PATRICK BLAKE
Patrick Blake also came in 1856, and located on section 5, where he at once went to work on the contruction of a house.
Patrick Blake, one of the pioneers of Cass county, was born in Ireland, on the 17th of March, 1824. When nineteen years of age, he came to America, being on the ocean over seven weeks. He landed at Philadelphia, and living there about five years, he then went to Phoenixville, and was there engaged in iron mining for five years. He then returned to Philadelphia, and there remained until 1856, when he, in company with his wife, three children, two brothers and a sister, came to the west to locate a home. They went to St. Joseph, Missouri, and remaining there some time, they came to Cass county, Iowa, and purchased eighty acres of land on section 5. He immediately erected a log cabin, in which the family moved and lived about eleven years, when he replaced the rude log house with a large frame building. His farm now contains three hundred and sixty acres of finely cultivated land, a fine orchard and many fine farm buildings. Mr. Blake was married in 1847 to Margaret O'Brian, a native of New York State. They have nine children, seven of whom are now living -- Sarah A., Thomas, Elizabeth, mary, Arthur P., Margaret E. and Katie; Ellen, died at the age of eight years.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884,pp. 628.
