My Genealogy Hound

LEMUEL BLEDSOE, retired merchant, Vevay, is a native of New Albany, Ind., born December 23, 1832. His parents were natives of Kentucky; his father, Frank Bledsoe, born in Carroll County in 1809; his mother, Sarah Smith, born in Georgetown in 1813. His father was a saddler by trade and a member of the Christian Church; he died in 1845. His mother, a member of the same society, died in 1857. Our subject, received a common school education and at the age of fifteen contracted to clerk in a grocery store at Ghent for $50, fulfilling said contract. He then engaged with J. B. & S. Tansy up to 1851, when he removed to Florence where he engaged with Joseph Malin as salesman, and subsequently became a partner in the business. Mr. Malin sold out in 1856, and in 1858 Mr. Bledsoe purchased his successor’s interest, in partnership with Simon Beymer, the firm of Bledsoe & Beymer continuing the business till March, 1883, when Mr. Bledsoe removed to Vevay and his partner to Rising Sun, the firm having sold out and dissolved. During the war, Mr. Bledsoe served as enrolling officer for York Township, and was commissioned by Gov. Morton, captain of the Florence Cavalry Guards, organized July 18, 1863. His brother, Benjamin S. Bledsoe, was a member of Company C, Third Indiana Cavalry, and was killed in Wilson’s Cavalry raid near Petersburg, in June, 1864, leaving our subject the only surviving member of the original family. Mr. Bledsoe served as postmaster at Florence from 1864 to 1883, except during Andy Jackson’s regime. He owns an excellent farm in York Township, and this, he still superintends. In his business transactions he has been very successful, and in all the official capacities in which he has acted, he has acquitted himself in the most honorable and satisfactory manner. Mr. Bledsoe was married in April, 1860, to Miss Julia C. Stowe, who died in June, 1865, leaving one son, Benjamin M. His second marriage was with Mary F. Allen, of Warsaw, Ky., born in 1846, and the children born of this union are: William A., Lemuel and Beymer. The family is associated with the Christian Church. Mr. Bledsoe is a member of the I. O. O. F., and F. & A. M. and affiliates with the Republican party on all questions of national issue.