Blackwell Family
Henry B. Blackwell
Biographical PapersW. Journal
Oct 9 1909     p. 163
Tributes to Mr. Blackwell.
_____
Oct 23, 1909     p. 171
Tributes to Mr. Blackwell
_____
W.J.
Nov. 20, 1909     p. 155
Immortal
L.S. and H.B.B.
(Written by Mrs.  Olive Tilford Dangau for the Memorial
Meeting to Henry B. Blackwell on Nov, 13)

Dateless now your wedded year,
Souls in endless union blest!
Death nor Time shall stay ye where
Speed ye on celestial quest
Past the coast of stars and sun,
Past the sails of any dream
That to us, here longing, gleam;
Dream must end where ye've begun


More than that ye go to Him,
And ye undivided go,
Patient faith needs not to know
Here within earth's conscious rim,
Where eternal virtues yet
Keep your union sacred, whole, -
Ye who married to beget
Beauteous children of the soul

Lovers of mankind, ye met
And your vow of service made;
Not for self the hearth was lit,
Not for self the board was laid.
There the beggared heart and sore
On the pilgrimage of need
Brake with - ye the living bread,
Took, yet lessened not your store.

In your love the world was fed;
In your faith the world was free;In your vision Liberty
Radiant rose above her dead.
Dream and deed in ye were one,
Vital linked in humanhood,
Where undaunted being shone 
That has known and shall know God. 

Buried in the race ye live; 
Life has bound your breath with hers; 
With her own your pulses weave,
With your dream her future stirs; 
And when man and woman move
Neath impartial heaven free,
In that time and clime shall be
Consummation of your love. 

While the vanguard halts with pain
Of the last, the shackled one,
While the woman's fetters chain
Every brother, every son, 


Shall your lives incarnate be,
Shall your spirit turn the way
Through the ages of the clay
Up to freedom's empiry. 

_____
Woman's Journal, Nov. 20, 1909     p. 185 
Blackwell Memorial Meeting.
A memorial meeting was held for Henry
B. Blackwell in Park Street Church, Boston,
on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 13.  The services
were beautiful and touching.  Mrs. Julia Ward
Howe's presence lends a halo to any gathering; 
and not only her speech, but every one of
the addresses, breathed real heartfelt affection. 
There was a great turning out of the suffragists,
including old friends whose faces had not been
seen for years;  and the spirit of the meeting was
like that of a large family reunion.The sweet organ music that preluded
the services was continued for some
time after the hour set for beginning, because
Hon John D. Long, who was to preside, had
not known that the time originally announced
(3 P.M) had been changed to 2.30, and therefore
he was late.  - - -
Addresses were made by Edwin D. Mead,
Ex-Governor John D. Long, Julia Ward Howe,
Rev. Charles T. Ames, Prof. Sumichrast, Moses H.
Gulesian, Francis J Garrison, James H. Slark,
Meyer Bloomfield, Isabel C. Barrows.  - - - - -


Woman's Journal, Nov. 20, 1909     p. 188
Mr. Blackwell in Politics. 
In connection with the tributes paid at the
memorial meeting to Mr. Blackwell's practical
ability, it is of interest to recall the fact that for
years after he settled in Dorchester he took a
very active and influential part in local politics. 
He and Rev. Frederick A Hinckley and "Charley
Codman", a public-spirited and much-beloved
citizen of Dorchester, long departed into the skies,
formed a combination which they called "the
triangle."  It was privately agreed between them,
when they went to a political meeting to propose
anything revolutionary, that one of them should
make the motion, another should second it,
and the third should get up an speak in
its behalf.  In these efforts they were very successful.
They "broke the slate" and scattered dismay
among the machine politicians, over and over
again.  After Mr. Codman died, and Mr.Hinckley moved away, Mr. Blackwell said 
mournfully, "The triangle is broken!" Another
characteristic of his was his love a bright 
light. When one of his sisters came for the first
time to visit home in his early married life
in New Jersey, she arrived in the evening.
She did not know which was his house,
but she picked out the cottage that was most
brilliantly lighted up within, and that proved to
be the one. It was like him to love
the light.BLACKWELL MEMORIAL MEETING 

A memorial meeting was held for Henry B.Blackwell in Park
Street Church, Boston, on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 13.  The
service was beautiful and touching.  Mrs. Julia Ward Howe's
presence lends a halo to any gathering;  and not only her speech,
but every one of the addresses, breathed real heartfelt appreciation.
There was a great turning out of the suffragists, including
old friends whose faces had not been seen for years; 
and the spirit of the meeting was like that of a large family
reunion.
 
The sweet organ music that preluded the services was continued
for some time after the hour set for the beginning, because
Hon. John D.Long, who was to preside, had not known that
the time originally announced (3 P.M.) had been changed to 2:30,
and therefore he was late.  Mr. Edwin D.Mead was called upon to
open the meeting. 

Address of Edwin D. Mead 
We greatly regret the temporary absence of Gov. Long, and
trust that he will be with us before the meeting closes.  I have
been asked in his absence to open the meeting. 
I rejoice, in the first place, that it is precisely here
that we are gathered.  When Gen. Armstrong was struck by paralysis
and lay upon his sick-bed at the Parker House, his mind
turned with anxiety to the question of how the great deficit at 
Hampton was to be made up.  You remember the town meeting in
the old South Meeting House, where Dr. Hale was moderator, and 
at which Bishop Brooks made one of his great addresses.  It was
at the same meeting that Booker Washington, speaking of his 



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great teacher, revealed his deep feeling and his eloquence
to Boston for one of the first times;  and one of the leading
addresses, as well as one of the most impressive, was made by 
one who stood for almost precisely the same things for which
Henry B. Blackwell stood -- the appreciation of woman as a pperson,
the hatred of war, the hatred of tyranny -- the tyranny
of the strong against the weak -- one who but a few weeks ago
also passed on -- I mean Samuel J. Barrows.  Some of us went
to that meeting from Gen. Armstrong's bedside, and as we came
away, the generous woman who had saved the Old South Meeting
House said,  "If I had saved it only for this meeting, I should
have been well repaid."
 
So I should feel that Boston was well repaid if it had
saved the Park Street Church only for the three memorial meetings
of this year, held for Dr. Hale, William Lloyd Garrison
and Henry B. Blackwell.  And there was a particular reason
why the memorial service in each case should be held here. 
So far as we know, Edward Everett Hale, who was born just opposite,
was the only Boston boy present in this church when
"My Country  'Tis of Thee" was for the first time sung.  And
here for many years the first Lend-a-Hand meetings were annually
held.  And it was a rare tribute that representatives 
of all churches should gather here in the stronghold of New
England orthodoxy to pay tribute to the great preacher.  It
was no less fitting that we should come here to pay tribute
to William Lloyd Garrison, for it was in this church that 
his heroic father first lifted up his voice against slavery
in Boston.  It is peculiarly fitting that we should gather
here to remember Henry B. Blackwell, for the steeple of the-3-
Park Street Church looked down on his heroic and sacred 
labors, and here in Park Street stood the doors through which
he went in and out to do his patient and persistent work;  and
it was yonder, in an upper room above the graves, that he
toiled during those last months when, as he looked out of
the windows, he saw across to the steeple of this church.
I am glad that we are gathered here beneath that steeple,
which was the central witness of his noble life. 
And as we think of that noble life, I feel like celebrating 
his beautiful personality, his beautiful presence. 
It was the presence of Henry B. Blackwell that was the great 
benediction.  Every one of you think of that presence -- of
that beautiful figure as it walked the streets, as young in
oldest age as in youth.  I sometimes think it is old age,
rather than youth, to which the greatest temptations come,
because it is then, when so many illusions have passed away,
when we have struck our gait, when we are facing the simple, 
persistent future -- it is then that character is needed, and
then that character tells. 
This beautiful spirit was young all his life.  He stood
for ideas, and stood for them pre-eminently at the last.  There
are many whose ideas have no more relation to them than the
coat they wear.  But with Henry B. Blackwell the ideas were the
man.  I do not need to tell you what were the ideas that he so 
resolutely, patiently and persistently championed.  They will 
be told here sore or less in detail by the speakers who follow 
me.  But I think pre-eminently of three, for a good man stands
for a multitude of ideas.  It is my theory that all good causes 



-4-

touch elbows.  The three closest to him were these:  The
first was that for which he pre-eminently stood -- that a woman
is a soul, that a woman stands on her own feet in this world as
well as a man, that she is not a hanger-on of man's pity, to be
patronized, but that she is a human being in her own right.  And
his great fight for woman suffrage was simply the one conspicuous
demand for the right to that self-expression.  There was something 
chivalrous about his love for women;  he always esteemed the woman
better than himself.  There was that in his which caused to be 
put on the memorial stone of Wendell Phillips, no "Ann, the
wife of Wendell Phillips, but "Ann and Wendell Phillips."  Then,
there was his great hatred of war -- his war against war.  But
his war was pre-eminently against the wrongs of women.  Then came
all those secondary causes, as we may call them -- that fight
of his against tyranny in Russia or Armenia, or wherever downtrodden 
men were reaching upward for right and liberty.  I confess
that it is in this great struggle that I think of his especially
-- one of the finest causes that he championed at the
many meetings I have attended with him.  This stirred him in
the many meetings in Faneuil Hall, where his voice was so often
heard, and where it was one of the noblest, the most thoughtful
and the best.  He was the incarnation of the spirit of Faneuil 
Hall -- the spirit that cared nothing for popularity, asked 
nothing about getting on, or about the thoughts of the mob. 
In the unworldliness of heroism and consecration, he stood for
the right as he saw it, and that after all is the thing I like
to commemorate.  The spirit of the men was even above the causes
to which he brought that unworldliness and consecration and 

