involving dropsy and heart trouble.

Funeral services were held at the Presbyterian church Tuesday, conducted by the pastor, and old comrades of the Grand Army tenderly laid the scarred remains of the old soldier in Lakeview.