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Blake family papers
The materials in this online repository form part of a larger Blake family papers record group held by the Bentley Historical Library. For a more complete index to the materials, please consult the collection's online finding aid.
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Abstract:
Biography:
William Frederick Blake and his twin brother Freeman Dawes Blake were born in Farmington Falls, Maine to Increase Blake III and his wife, Sarai Tarbell (Farnsworth) Blake, of Norridgewock, ME. For nine years, 1870-1879, William Blake was U.S. Deputy Consul at London and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Blake's paternal uncle, Freeman Norton Blake, was U.S. Consular Agent. On March 15, 1881 Blake married Alde Louise Tuck. The couple moved to Chicago, Ill. and then to Grand Rapids, Mich. In Grand Rapids Blake entered the wholesale grocery business and became a tea merchant.
Alde Louise T. Blake was born in 1857. Her parents were Cyrus Dean Tuck and Adaline Lucy Tuck. Alde Blake was the third woman elected a Grand Rapids School Board Member. She was elected in 1899 in the Third Ward and served one term. Alde Blake was a member of the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association and in 1912 she served as the Association campaign secretary. In 1920, Alde Blake served as an officer of the newly formed Michigan League of Women Voters, serving on the Republican State Central Committee, and running for the state legislature in 1920.
The Blakes had four daughters: Ethel, Dorothy, Barbara, and Isabel. Ethel Farnsworth (Blake) Kutsche (1985-1961) was educated in private schools and the old Grand Rapids Kindergarten Normal Training School. She Graduated from Ferris College, Big Rapids, MI. Ethel Blake married Rudolph Paul Kutsche. She was a Choir mother at Park Congregational Church in Grand Rapids and a Member Daughters of the American Revolution. Dorothy Stuart Blake held A.B. from Oberlin College and M.A. in teaching from Harvard. She taught classics in the Grand Rapids school system.
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Copyright has been transferred to the Regents of the University of Michigan.
Access to digitized sound recordings may be limited to the reading room of the Bentley Historical Library, located on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan.