-5-

superiority to the passions of the mob. 
When we gathered here at the memorial exercises in honor 
of William LLoyd Garrison -- the most impressive memorial service
at which I was ever present -- the most impressive thing
for me was that there was no word of lament, but only words of
consecration.  One after another, rising to commemorate Mr. 
Garrison, urges us to continue the great work for which he
lived and died.  Let us come here also today for consecration.
Let us vow that we will take up with new devotion the great 
cause which was pre-eminently his -- the cause of equal rights
for women -- and also the other causes which were dear to him. 
Above all, let us consecate ourselves to that simplicity, that
independence, that unworldliness which marked his life. 
It has become somewhat of a custom in these later times
that in proper seasons boys shall sound their notes with trumpets
from the belfry of this church, and they sounded a "Sweet
Home" on the eve of last Thanksgiving Day.  There is also a
beautiful custom at Oxford, where from the towers of Magdalen 
College a choir of boys goes to sing its chorals and carols.
If the trumpet could speak out for Henry B. Blackwell from
the tower of this church, and if voices could sing their song, 
I think the chant would be chiefly a chant of independence.
Nothing would be more likely than for them to sing those lines
of Wotton: 

How happy is he, born or taught,
Who serveth not another's will 
Whose armor is his honest thought,
And simple truth his highest skill; 
Whose passions not his masters are,
Whose soul is still prepared for death --
No tied unto the world by care
Of prince's ear or vulgar breath; 



-6-  

Who God doth late and early pray
More of his grace than goods to lend, 
And walks with man, from day to day,
As with a brother and a friend! 
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise or fear to fall,
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And, having nothing, yet hath all! 

Ex-Gov. Long's Address 
I was kindly asked to preside at this meeting  -- an unnecessary
office, for the meeting needs no president.  There
is an absolute equality her in the esteem, the respect, the
love which we come together for the purpose of expressing for
the memory of Dr. Blackwell.  And he deserves it all.  I say
"for his memory".  It would be better to say "to him", for he
still lives.  His works follow him, and he is with us.  He is
best known in this community as an earnest, unflinching advocate
of the right of woman to suffrage.  In all that, I share 
his views, and was glad to stand at his side.  I do not propose,
however, in the very few minutes it is expected that any one
speaker will take, to refer to him especially is that relation.
As a fellow-citizen, I want to bear my testimony to the large
range, the broad,comprehensive interests for which Dr. Blackwell
stood.  Especially remembered in connection with the cause of
woman suffrage, he yet was never on that subject a fanatic.  He
was interested in everything that related to the welfare of his 
brother man, to the betterment of the State and the city, and
of civilization.  There were none of the issues which are constantly
arising in the community -- engrossing, stirring, vital
issues -- of which he had not made a study, and upon which he
was not a man of judgment, conviction and clear thought. 

-7-

He had excellent business capacity.  A man of absolutely
pure life and character, and of the keenest moral sense, he
was also notable for his business ability, for his familiarity
with affairs, and for his comprehension of subjects of general
internet.  To-day we are looking about in the city of Boston
for a mayor.  I presume that, were he living, nobody would have
suggested his name;  and yet I can hardly think of a man who
would bring to that office better qualifications for the place--
not only absolute integrity, but clearness of vision, discrimination,
wisdom. 
He was very interesting to me as a type of the man who, in
his early youth, in the old anti-slavery days, was one of the
products of that moral uprising, and one of a body of men the
like of whom we shall not soon see again.  We shall have their 
equals, because the world grows no worse;  but we shall have no
such men as they -- men inspired with that enthusiasm for human
rights, for absolute equality in privilege, for the rights of
the citizen without distinction of race, of color, or of sex. 
He was a master of clear, lucid English.  For many years I
was a member of one of the leading political clubs of the day --
the Massachusetts Club, founded in the old anti-slavery times,
and, from that day to this, touched with some of the inspiration
of that early period.  Our Senator and Representatives were among
its members, and Senator Hoar was a frequent attendant.  There
were also Gov. Claflin, Edward L. Pierce, Joseph Walker, father 
of the present Speaker of the House -- a man of great power and
vitality.  And I should say unhesitatingly that Henry B. Blackwell
was the best debater in that company -- without the application 



-8-

of rhetoric, but as a clear, lucid, convincing stater of his
position, of his logic, of the reasons which led him to his conclusion,
and of the conclusion itself.  I pay my tribute therefore
to him as an all around man, one of the truest and best men
I ever knew -- a model of a citizen.  My heart is touched when I
think that never again shall I meet him on the platform or at the
social dinner, or upon the street, walking with downcast face. 
Sometimes it was thrown upward, and I caught the kindly glance
of his eye and received the cordial welcome of his "How do you
do?"  God bless the memory of Henry B. Blackwell! 
I have now the very great honor of giving you what will be
the very great pleasure of listening to Mrs. Howe. 

All the audience stood up when Mrs. Howe rose to speak 
Address of Julia Ward Howe
Mr. Blackwell is a very dear memory to me.  He was the companion
of many journeys and of very many meetings, some prosperous,
some of which had clouds at moments, but in all of which
his great cheerfulness and hopefulness of character gave us
every inspiration and support. 
For me a distinguishing trait in his character was singleness
of purpose.  I have been thinking in this connection very
much of the Bible text,  "If thine eye be single, thy whole body
shall be full of light."  Mr. Blackwell was gifted with this power, 
this singleness of purpose.  It was not that he was a man of one 
idea.  That is not the intention of the text, and it was not the
intention of his life;  for I think that, in a remarkable degree,
he understood all that belonged to democratic thought and principle, 
and also saw what did not.  I do not remember his swerving
from the straight line in any one of his arguments.  This is 

-9- 

surely a very great gift. 
There is also the fact that no thought of himself came into
what he did.  I do not think he ever thought of how what he wrote
or said sounded.  He wanted the truth for which he stood to go
to the hearts of those who heard him.  He was not above his audience,
nor was he in any way below their level, but he spoke to
them as a man and a brother, as an equal on a high plane, and
lifted them to that, if they did not originally belong to it. 
His loss is very painful to those of us who worked so much
with him.  I have been with him when he was in the West Indies 
and at St. Domingo, and I know that he sympathized with the
people there, and with their desire for progress.  Then I have 
been with him all over this country, north, south, east and west, 
and everywhere he was acceptable;  everywhere he spoke a language
that could be understood and could be felt.  There is a
great deal in the temperament of one who seeks to introduce his
thoughts and convictions pleasantly to his audience.  Mr. Blackwell
had that gift. He had that happy trait of character.  He
was acceptable, and thus welcome, whatever he came to advocate.
How many memories crowd upon me!  I have attended many hearings
at the Parliament -- what is the name of it?  I am very old, and
a word sometimes escapes me;  I know it is called the General
Court -- at which he spoke, and I always found him eloquent and
always self-possessed. 
I have another thought, too, of the beautiful romance of
his marriage -- how he went to Faneuil Hall and heard Lucy Stone
and how then and there he determined, if it was possible for him, 
or even if it was not, that she should be his wife.  And so she 



-10- 

was, and their life was so happy and harmonious, and they were
able to work together with that uncommon singleness of purpose
and beauty of disinterested interest that characterized them.
They were wonderful people.  Such types do not repeat themselves. 
Noble types do not expire or disappear from the face of
the earth, but are handed on from generation to generation.
These two are enshrined in sacred memories of how they worked 
and thought and aspired together.  To recall another Scriptural 
phrase,  "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in
death they were not divided." 
Let us remember that they have left it to us to see how
we can serve the great ends of humanity, and at the same time 
serve them with the same disinterestedness, the same common
sense, and the same enthusiasm, such as will make our words and
arguments transparent and full of light, so that all can see
the sacredness and grandeur of the cause.  What is the object
to which I hope those who come after me will give a better expression
than I have tried, however feebly, to suggest. 

Ex-Gov. Long:  A word now and then may escape Mrs. Howe,
but no word of hers ever escapes us.  The next speaker will be
Rev. Charles G. Ames. 

Address of Rev. Charles G. Ames 
The man whose memory we celebrate has lived long and well.
We do honor to ourselves by every word of reverent and grateful
appreciation. 
He was richly endowed with what St. Paul calls "the spirit
of power, of love and a sound mind."  Those who saw only the-11-

stooping form and the white hair could not know that here was
one of the youngest-hearted men of Boston.  One might apply to
him Dr. Bartol's saying about Starr King,  "That healthy man --
nothing the matter with him!"  One might expect him to exclaim
with Browning: 
"How good is man's life, the mere living!" 
No wonder he loved life, he found so many worthy and beautiful
uses for it.  he has acquired an equipment of what President
Eliot calls "good mental habits."  His faculties took hold
of subjects and situations with alertness and vigor;  and he
pursued, joyfully, year after year, a career of intellectual
and moral industries, as if he had taken to heart the advice
of Giordano Bruno,  "Toil without knowing thou toilest."  A free-minded 
man, little hindered from without or from within. 
He was not given to professions;  and who cares to ask about
his religious creed?  I only know that he seemed like a
steady traveler along the King's high way, and that he had ever
a cheery word for his fellow-pilgrims.  Mr. Blackwell took his
place, naturally and easily, as a man among men, -- as a member
of the human race in good standing, self-respecting and respectful, 
with a man's part to act and a readiness to share benefits
and burdens.  Living in a period of agitating debate, he neither
sought nor shunned controversy, but stood stoutly by the verdict
of his own faculties, and wished everyone to do the same.  he
accepted his share of responsibility as stockholder and trustee
of the common interests, and promptly gave warning whenever he 
thought those interests endangered or betrayed.  He was a life-sized
representative of the best Anglo-American traditions of
ordered liberty and public spirit. 



