Leonard Stott Blakey 1881-1919

BLAKEY

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 7/2/2010 at 22:25:38

Leonard Blakey Hit By Auto
Was In Chicago Attending to Business Matters – Struck By Speeding Car
Just Completed Gov. Book
Was Brought Here for Burial, Was a Son of Chas. Blakey, a Former Resident Here
Friends of Leonard Blakey of the Chas. Blakey family, were greatly shocked on Sunday last to learn of the sudden death by accident of Leonard Blakey in Chicago. He had been connected with a New York firm and was making a change to Chicago. He came there and took rooms with his father, sister and brother Roy, who is in the Rush Medical school. He had been down to the city during the day consulting his new employer and that evening went to the Y.M.C.A. building to get some stenographic work done. It was about 9 o’clock in the evening and it is supposed he was returning from the Y.M.C.A. building when an auto struck him. He was so badly injured he never regained consciousness. He had no Chicago address and the police rushed him to the hospital. On his clothing was his Pittsburg address and they at once endeavored to get in touch with someone there. In the hospital was an Intern who remembered there was a medical student in Rush by that name and after twenty-four hours after the accident they got in touch with Roy Blakey. The Blakey family in the meantime had made an endeavor through the police to locate him.

The remains were brought to this city for burial.

The following is the obituary used by Rev. Voorhies who officiated at the funeral services:

Leonard Stott Blakey was born in Racine County, Wis., April 15, 1881, the son of Charles and Ella Apple Blakey. He attended school near Spirit Lake, Iowa, the family having moved to a farm near there when he was two years old. Later the family moved to Estherville where Leonard attended the grade and high school, graduating in 1900. In the Fall of the same year he entered Beloit College where he graduated in 1904. Following this he taught in the high school at Savanna, Illinois, and Memorial University, Mason City, Iowa. Then he attended Columbia University, New York, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1911. He again took up teaching, going first to Tufts College, Boston, and later to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. The following year he went to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to take up employment work with the Air Nitrates plant. At the close of the war he became associated with the Bing and Bing Construction Co., of New York. During the latter period he has been writing a book on the subject: Has Labor Carried Its War Burden,” which is now in the hands of the publishers. He had just accepted a position as Economics Advisor to the Benjamin Electric Company of Chicago. Surviving members of the family are: His father, Charles Blakey, his brother Roy Blakey, and sister Dorothy Blakey, all being residents of Chicago. (Estherville Enterprise, Estherville, IA, October 8, 1919)

Book of A Local Boy is Popular
Leonard Blakey’s Work Now Running in New York Sun
Was Recently Killed
Work Has to Do With the Wage Scale and High Cost of Living – Is Authority
At the time Leonard Blakey met with his death in Chicago last fall he was just completing a book called “Wage Scales and the Living Costs.” It is a comprehensive survey of the wage question and the cost of living put down in a concise and readable form. The book which is just now making its appearance following his death, is creating a large amount of interest throughout the country as it deals with present day conditions.

Leonard Blakey was an Estherville boy. He was known to the great majority of our people and his career followed with a great deal of interests by local people. His untimely death last fall was deeply mourned by all his former friends. Had he been permitted to live he would have accomplished great things in this world. As it is, he leaves behind this scientific analysis which is being used throughout the country in settling important questions of the day. The Vindicator and Republican has on file a copy of the New York Sun containing the first installment of the book and we will be glad to loan it any former friends who may wish to read it. Following is the tribute paid to the memory of Leonard by that paper at the beginning of the article:

Leonard Blakey, economist and professor, from whose last work the following analysis of Wage Increases and Living Costs was taken, was killed accidentally by an automobile in Chicago recently just as he was to reap the fruits of years of study. He was born thirty-eight years ago in Racine, Wisconsin, was educated in the public schools there and in Iowa, and graduated from Beloit College, taking a post graduate study course at Columbia University in this city.

He was an instructor in economics in Tufts College and at Dickson, and then was attached to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. During the war he was the labor expert at the Mussels Shoals air nitrate enterprise. Last January Mr. Blakey began his study of wage increases and living costs with the idea that the findings might be of value to the nation in its reconstruction problems. When the report was partly completed he was urged to publish it in book form for use as a text book at Columbia and at Carnegie Tech. He also planned to send copies for use of the Industrial conference in session in Washington.

Owing to conditions in the book trade in New York Mr. Blakey went to Chicago to get speedy publication. The A. W. Shaw Company took up the work. He met his death as he was on his way to have his final revision of the last chapter retyped for printers. (Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, IA, December 10, 1919)