Gen. William Blakeley and Esther Louisa Brown

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Husband Gen. William Blakeley ^{1 2}

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           Born: 10 Mar 1833 - Cranberry Twp, Butler Co, PA 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 2 Oct 1899 - Butler, Butler Co, PA 4
         Buried: 

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         Father: Lewis Blakeley (1794-1845) 5 6
         Mother: Jane McAllister (1797-1882) 6 7

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       Marriage: 27 May 1856 8

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Wife Esther Louisa Brown ⁹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1883
         Buried: 

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         Father: Joseph Brown (Abt 1800-1883) 10 11 12
         Mother: Mary Marshall (1798-1877) 13

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Children

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1 F Mary C. Blakeley ¹⁵

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            AKA: Mary Z. Blakeley 14
           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Charles C. Holliday (1843-1893) 14 15
           Marr: 27 Oct 1881 15

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General Notes: Husband - Gen. William Blakeley

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He was born of Scotch-Irish parents on his father's farm near Brown's Mills, Butler County, Pennsylvania, and was the ninth son of a family of twelve children. He was only eleven years of age when his father died in the prime of life. At an early age, William was trained to the duties and labors of the farm, and at the same time receiving his early education in the common schools of his township, his teachers being the best of that day, among whom were Cyrus E. Anderson, R. J. Boggs and William McMillen; from the latter he received his first lessons in Latin and higher mathematics. He continued to labor on the farm and attend school in the winter until the fall of the year 1851, when he engaged to teach his first school at the old Bassenheim Furnace, in Beaver County, and afterward taught school at Hillsburg, Cranberry Township, and the Weir School in Buffalo Township, Butler County. In 1853, he entered the Butler Academy, at which he remained during the summer sessions of 1853 and 1854. In March, 1854, he was enrolled as a student at law, and one year thereafter he went into the law office of his brother, Col. Archibald Blakeley, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1856. On the 26th of August in the same year, he commenced the practice of law at Kittanning, and was elected District Attorney on the Republican ticket in 1859, which position he filled with ability and credit until September, 1862, when he resigned his office, and entered the army as Lieutenant Colonel of the Stanton Cavalry, which was afterward mustered into the service of the United States as the Fourteenth Regiment of Cavalry. He remained in the service until after the close of the war in 1865, when he received the appointment of Brigadier General of Volunteers by brevet for gallant and meritorious services during the war. He participated in the battles of Antietam, Gettysburg, and the campaigns of Kelley, Averill, Hunter, Sigel and Sheridan, of the Shenandoah Valley. In the fall of 1865, he entered into a law partnership with his brother, Col. Archibald Blakeley, at Franklin, Venango County, and in March, 1868, he removed to Pittsburgh, where he pursued his profession, ranking creditably as a member of the bar of that county. His early religious training was in the Covenanter (new school) and United Presbyterian Churches, under the Rev. Thomas C. Guthrie, D. D., and Rev. Isaiah Niblock, D. D. He was present at the birth of the Republican party at Lafayette Hall, in the city of Pittsburgh, in 1855, and took an active part in the politics of the county. [HBC 1883, 64]

He read law under his brother, Archibald Blakeley, and was admitted to the bar, March 24, 1856. Like his brother, he was engaged in teaching school in the Brownsdale neighborhood prior to becoming a lawyer. In 1856, he moved to Kittanning, was elected district attorney in 1859, a position he resigned in 1862 to become lieutenant-colonel of the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Calvary. In 1865, he was breveted brigadier-general in recognition of his services, and the same year formed a law partnership with his brother, at Franklin. In 1868 he removed to Pittsburgh and became a leading member of the bar of that city. [HBC 1895, 157]

1 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 64, 234, 240x.

2 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 246.

3 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 64.

4 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 247.

5 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 64, 236.

6 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (R. C. Brown & Co. Publishers, 1895), Pg 1141.

7 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 239.

8 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 65.

9 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 65, 234.

10 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 194, 234, 240x.

11 —, The History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Part II (Chicago, IL: A. W. Warner & Co., 1889), Pg 278.

12 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 974.

13 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 194, 240x.

14 —, History of Erie County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warner, Beers & Co., 1884), Bios 157.

15 —, Nelson's Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Book of Erie County, Pennsylvania (Erie, PA: S. B. Nelson, Publisher, 1896), Pg 582.