-12- 

Zealously devoted as he was to one cause, he was not merely
a man of one idea.  He was a champion of equal suffrage because
he was a thorough democrat -- a believer in popular rights, and
also because he honored and revered the head and heart and soul
of womanhood.  And with good reason, if only because he had met
Lucy Stone.  All that was best in himself was quickened, enlarged
and illuminated by what was best in her.  He respected
his own manhood as a divine fact, and Lucy's womanhood as its
equal companion-piece.  So their wedded life was like the sharing
of a sacramental cup. 
In the light of such an experience, he seemed to read the
mystic significance and value of all true womanhood, and it inspired
him with a reverence which might make the old chivalry
look pale and thin;  and with abhorrence of all that dishonors
and degrades.  In that light also he must have fashioned an ideal
of what both the domestic and social life of men and women might
be in a reign of justice and sweet reasonableness. 
Sir Arthur Helps found one evidence of the goodness of the
Creator in the exquisite happiness which both men and women can
give and take when their relations are ordered in wisdom.  But
in this ideal there is something beside sentiment, something
deeper than its sweetness, fragrance, beauty and endless charm. 
There is also a subtle and penetrating power, --  a power like that
of a climate friendly to the growth of all virtues and graces,
and of whatever may contribute to the rich completeness of humanity. 
A grand dream, let us say;  hardly to be realized on a large
scale in the present low state of development.  Men and women
in the mass will require a long process of refinement and spiritual-13-

culture before they can stand together on the heights toward
which they yet move along the slow and difficult paths of progress. 
But does not some such an ideal stir in the dream of
every well-born, well-taught and unperverted youth and maiden? 
Are we not keenly disappointed when it is not realized in family
life and in all circles of society?  Is it not the finest product
of evolution up to date, and also the costliest and most
precious product of civilization?
 
Now we can see in part for what Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell
lived and died.  In the unquestioning freedom and equality
of their own relations, they saw what vast increase there might
be of human welfare and happiness when womanhood should be relieved
of the last brand of inferiority, and the twain should 
stand erect in their "full-summed powers", as equal partners in
all their common concerns, domestic, economical, educational,
social and civic.  And all this, not that woman may become man,
but that at last she may become truly and fully woman.
 
As our theories are cleared of inconsistencies and as the
holy fire consumes its own smoke, I believe it will be more and 
more apparent that the realization of higher relationships between
men and women outranks all our artificial conventions and 
customs;  that government and suffrage are to be valued and urged 
chiefly as a means to human completeness, and that we must be 
careful never to sacrifice the greater for the less;  never to seek
the ballot for woman by marring the ideal of womanhood itself, nor
by the adoption of ways and means which are harmful and disgraceful
when employed by men.
 
The course of my thought has been largely determined by 


-14- 

contemplating the cultural effect of one beautiful marriage,
which inspired the partners with high hopes and an optimistic
outlook for the whole world of men and women, so that they
toiled in season and out of season to make the glorious dream
come true.
 
Our dear ascended friends held aloft the standard through
evil report and good;  they fought with weapons of heavenly temper
from the armory of truth and love -- against the powers of
darkness, against prejudice, ridicule and indifference.
 
There were critical moments which tested their faith and
faithfulness;  moments when some questionable method or alliance
might seem to bring reinforcements and promise an earlier and
easier victory;  but we may be sure there was never a moment when
they would not have joined in the ancient condemnation of any
who might say,  "Let us do evil that good may come."
 
The best things are of slow growth;  and they who sow the
seed to not always live to gather the harvest.  These faithful
toilers died without the sight, yet in full confidence of the
ultimate triumph.  And their spirit rests like a mantle on one
not less consecrated nor less capable than themselves.
 
If the history of a civilization founded on equal justice 
is yet to be written, we know already some shining names that
will adorn its pages.  For the present it seems safe to say that
no man has yet lived and wrought for the enfranchisement of 
women with one-half the ability, efficiency and devotion which
have marked the career of Henry B. Blackwell.-15-

Prof. Sumichrast's Address

"If you've heard the East a'callin', 
You won't never heed aught else."
 
But the call of the West across the waste of the gray Atlantic
billows -- that was heard long before, and has not ceased.
 
It drew Englishmen in days of the past:  Cabot headed it,
Gilbert heard it, Frobisher harked to it, Davis and Hudson yielded
to it.  Later it came to Bradford and Brewster, to Standish and 
Winslow, to Winthrop and Saltonstall.
 
It drew them as it had drawn those who had ventured into
the strange mysteries of unknown oceans, and they came to the land
across the sea.  Having come, they loved the country where they
chose henceforth to make their abode;  love it, because it meant
to them not alone the glories of wondrous summers, the splendors
of autumn, when
"All the woods with many-color'd flame
Burned unconsumed",
or the marvels of winter and scenes recalling the homeland, but
more than all they loved it because it meant to them what was
dearer than all, dearer even than the place of their birth and
the graves of their forbears:  liberty of conscience and self-government.
 
Ever since has the spell worked on, and with the progress
of democracy in this New World has kept pace the progress of
democracy in the old land, so that men came freely from one to 
the other, seeking here, in the true adventurous spirit, virgin
fields for the power and energy in them.  Thus came Mr. Blackwell's
father, sailing from that same Bristol, his native home,
whence had sailed the earliest explorers of these American 


-16-

northern coasts;  came, and added a new link to that strong,
enduring chain that binds together the two great Anglo-Saxon races.
 
A new link, indeed was Henry Browne Blackwell to prove, for
albeit unconsciously, he bore within him the age-long heritage
of the English race:  inflexible love of freedom, resolute seeking
after truth, abiding belief in the right, unchanging adherence
to justice, high moral ideals, lofty political aspirations, and
that public spirit which leads a man to forget himself in the
joy of serving his fellow-men.

These qualities -- I would fain be permitted to name them
virtues -- Mr. Blackwell possessed, and possessing, developed; 
for not his the selfish part of "wrapping his talent in a napkin,
all in vain";  but his the happiness of giving himself fully,
unreservedly, to the land of his adoption.
 
And because his fellow-citizens recognized, most of them
gladly, some grudgingly, this earnestness of devotion, this
singleness of purpose, they bestowed on him their confidence,
gave him their respect, and -- as they grew to know better the
singular sweetness of his nature, allied to the fieriness of
his temperament -- their affection.

There never was a better, truer, more thorough American
citizen than he;  never one who more wholly, within the large
measure of his powers, gave himself to his country, loved her,
understood her, and joyed in her.  Not that he was blind to the 
defects, often grievous;  to the faults, often lamentable;  to
the errors, at times disastrous.  His love for the American
nation was not purblind, but clear-sighted.  He saw the defects
but to seek to correct them, as is the duty, the privilege of
a true citizen;  he saw the faults and errors, but not to rail-17-

at them;  rather to strive to remove them.  His was no narrow
partizanship, but true patriotism, genuine breadth of mind.
He asked not of his fellow-countrymen perfection attained instantly
by some miracle of realization of desire;  he asked and
worked for that nobler and higher manifestation, increasing
striving after perfection, constant, unremitting seeking after 
the fulfilment of the highest moral and political ideals. 
Wherein he was practical, as beseemed an Anglo-Saxon.
 
Practical, not because -- as indicated in the biographical
article we have all read -- he lacked a liberal education.  He
had that education.  True, it was not one acquired in a college, 
but that real liberal education which the best of colleges, the
greatest of universities can only prepare the mind and the
heart to receive;  the liberal education which is the fruit of
intelligent and sympathetic intercourse with fellow-men, which
enables him who acquires it to feel with those who think with
him, to understand those whose views differ from his;  which
teaches to bear and forbear, and, without abandoning convictions,
to grasp the reason of opposite beliefs.
 
And the fruit of this training we have all seen in the
fair life lived by Mr. Blackwell,-- a life spent in well-doing,
passed in incessant work, and now crowned by the love and admiration
of all who knew him and felt the charm of his presence,
rejoiced in the gentleness of his heart, were stirred by his eloquence, 
moved by his intensity of earnestness, and held by his
patent purity of motive and his unflinching devotion to truth
and justice. 


-18-

This the tribute his British friends -- his warm and devoted
friends -- pay to his fragrant memory;  proud of his
British birth;  proud of his record as an American citizen; 
grateful for the example he set;  honored by the manner in
which he joined in himself the best of either land. 

Moses H. Gulesian's Address
It has been my privilege to know Mr. Blackwell for seventeen
years.  During that time hardly a month has passed that I have
not met him in one way or another, and his wonderful energy,
ever-ready sympathy and never-failing resourcefulness have been
an inspiration to me.
 
I can truthfully say, as I look into your faces, that very
few here have known the inner character of Mr. Blackwell.  Most
of you have never had any need to go to him for any sort of
assistance;  if you had, you would have then learned the real
man.
 
He was very much interested in the Armenians;  not only in
those who had proposed in this country and looked well and clean,
but also in those just landed either at Castle Garden or East
Boston.  The poorer or more unfortunate the woman or the man,
the more his sympathy and practical aid were poured out in
t heir behalf.
 
I want to mention two or three of his many kind acts, of 
which I have actual knowledge.
 
A number of years ago, a young Armenian came to my office,
and, with anxious looks and tears in his eyes, told me that he
had been in this country for six years;  he had worked hard and
finally had saved enough so that he could send for his widowed-19- 

mother to come to this country, that they might live together.
He said his mother had arrived at Ellis Island, New York, but
that for some reason the authorities would not allow her to
land, and she was to be deported the next day.  "Think of it", 
he said, "I have worked for six years to get my dear mother
over here, and now she is here, they are going to send her
back!"  He implored me to help him.
 
Knowing that there was no time to be lost, and that something
more than my influence was needed to stay the poor woman's
deportation, I at once took the young man to Mr. Blackwell's
office.  On the way, I told him to tell his story to Mr. Blackwell
exactly as he had told it to me.  After he had finished,
Mr. Blackwell put on his hat at once and took the first train
for Worcester to see Senator Hoar.  This was on a hot July day,
the thermometer standing at 93.  But when did Mr. Blackwell
ever spare himself?  The Senator, having the utmost confidence
in Mr. Blackwell's story, they having been life-long friends,
wired at once to the Department at Washington to stay the deportation
of the woman until further investigation.  Finally,
Mr. Blackwell, with his usual unflagging zeal, succeeded in
uniting mother and son.
 
The young man was poor, friendless and unknown.  There
could not glory come from his action in this matter, except the
glory of a great deed done.
 
Here is another incident:  Not long ago, a poor, ignorant
Armenian woman came into possession of a few hundred dollars,
and Mr. Blackwell learned that some men were trying to deprive
her of the greater portion of it.  Mr. Blackwell could never 


-20-

bear to see injustice done to a woman, and finally, so as to
be the better able to protect her, he had himself appointed her
guardian by the courts, which involved him in no end of trouble,
but he succeeded in protecting the poor woman's rights.
 
These are only a few of the kind and generous acts with
which his long and beautiful life was filled.  It is deeds like
these to the poor and unfortunate that endear Mr. Blackwell to
all Armenians.
 
I want to relate a little incident to show how painstaking
he was in the smallest detail of every-day life.
 
Some time ago, while visiting at his house, as we sat at
table, the subject of putting up grape juice came up.  He said,
in talking about it with Mrs. Gulesian,  "I know how to make it,
and I will write out the recipe for you."  In a few days the
letter came, a closely-written letter of four pages, in his own
handwriting, describing the process most accurately and minutely.
If it had been a State document, there couldn't have been more
attention given to it.  This was characteristic of the man.  He
believed in the old adage,  "Whatever is worth doing at all, is
worth doing well."  He was a great man, but never so great that
he had not time to attend to the small details of life.  He was 
a busy man, but never too busy to heed the cry of the poor and
unfortunate.  No Armenian was ever turned away from his house.
His door was always open to them;  his table was always set for
them.  On account of their wretched condition in Turkey, Mr. 
Blackwell was especially kind, courteous and generous to them.
A good many of us are better men today simply from having known
him.-21- 

Mr. Blackwell was remarkable in many ways.  He was a reformer,
as you all know, but he was also a practical, thorough
business man, which quality most reformers do not possess;  and,
above all, he was lovable.
 
I called on him on his last birthday, as has been my custom
for a number of years, and asked him how he was.  He said,
"I got up early this morning, took my cold bath, and feel
eighty-four years young", a little pleasantry he always got off
when asked his age.
 
Above all, he was the champion of women's rights, and he
would not spare himself to make their lot better.  If the women
of this country ever erect a statue to any man in a public
square, Mr. Blackwell is the man. 

Address of Francis J. Garrison 
For nearly thirty years it has been my good fortune to be
a close neighbor of Mr. Blackwell.  Our business offices have
been in adjoining buildings on Park Street, and I have thus
had almost daily opportunity of seeing him at his desk, or on
the street as he hastened to and fro, so absorbed in his errand
that he seldom looked to the right or left, or seemed to feel
the weight of his familiar and usually heavily-laden bag.  I 
never saw him without feeling a keen sense of gratitude for his
example of unflagging devotion to duty, perennial cheerfulness,
unfailing kindliness, and readiness to serve others, no matter
at what sacrifice of time and comfort.
 
It would be difficult to enumerate the many causes which
our friend served so gallantly during his sixty years of activity 


-22-

in political and reformatory work, but we all know how instant
was his response to the summons when

"The need of battling freedom called for men
To plant the banner on the outer wall." 

I have come merely to add my leaf to the laurels which we
are bestowing upon his memory today, and to share with you a document
which, by a singular chance, has recently come into my
hands -- too late, alas!  for me to show it to him and to refresh
his memory of an incident which had probably passed entirely
from his mind,-- for it strikingly illustrates the prompt and
chivalrous manner in which this modern knight rode into the
lists when a champion was called for.
 
We know how, when a young slave girl was brought by her 
owner into the free State of Ohio, at the time of the Fugitive
Slave Law excitement, Mr. Blackwell boldly seized and bore her
to freedom from the railroad car in which he found her.  It
was a few years after that incident, in the year 1859, that
John Brown and his twenty men descended upon Harper's Ferry
and assailed at once the State of Virginia and the Government
of the United States, in their attempt to strike a blow at
American slavery.  Of the seven survivors (including John
Brown) who were captured and condemned to die on the gallows,
two were Negroes, of whom little was known, but in whose behalf
the letter I am about to read was addressed to the Governor 
of Virginia.  It is dated Orange, New Jersey, November 
14, 1859, just fifty years ago to-morrow, and was evidently
filed in the State archives of Virginia until that fateful day
in April, 1865, when General Grant's forces entered Richmond
and sealed the doom of slavery.  The vandalism of war then-23- 

scattered many of those archives to the winds, but chance preserved
this letter, which is in the handwriting of Henry B. 
Blackwell, and bears the signatures of himself and Lucy Stone,
and of five other staunch abolitionists of the town of Orange: 

Orange, New Jersey
November 14, 1859
To His Excellency , Henry A. Wise, 
Governor of Virginia. 
Sir:  We the undersigned, citizens of Orange,
Essex Co., New Jersey, having learned that the
bodies of the prisoners now under sentence of
death in Charlestown, Virginia, will be given
up, if claimed by their friends for Christian
burial, hereby apply for the remains of Messers.
Copeland and Green for that purpose.  We conclude,
from the fact that no such applications has been
made in the case of these two men, that they are 
fugitive slaves, and therefore may have no relatives
able to claim them.
 
On behalf of ourselves and of the abolitionists
of this town, we now desire to act in their stead, 
feeling willing and happy to identify ourselves in
life and death with the prescribed race to which 
these brave and unfortunate men belong.
 
If our request can be granted, please indicate
to us the proper person in Charleston to whom we
should apply, and oblige 
Yours respectfully,
William Green, Jun., 
Rowland Johnson, 
Henrietta Wolcott Johnson,
Cornelius Bramhall,
Henry B. Blackwell,
Lucy Stone. 

The Ohio relatives of Green and Copeland, who were not
fugitive slaves, but free-born men, took charge of their remains,
and buried them at Oberlin;  but it was characteristic 
of Henry B. Blackwell and Lucy Stone that, while the attention
of the American people was focused on the commanding figure of
John Brown, whose soul had begun even then its commanding march,
their thoughts should turn to his humble black associates, and
that they should avow themselves willing and happy, like him, 


-24- 

to identify themselves in life and in death with the despised
and down-trodden race.
 
It was Mr. Blackwell's unique distinction that he was the
first and only man in this, and so far as I know, in any country,
to devote himself primarily to the cause of women's enfranchisement.
I do not forget that noble Boston lawyer, Samuel
E. Sewall, who labored for more than a generation to remove the
legal disabilities of women in Massachusetts, and in his ninetieth
year climbed the steps of the State House with six measures
to that end, on all of which , be it said with shame, he
was given leave to withdraw.  He, too, deserves lasting remembrance
and honor.  But Mr. Blackwell subordinated all other
questions to woman suffrage, and kept the flag of the Woman' s
Journal flying for forty years, a longer period than that covered
by the Liberator in its crusade for the abolition of
slavery.  No matter how hard or how disagreeable the immediate
task might be, he undertook it without hesitation, and was
equally ready to address a hostile legislative committee, to
besiege a political convention for a suffrage plank, or to
stump any State, east or west, where the question was coming
to a popular vote.
 
I have rarely known anyone so free from self-consciousness 
as he.  When a public dinner was tendered him on his seventieth
birthday,  he modestly replied that if his friends thought it
would help "the cause", he would accept it.  On his eightieth
anniversary, he brushed lightly aside the praises showered upon
him, and plunged into a vigorous presentment of the work yet to 
be accomplished.  But if he never thought of himself, he never-25- 

forgot Lucy Stone, nor failed to name her reverently, with absolute
self-detachment, when he called the roll of brave and noble
women.  Seldom have a husband and wife been subjected to more
atrocious misrepresentation, calumny and abuse than were they,
when they entered into that noble marriage covenant which remains
a perfect example of what the marriage contract should be; 
but their pure and consecrated lives shamed and silenced the
maligners.  They lived to hear the taunts change
"to tributes, the abuse to praise,
And took both with the same unwavering mood." 

Address of James H. Stark 
I have been asked to say a few words of my old friend, Henry
B. Blackwell.  We lived together in Dorchester for thirty years 
or more, and strange to say, I knew him twenty-five years before
I learned that he was an Englishman.  I immediately said,  "You
must join the Victorian Club."  That is how he became acquainted
with Prof. Sumichrast.  From that time he never allowed a meeting
of the club to go by without being present.
 
I have been many years in the winter time to the West Indies,
and on my return one spring he asked me how I found it in
Jamaica.  I told him how beautiful the island was.  He said the
last time he was there was with Dr. Howe.  He went with a party
to Blue Mountain Peak, and they told him he was too old to climb
that mountain.  "Now", he said, "I am going down next winter, 
and I am going to show that I can climb it again now, though it
is thirty-five years since they said I was too old."  Think of 
the vitality and perseverence of the man!  He went that same
winter.
 
I arrived there the day after, and they informed me at 


-26- 

Kingston that Dr. Blackwell had gone into the country.  Then
we had the great earthquake.  When I heard of it in Panama, my
first thought reverted to Dr. Blackwell, but I was told that
the earthquake did not extend beyond Kingston.  When I arrived
at Trinidad, some survivors had reached there, and the first
question I asked them was about my friend.  One said that he 
must be one of two old gentlemen they took off from the port
on a Kingston steamer.  I found afterwards that such was the
case -- That Mr. Blackwell and his brother had just arrived in
Kingston from the country only an hour before the earthquake.
As Mr. Blackwell described it, he was in a room at the hotel
when the floor jumped up and the walls fell out.  He went into
the next room and got his brother's wife and daughter into
the garden.  He then went back and removed everything that belonged
to them except an old umbrella.  Within the tottering walls of
the courtyard fourteen persons were lying crushed to death, yet
he had the nerve to go back into that building time after time,
and escaped without a scratch.  This I learned afterwards from
his own mouth.  Probably many of you have heard him describe
what horrible things had taken place.  Buildings were crushed
and people saw their friends burned to death before their eyes, 
without any possible way of assisting them;  and in many cases
the victims craved for death.
 
Mr. Blackwell was always willing to put himself forward
in any public movement if it was for the good of the community. 
But he never received political recognition.  During all the
years I knew Mr. Blackwell, I did not know of any single instance
where any political office was even as much as tendered-27- 

to him.  For, as Mr. Mead has said, he was always ready to
speak the truth, whether the mob wanted it or not.  He was
not a demagogue, and he did not cater to the applause of the
multitude.  If he had done this, perhaps he might have been
Mayor of Boston before this.  He was certainly qualified for
that office. 
A good example of what Mr. Blackwell did in the line of
promoting the public good I shall now mention.  One of the
principal acts of his life for his fellow-townsmen occurred 
quite recently.  For thirty years or more, the people of a
section of Dorchester tried to obtain Savin Hill as a park.
It is a grand old spot -- the place where the settlers first
 landed, erected a battery, and so forth.  Money was finally
appropriated and bonds were issued, but for some unaccountable
reason the project was not carried through.  I called on Mr.
Blackwell, and asked him to call on the Major and have the
Park Commissioners come to his office so that he could lay
the matter before the Mayor and put it up to the Park Commissioners
as to why they did not do their duty.  He did that
the next day.  The Commissioners said that the owners asked 
too much.  Mr. Blackwell said,  "You know better.  I would be
willing to take that property myself at more money than is
asked." 
"Well," said the Mayor, "if you will get that offer renewed, 
I am agreed that the park shall be taken."  Then, turning
to the Commissioners, he said,  "Will you agree to it?" 
Mr. Stratton answered, "No."  Mr. Blackwell asked,  "What 



-28-

shall I understand by this?" 
They Mayor said,  "If you will get a renewal of that offer
at the same price the park shall be taken."  The renewal was
obtained , and the park was taken.  This result was largely due
to the efforts of Mr. Blackwell, who brought the thing to a
climax.  And Mr. Blackwell did that sort of thing all his life. 
He was always self-sacrificing.  He looked very little to his
own interest, but looked particularly to the interests of his
fellow-man, and especially to the cause of humanity. 

Mayer Bloomfield's Address 
My brief word to you will be about Mr. Blackwell and his
relation to the North and West Ends of Boston.  For a number of
years, these two sections, which are the first home, the stopping
place of thousands of the new Americans, have on occasion
had bitter cause to secure Faneuil Hall in order to express
their outraged feelings and their sorrow at conditions which
befall their relatives and kinsmen, their friends and fellowmen
abroad.  I do not remember a mass meeting in Tremont Temple 
or Faneuil Hall, called for the expression of American felling
regarding conditions abroad, where the name or the presence
of Mr. Blackwell was missing. 
We are apt to think that in the crowded districts of the
city opportunities for civic idealism are few.  As a matter of 
fact, what those districts most lack is not idealism on the
part of the people who live there, not civic consciousness, but
a quickener, an interpreter, a go-between.  Mr. Blackwell was 
an ideal American to the district which has had so little opportunity
of contact with what is best in our American life.  He 

-29-

expressed to the people who come to us their ideals of what
Americans are;  he expressed to them all they have conceived
of this country.  Toward the end, I am glad to say, when Mr.
Blackwell appeared at the Faneuil Hall mass meeting, the audience
began instinctively to rise when he stood up, just as we 
instinctively did today when Mrs. Julia Ward Howe spoke.  That
was the appreciation of the Russians, the Roumanians, and
others, the very people who found in Mr. Blackwell the voice 
of the real America.  He spoke often for the people;  and he
wist not that his face shone as he spoke. 

Address of Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows 
Mr. Mead has referred to the associations connected with
Park Street Church.  He does not know that my associations are
even closer, for, nearly half a century ago, my girlish steps
went from these doors to missionary work in India.  Since then
I have often been here to see men and women going forth to
missionary labor, but not one who was braver or more consecrated
to the betterment of humanity than the man whose memory we honor
today, though he was modestly unconscious of his own virtues. 
When I had the great pleasure of a few hours with Tolstoi,
in Russia, we were speaking of immortality and of the strong 
faith of the peasants is a life to come where they should find
solace for the evils of this world.  He added,  "I, too, believe
in immortality.  What it will be like I do not know.  Whether 
I shall know myself for myself, I do not know.  But this I
know, that I shall be with God."  Mr. Blackwell, too, had yearnings
for the eternal life, and longings for the conviction of
the Russian peasant, who can say with the assurance of absolute 



-30-

faith,  "I shall be satisfied."  We have often talked together
of these matters, and though the future life may have been to
his soul more a hope than a definite conviction, yet we who
loved him had for him the faith that he had not, perhaps, for
himself.  A man blameless in life, without a stain or vice; 
clean of hands and heart, whose snowy hand but symbolized the
whiteness of the thoughts within, one says instinctively, on
thinking of him,  "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God."  His surprised eyes, we believe, shall see, mayhap,
the King in His Glory! 
And yet, even there, the supernal joys of the spirit life
would be incomplete if he were not also to find the sweet soul
to whom, living, he was so devoted:  to whom, lost, he was so
loyal.  Knowing his manner of life, it is easy to write Mr. 
Blackwell down as an Abou Ben Adhem -- one who loved his fellow-men. 
But stronger a million fold than the ties of general
humanity was the two-fold cord that bound him to his family.
Gentlest of lovers, truest of husbands, fondest of fathers, he
exemplified the highest type of American manhood in his chivalry
for wife and daughter first, and for their sakes in
chivalry for all men's wives and daughters.  "A Friends of Women", 
in the noblest sense, he was rightly called.  He knew not high 
nor low among them.  Ugliness of feature did not repel;  loveliness
of countenance was not the attraction.  He asked only to
serve them when in need.  It might be a Briton lady of rank, a
stranger among us, or it might be an Armenian widow held at
the immigration office, he was instantly astir to redress her
wrongs.  No Knight of the Round Table ever rode forth with
purer heart to do her service.  This was the main characteristic 

-31- 

which secured for him the admiration, the gratitude and the
affection of women everywhere -- even of those who did not
agree with him on many subjects.  Since he passed away, I
have personally heard these expressions of appreciation form
Maine to the Pacific, from Alabama to the Province of Quebec. 
And the courtesy Mr. Blackwell showed to women and the
aid he rendered them were not the superficial manner of the
man of society.  They were the result of his regard for their
highest welfare, an effort to see that justice should be given
to them;  that the laws should deal fairly with women as with
men. 
Ah, yes, he was a famous friend and comrade!  And the old
comradeship, how good it was!  And how many among them have I,
too loved for more than forty years!  Back to the old days in
Washington I can trace the friendship of such men and women as
Mr. Blackwell, Colonel Higginson, Lucy Stone, Miss Anthony, Mrs.
Howe, Mary Eastman, Mrs. Livermore, William Lloyd Garrison.
Forty years,-- it is a long space of time, but it does not cover
half the space of his busy life.  But, as the years have sped, 
how the gaps have come!  One by one these men and women, honored
and loved, have fallen by the way, and we close up the ranks
with a sigh, and with eyes so blinded by tears that we hardly
see that after all we, the older ones, are not left utterly
along.  Younger, stronger arms and as brave hearts are pressing 
into the diminished circle, who will keep the spirit of
hope and courage and comradeship alive.  Yet, glad as we are
to acknowledge this goodly accession of helpers in all good
causes, we -- the older ones -- feel a deep sense of loss, and 



-32-

we group ourselves in sympathy about the last member of the
dear household in the old home among the apple trees and jonquils. 
As we think of that prince of hospitality, whose cordial
hand-grasp spoke louder even than his hearty greeting,
and of that flute-toned, brave and gentle woman whose memory
he worshipped, we ache with a pang the dear daughter's unworded
sorrow in the poet's cry,
"But oh, for the touch of a vanished hand
And the sound of a voice that is still!" 

Mrs. Ruffin Unavoidably Absent 
Mrs. Josephine St.P. Ruffin, who had been invited to
speak for the colored people, was kept away by a case in
court. 
The platform was adorned with palms and flowers, the
gift of Mrs. Lydia D. Wellington, Mrs. Mary Schlesinger, Miss
Hattie E. Turner and Miss Esther Barrows. 
The ushers were Miss Rosa Heinzen, president of the College
Equal Suffrage League of Massachusetts, Miss Reeves of
Radcliffe, Miss Eleanor Garrison, Miss Bessie Goldstein, Miss
Geneva Sydenberg and Miss Erica Volterek.


[*from 
The Woman's Journal 
November 20, 1909*] 

Exerpt from art in 
Chicago Legal News
Chic Ill 9/09

After 1870, having acquired a
competence, he unselfishly 
devoted the  [              ] long & useful 
life [               ] The W J  [
            1870                    ] MM A Livermore
                                              had
been raised by Mr Blackwell & 
his wife & 2 years later upon  [
                        ] During the 56
years of his connection with the 
[           ] Mr B [ ] accepted
a dollar of salary [ ] letter
[   ] or the W.J. but on the 
contrary gave money largely to both.
The  [                         ] were 
notable occasions briging
[ ]  a large representation of old 
N E & M W L G  [ ] this 
appreciatively of the great soul at

2
one of these gatherings:
"His birthdays come & go, hardy 
Annuals that challenge small 
attention , until the decade
anniversary flowers out, & we 
find tongue to praise the 
vigor & beauty of the plant.
Next to a reformer's supreme 
faith in the justice of his cause
is aboding cheerfulness,  that
unfailing characteristic of 
our guest. He fits the Browning
test of one who "never dreamed,
tho right were worsted, 
wrong would triumph." up & 
down the land he has carried 
the word of duty & of hope, his 
ringing voice giving assurance 
of a buoyant spirit, rare
in age & not too plentiful in 
youth. He never generated
despondency, and his presence
soon dispelled it.Disappointed expectations
& legislative defeats have
been constant factors in the
[?]are so
strong.  The defensive reasoning
of the remonstrants so feeble,
the facts where equal voting has
been tried are so convincing
that it is impossible not to feel
chilled when crass committees
and legislature are
impervious to them all.
Then when the adverse action
sends down the temperature
of the elect, the smiling
optimist who edits the WJ
is unperturbed & lays out
new plans for the next season.
"What tho the soul be vexed!  She
can forget
cares of an hour.  Only the great
things last."It is his virtue that the
conduct of his special cause
does not diminish his interest 
in every struggle for human
freedom.  He hea[?]s a lance for
all down-trodden and oppressed
peoples. Wherever a protest
against tyranny is called for, you
may be sure that Mr. Blackwell
will answer "Adsum."  When he
does his sleeping, who can tell? 
Tonight an Armenian meeting 
may claim his presence, 
tomorrow Russian exiles enlist his
aid;  if the Chinese are in the
toil of persecution he
enlists himself among their
friend  - - - - - - - 


AsB note --  H B Blackwell  Biog
He made a trip to Jamaica with his brother George.  They arrived [jut]
just [in time for] before the earthquake that levelled Kingston to the ground
in a few seconds.  He escaped from the collapsing hotel into the courtyard
where fourteen persons lay crushed to death ; and he went back
four times into the [too] tottering ruins, first to get the dresses of
his sister-in)aw and niece, and then to bring off their party's remaining
possessions.  He wrote [to the papers] one of the best accounts  of
the earthquake to the press.  He was in the habit of writing many letters
to the papers, very able letters, and on a [l] wide variety of subjects. 

Mr. Blackwell was an old-line Republican, and had voted for every
Republican President.  In State elections, however, he [scf] scratched 
his ticket whenever the Republican candidate was opposed to woman suffrage
and the Democrat in favor of it.as in Now it is full of 
mothers & daughters.

He [was] was devoted
to the 20th C Club, and
an active member also
of the Class, the
Clerk & the Victorian
Clebs. Gov. Long said
that in the Mass
Club, which included
the most distiguished
?The little Rep of SD
asked to be annexed to
the U.S., because it
was afraid that it
might be forcibly
annexed by Haiti.
In 1870 Pres Grant
sent a Commission consisting
of to the island [SD] to investigate
[the] & report. Mr. Blackwell
went with them as
a newspaper correspondent.
[*Alice Blackwell note     Santo Domingo     HBB*]

The little Rep of SD
asked to be annexed to
the U.S., because it
was afraid that it
might be forcibly
annexed by Haiti.
In 1870 Pres Grant
sent a Commission consisting
of to the island [SD] to investigate
[the] & report. Mr. Blackwell
went with them as
a newspaper correspondent.
[*Alice Blackwell note     Santo Domingo     HBB*]ANNUAL EXAMINATION
AND
PRIMARY COMMENCEMENT
AT 
KEMPER COLLEGE,
JULY, MDCCCXLIII.
SAINT LOUIS:
PRINTED AT THE NEW ERA OFFICE
1843.ORDER OF EXAMINATION
MONDAY, JULY 24.---9 o'clock, A. M. 
PREPARATORY DEPARTMENT.-- Reading; Spelling; English Grammar; Geography
(three classes); Arithmetic (five classes); French (two
classes); Latin and Greek Grammar; Latin Reader;
and Writing Latin.
2 o'clock, P. M.
Arithmetic (two classes); Caesar; Algebra (two classes);
Virgil; Xenophon; Geometry (two classes);
Chemistry; Geology; and Botany.
TUESDAY, JULY 25.---9 o'clock, A. M.
Algebra (three classes); Comstock's Natural Philosophy;
and Book-keeping.
COLLEGIATE DEPARTMENT.--FRESHMAN CLASS.--Xenophon's Anabasis; Homer's Iliad
(three books); Day's Algebra; and Virgil.
2 o'clock, P. M.
FRESHMAN CLASS.--Davies' Legendre (eight books); Livy;
and Writing Latin.
SOPHOMORE CLASS.--Horace (Odes, Epodes, Satires, and
Epistles); Davies' Legendre (five books); Homer's Iliad
(twelve books); and Plane Trigonometry.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 26.---9 o'clock, A. M.
SOPHOMORE CLASS.--Homer's Odyssey (six books); Spherical
Geometry and Trigonometry; and Mensuration.
JUNIOR CLASS.--Conic Sections; Juvenal (six Satires);
Terence (The "Andria," and "Adelphi"); Olmsted's
Natural Philosophy; Tacitus ("Germania," "Agricola,"
and "Dialogus de Oratoribus"); The "Alcestis" of Euripides;
The "Antigone," and "(Edipus Tyrannus" of 
Sophocles; and Writing Latin.
2 o'clock, P. M.
SENIOR CLASS.--Curvature of Conic Sections; Cicero, De
Senectute, and De Amicitia; Olmsted's Astronomy;
Æschines, Against the Crown; Demosthenes, For the
Crown; Plato's Phædo; Wayland's Political Economy;
Hedge's Logic; and Butler's Analogy of Religion.
5 o'clock, P. M.
A Public Address will be delivered before the "Philermenian 
Society," by B. B. Dayton, Esq., of Saint
Louis.

KEMPER COLLEGE.
PRIMARY COMMENCEMENT.
JULY 27, 1843.
Order of Exercises.
PRAYER.
LATIN SALUTATORY----AND THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY, A POEM:
BY L. WILSON DAVIS, NEW YORK
MUSIC.
An Oration: Insufficiency of Genius without Cultivation,
with the Valedictory Addresses:
BY GEORGE MORRIS, NEW YORK.
MUSIC.
DEGREE CONFERRED.
Benediction.H. B. Blackwell Esq.
Cincinnati
Ohio

[Politness
of
A. Barns Esq.
care of Ellis C. Vallette3 [*HBB part of Broj[?]*]
into both.
He survived his wife for sixteen
years during which he continued 
to speak and work for woman's 
rights.  He was the last man 
who continued to attend regularly 
the Annual Meetings of the National 
American Woman's Suffrage Association.  
After the work for woman suffrage
had been almost completely taken 
over by women.  He was always 
appointed Chairman of the Committee 
on Resolutions.  He had a fine 
voice, and he had tact and discretion 
in dealing with persons who wanted 
to offer freak resolutions.
He died September 9th 1909. Much 
beloved.  A memorial meeting brought 
together a remarkable group of 
widely different [people] speakers, who 
testified to the breadth of his interests,
and the good he had done in many different fields.[*Binghamton, N. Y. 
Herald,   Sept. 16, 1909.*]

LAST OF THE ABOLITIONISTS. 

The death of the younger William Lloyd Garrison, closely
following that of Henry B. Blackwell, calls attention once more
to the rate at which the ranks of the old-time Abolitionists are
being depleted.  Two veterans of the front rank only remain in
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who led in battle one of the
earliest regiments of colored soldiers for the Union, and Julia
Ward Howe, whose  "Battle Hymn of the Republic"  heartened
many a footsore command upon the march. 

Moncure D. Conway, they young stormy petrel of war times,
died in 1907.  The same year passed away Wendell Phillips Garrison,
Isabella Beecher Hoker, sister of the author of  " Uncle
Tom's Cabin," and Galush A. Grow, who entered Congress as a
Free-Soiler in 1851 and finally left it fifty-two years years later,
and whose history of the wrongs of the Seminoles will never be
forgotten.  Whittier, the singer of anti-slavery; Gerrit Smith, 
the Tappens of New York, Lucy Stone and the elder Garrison
had long preceded them.  Edward Everett Hale, never an extremist
in manner, followed them closely. 

After the war the remaining Abolitionists were no longer
held together, even as before in warring camps, by the cementing
pressure of persecution and mobs, and they lost some of their
rancor in widening the scope of their reformatory efforts.  Of
the sons of Garrison, the best hated of them all, one survives, a
publisher and business man.  One was a literary editor.  The
namesake, who has just passed away, divided his attention between
a number of movements such as woman suffrage, free
trade, peace, anti-imperialism and the single-tax campaign.  IN
this division of his sympathies he was like most of the other remaining
links with a troubles past.  The bitterness of the heyday
of the activity is happily gone with the great cause that
called it forth.--N. Y. World. 



[*Philadelphia Record
Sept 8, 1909*]
The death of Dr. Henry B. Blackwell
removes a figure that has long been familiar
in Boston streets.  He was a man
of charming personality, and was full of
progressive ideas.  Republicans who attended
the St. Louis convention that
nominated McKinley will recall the very
interesting address which he delivered
on the train.  It was filled with historical
references to St. Louis, and made
the visit to that city doubly interesting. 
At Abington, on Memorial Day, when
Capt. Moses N. Arnold dedicated a boulder
to the abolitionists, Dr. Blackwell
made an impromptu address that was
one of the most notable features of the
occasion. 


[*New Haven, Conn.
Journal-Courier
Sept. 8, 1909*] 
HENRY BLACKWELL DEAD. 
One of Foremost Advocates of Woman
Suffrage in This Country. 
Boston, Sept. 7.--Henry B. Blackwell,
one of the foremost advocates of woman's
suffrage in the United States and
prominent years ago in the Abolitionist
movement, died today at his home
in this city after a brief illness. 
Mr. Blackwell was born in Bristol,  
Eng., May 4, 1825, and early in life went
to Cincinnati, Ohio, with his parents.
Favored with a good voice he was early
bought into the Free Soil movement
and the cause of anti-slavery.  Having
sheltered a slave girl, a price of $10,000 
was once put on his head at a public
meeting in Memphis, Tenn.  In 1853
he met Lucy Stone, the noted advocate
of woman's rights, and married her
two years later.  He was editor-in-chief
of the Woman's Journal at the
time of his death. 


[*Leslie's Weekly  Sept. 23/09
N. Y. City*] 
Dr. Henry B. Blackwell, veteran advocate
of woman suffrage, one of the
founders of the Republican party, at
Boston, Mass., September 7th, aged 84. 


[*Boston Post
Sept. 27, 1909*]
ARMENIANS HONOR
HENRY B. BLACKWELL
A large number of Armenians from all
over Boston and vicinity met yesterday
afternoon in Armenian Hall, 724 Washington
street, and held a meeting in
memorial of the death of Henry B.
Blackwell the Armenian speaker and lecturer. 


[*N. Y. Journal of
Commerce 
Sept. 8, 1909*]
HENRY B. BLACKWELL
Henry B. Blackwell, one of the foremost
advocates of woman's suffrage in the
United States and prominent years ago
in the abolitionist movement, died yesterday
at his home in Boston after a brief
illness.  Mr. Blackwell was born in Bristol,
England, May 4, 1825. 


[*Boston American
Sept. 26, 1909*] 
Memorial to Blackwell. 
A memorial meeting will be held this
evening by the Armenians of Boston and
vicinity in memory of Henry B. Blackwell,
who died Sept. 7.  The meeting will
be at 7:30 o'clock at the Armenian Hall,
No. 724 Washington street. 


[*Newark, N.J.  News
Sept 9, 1909*]
H. B. BLACKWELL. 
DORCHESTER, Mass.,  Sept. 9.--Henry
B. Blackwell, editor of The Woman's
Journal and one of the earliest advocates
of woman suffrage, is dead at his home
here, aged eighty-four.  He was born 
May 4, 1825, in England, the son of
Samuel Blackwell.  His father emigrated
with his family to this country in 1832. 
In 1853 Henry B. Blackwell took an
active part in the free soil movement.
During a visit the same year to Massachusetts
he attended a legislative hearing
at which Lucy Stone, Wendell Phillips
and Theodore Parker spoke.  He
made up his mind then to marry if he
could Lucy Stone.  They were married
May 1, 1855.  In 1869, with Julia Ward
Howe, Colonel T. W. Higginson, Mary A. 
Livermore, William Lloyd Garrison,
George William Curtis and others, Mr.
Blackwell took part in organizing the
American Woman Suffrage Association.
For forty years he had not missed attending
a national suffrage convention.
Mr. Blackwell voted for every Republican
President.  He is survived by two
sisters, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, of England,
aged eighty-seven (the first woman
to graduate as a physician), and Dr.
Emily Blackwell, of Montclair, N. J., aged
eighty-two, for many years dean of the
Women's Medical College of the New
York Infirmary;  one brother, George F.
Blackwell, of East Orange, N. J.;  a widowed
sister-in-law, the Rev. Antoinette
Brown Blackwell, of Elizabeth, N. J., 
aged eighty-four, the first woman to be
ordained a minister, and one daughter,
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell. 


[*Boston Eve. Transcript
Sept 27, 1909*] 
HONOR "FATHER OF ARMENIANS" 
Orphans' Fund Started at Memorial Meeting
to Henry B. Blackwell 
Under the auspices of several representative
Armenians, a memorial meeting
was held in America Hall, last evening,
in honor of Henry B. Blackwell.  Mr. 
Blackwell was often called "The Father
of Armenians," and this gathering was
in part, a service of praise for his [?di?ing]
efforts on behalf of their country.
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell attended
the meeting, and a portrait of her father
by an Armenian artist adorned the platform.
Moses H. Gulesian presided.  Resolutions
were presented Miss Blackwell
which set forth the many ways in which
her father served the cause of liberty of
all men and women. 
There was music by Miss Nectar M. 
Eksergian and Rupen Eksergian.  The
speakers included B. Selian, Carnig Ekserggian, 
G. H. Papazian, Dr. H. S. Jelalian,
Dr. Timotheus Taminosian, Rev. S. 
S. Yenovkian and Rev. V. Kurkjian. 
Miss Alice Selian read a paper on behalf
of Armenian orphans, after which a 
fund was started known as the Henry B. 
Blackwell orphan fund.  A committee
comprising M. H. Gulesian, V. Kurkjian,
C. Eksergian, A. B. Selian and H. Krikorian 
will add two more members on
that committee to act as trustees for
the fund. 

[*Chelsea, Mass.  Record
Sept 13, 1909*]
USEFUL BAY
STATE CITIZEN

Called "A Knight of
Golden Rule" 

Forty Years Editor of
Woman's Journal 

A unique and picturesque personality
has passed away in the death of Henry
D. Blackwell of Boston, editor of the
Woman's Journal, at the age of 84. 
Energetic and successful as a man of
business, and gifted with remarkable
powers as a public speaker, he had withal
a strong streak of chivalry, and devoted
both his money and his eloquence to
those whom he looked upon as oppressed. 
He was especially a champion of
women, and it is as such that he will be
chiefly remembered;  but in addition his
humanitarian interests were warm and 
wide.  He addressed scores of meetings
of protest at the time of the great Armenian
massacres 14 years ago, and of
late he has been in frequent demand to
speak at Faneuil Hall meetings in behalf
of Russian freedom and against Jewish 

THE LATE HENRY D. BLACKWELL
Woman Suffrage Advocate 


"pogroms" and the deportation of political
refugees.  Despite his great age, his
addresses on these occasions were full of
energy and fire, and generally called out 
more applause than those of any other 
speaker. 
The celebration of his eightieth birthday
was a notable occasion, bringing
together a large assemblage of the best
remaining representatives of old New
England.  Mrs. Julia Ward Howe paid
tribute to her "esteemed friend and
champion of woman's rights and human
freedom."  Rev. Charles G. Ames
described him as "a knight of the Golden
Rule, a hero of humanity," and Hon. 
John D. Long spoke of his "half a century
of devotion to principle, of the
expression of high character, of the exercise
of a pure, honest mind, and the out-birth 
of a large generous heart." 
Mr. Blackwell strongly disapproved of
costly funerals.  A reformer to the last
he left directions that, instead of a coffin,
he wanted to have only a plain pine
box.  His family carried out his wishes. 



[*Seattle Times -  July 11, 1909*]
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE FOR
LIBERTY. 
HENRY B. BLACKWELL of Boston,
for years the advocate of woman's
suffrage, has written to The
Times his ideas about the subject--and
because of the pertanency of the question 
we quote therefrom. 
Mr. Blackwell is 82 years of age,
having been born in Bristol, England,
in 1825, coming to this country when
only 7 years of age. 
Mr. Blackwell's wife was the famous
Lucy Stone of Boston, born in 1813 and
dying in 1893. 
She was the consistent advocate of
many reforms and the pioneer advocate
of woman's suffrage in this country.
Mr. Henry B. Blackwell has been in
Seattle, attending the Woman's Suffrage
Convention, and called to pay his respects
to The Editor.  In the course of
conversation he remarked that "Woman's
suffrage has nothing to do with
prohibition--and never had.  In the 
states where woman's suffrage now prevails, 
the question of prohibition has
never entered as an issue,--and is never
discussed,--while in the states where
prohibition prevails, woman's suffrage
has not only no made progress, but has
never had a fair chance for discussion.
"And yet the liquor element think 
that woman's suffrage and prohibition
are symbolical terms!" 
Being asked to write a brief on the
subject of woman's suffrage before he 
left the state, Mr. Blackwell, with all
the ardor of youth, dashed off the following,
under the caption of this article: 
"I have seen on your streets a placard
inscribed 'For Liberty Against Prohibition
and Woman's Suffrage,' apparently
on the supposition that these two
measures are identical.  Permit me to
contradict that mistaken impression.
Among the resolutions adopted, day before
yesterday, by the National American
Woman's Suffrage Convention, was
the following: 
" 'Resolved:  That the movement for
woman's suffrage is but a part of the
great struggle for human liberty, and
that the enfranchisement of women is
necessary for their own individual development
as well as the greatest good
of the home, the state, and the nation.' 
"'The advocates of votes for women
hold various views on prohibition and all
other public questions.  This is shown 
by the fact that prohibition does not
exist in any of the four states which
have adopted woman's suffrage, while
in Maine and other states that have
enacted prohibition, women are not
voters.  The four woman suffrage states
have each a local option law similar to
the one now existing in the State of
Washington.
"'There is no reason or propriety in
connecting these two questions, each of
which should be advocated or opposed
on its own merits.  Equal suffrage has 

given satisfaction in the four states
where it exists.  It has been tried in
Wyoming and in Utah for forty years,
and no one advocates its repeal.  It
has elected better men to public office,
and has secured better legislation for
women and children. 
"'Its good results are affirmed by Gov.
Brooks of Wyoming, Gov. cutler of
Utah, Gov. Brady of Idaho, U. S. Senator
Teller of Colorado, and by all the
leading citizens and public men of those 
states.  Women vote as generally as
do the men, and the men vote more generally
than ever before.  Judge Lindsey,
the founder of the juvenile court of
Denver, has just been reelected by the
women voters over the rival candidates
of both political parties. 
"'The West has set the pace for the
rest of the world in giving justice to
women.  Equal suffrage amendments
are not pending in the states of Washington,
Oregon and South Dakota.  When
the great Pacific and Rocky Mountain
states set the example, all the less
progressive Eastern states will follow." 

[*Chicago Legal News,  Chicago, Ill.  Sept. 1909*]

Obituary. 
HENRY BROWNE BLACKWELL. 
The [ca?] [o]f woman suffrage lost
its most [?] knight when Henry
Browne Blackwell died September 7.
One of the most remarkable men of the
century, one whose statesmanship qualities
fitted him to adorn any position
in this government, he gave his heart
and soul to the work, that he promised 

to devote himself to when he won
Lucy Stone for his wife. 
Henry B. Blackwell was born May
4, 1825, in Bristol, England, the son of
Samuel and Hannah (Lane) Blackwell. 
His father, and advanced liberal
and an admirer of American institutions,
emigrated with his family to this
country in 1832 and engaged in sugar-refining
in New York City where he
set up the first vacuum pans in America. 
The family took an active interest
in the anti-slavery movement, their
home on Long Island, was a refuge for
persecuted abolitionists.  In 1838 the
father moved to Cincinnati, partly with
the hope of introducing the cultivation
of beet sugar and thereby making the
slave-grown cane sugar unprofitable; 
but he died the same year leaving a
widow and nine children very poor 
and dependent on their own exertions. 
Henry Blackwell did not
receive a collegiate education.  He attended
Kemper College in St. Louis
one year where he distinguished 
himself as a student but the straitened
finances of the family, necessitated
his leaving to earn money.  He
began his business life as an office boy,
later was employed in a bank, afterwards
engaged with profit in the milling
business and finally became travelling
partner in  hardware firm;  building
up a large trade in the Wabash
valley.  For seven years he travelled
on horse-back all through Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois. 
Mr. Blackwell was a member of the
old Literary Club of Cincinnati to
which Rutherford B. Hayes, Ainsworth
R. Spofford, the late librarian of Congress
and other men belonged.  He was 
one of a group of young men of liberal
views who were instrumental in bringing
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore
Parker and other distinguished radicals
out west to lecture. 
In 1853 he took an active part in the 
Free Soil movement.  A joint meeting
of the Free Soilers and the "Know-Nothings"
was held in Cincinnati to
try and make a coalition.  The meeting
was stormy and the effort for union
seemed about to fail when Mr.
Blackwell got the floor and made a
speech and carried the audience by
storm and accomplished the fusion. 
The Coalition then effected sent from
Cincinnati to Columbus the delegation 


that made Salmon P. Chase, governor
of Ohio, the position from which he
rose to be Chief Justice of the United
States. 
He and his family continued to take
a warm interest in the anti-slavery
movement.  On account of the leading
part that Mr. Blackwell took in the
rescue of a slave girl, a reward of
$10,000 was offered for his head, at a 
public meeting in Memphis, Tenn.
Irate Kentuckians used to come
into his hardware store for months
after and stare at him.  When asked
their business, they would frankly
admit that they wanted to identify
him for lynching purposes in case they
should ever catch him "on the other
side of the river". 
In 1853 Mr. Blackwell made his first
speech for woman suffrage.  IN 1853 
during a visit to Massachusetts he attended
a legislative hearing at which
Lucy Stone, Wendell Phillips and Theodore
Parker spoke in support of a
woman suffrage petition headed by
Louisa Alcott's mother. 
After a long courtship--for Lucy
Stone had made up her mind not to
marry, intending to devote herself 

wholly to the work of equal rights--
they were married May 1, 1855 by the 
Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 
On this occasion they published a
memorable protest in the Worcester
Spy and the Boston Traveler.  Here is
the protest as drawn up jointly by
Lucy Stone and H. B. Blackwell: 
"While acknowledging our mutual
affection by publicly assuming the relationship
of husband wife, yet,
in justice to ourselves and a great
principle, we deem it our duty to declare
that this act on our part implies
no sanction of nor promise of
voluntary obedience to such of the
present laws of marriage as refuse to
recognize the wife as an independent,
rational being, while they confer upon
the husband an injurious and unnatural
superiority, investing him with
legal powers which no honorable man
would exercise, and which no man
should possess.  We protest especially
against the laws which give the husband: 
1.  "The custody of the wife's person.
2.  "The exclusive control and
guardianship of their children.
3.  "The sole ownership of her personal
and use of her real estate, unless
previously settled upon her or
placed in the hands of trustees, as
in the case of minors, idiots and lunatics. 
4.  "The absolute right to the product
of her industry.
5.  "Also against laws which give
to the widower so much larger and 


more permanent an interest in the
property of his deceased wife than
they give to the widow in that of her
deceased husband. 
6.  "Finally, against the whole system
by which 'the legal existence of
the wife is suspended during marriage,'
so that, in most States, she
neither has a legal part in the choice
of her residence, nor can she make a
will, nor sue or be sued in her own
name, nor inherit property. 
"We believe that personal independence
and equal human rights can
never be forfeited, except for crime; 
that marriage should be an equal and
permanent partnership, and so recognized
by law;  that, until it is so recognized,
married partners should provide
against the radical injustice of
present laws by every means in their
power. 
"We believe that where domestic difficulties
arise no appeal should be
made to legal tribunals under existing 
laws, but that all difficulties
should be submitted to the equitable
adjustment of arbitrators mutually
chosen. 
"Thus, reverencing law, we enter
our protest against rules and customs
which are unworthy of the name,
since they violate justice, the essence
of law." 
(Signed)     HENRY B. BLACKWELL
LUCY STONE
West Brookfield, Mass., May 1, 1855. 



[*Sept 23, 1909
N. Y. Independent*]

A Brother to All Women 
DURING the same week that Mr. Harriman
died, Henry B. Blackwell passed
away in Boston.  The newspapers of the
United States contained thousands of
columns concerning Mr. Harriman, and
there was scarcely one of them which
did not print an editorial on his death.
The death of Mr. Blackwell passed practically
unnoticed outside his own city.
Mr. Harriman accumulated $100,000.000
during his lifetime.  Mr. Blackwell merely
devoted a life of eighty-four years to
the promotion of human freedom. 
Mr. Blackwell was the best friend that
women as a sex ever had among men.
Other men have helped individual women.
Other men have helped women as
a sex very greatly on occasion.  But Mr.
Blackwell was the only man who ever
gave up his whole mature life to elevating
and improving the condition of women
before the law.  The devotion of one 


man to one woman has formed the motive
theme of a very large part of all creative
literature.  The devotion of one
man to the welfare of the sex may reasonably
receive a brief notice. 
When Mr. Blackwell and Lucy Stone
were married in 1855 they published a
joint signed protest.  In this they stated
that upon assuming the marriage relation
they protested against the existing marriage 
laws of the United States, especially
the following:  The laws which gave
the husband the custody of the wife's person,
the exclusive control and guardianship 
or their children, the sole ownership
of her personal and use of her real estate,
the absolute right to the entire product of 
her industry, a much larger and more
     in the property of a
     he  give to a widow
in     band, and,
finally, against the whole system by
which the legal existence of the wife is
suspended during her marriage. 
When Mr. Blackwell married in 1855,
with the exception of the power of life
and death, he found himself endowed
with practically every poser over his wife
which the Roman husband possessed
2,000 years and more ago.  In the one-half
century since then this condition has
been very largely swept away in the
United States and replaced by the American
system, which in a general way recognizes
the married woman as an individual
before the law, with all the rights
and responsibilities of other individuals.
Generally speaking, an American woman
no longer assumes the legal condition of 
a minor when she marries.  She now retains
very largely any rights she may
have possessed before.  This is due to
Mr. Blackwell more than to any other
one man.
Mr. Blackwell, then a man of twenty-eight,
made his first woman suffrage
speech in 1853, five years after the general
movement was started.  His labors
for that cause have never ceased since
that day.  He was one of the original
founders of the first national suffrage association,
and of the Woman's Journal,
the first permanent suffrage publication
in the United States, which he had conducted
since 1870.  His editorial in the
issue of that paper which followed his
death was the last of a continuous series[*Boston Herald
Wednesday
Sept. 8, 1909*]
BLACKWELL DEAD
AFTER LONG CAREER
With Julia Ward Howe, He Had
Part in Founding the American
Woman Suffrage Association
in 1869. 
WAS WON TO THE CAUSE
BY HIS WIFE, LUCY STONE 
Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the
Woman's Journal, and one of the
earliest advocates of woman suffrage, 
died at his home, 45 Boutwell avenue,
Dorchester, yesterday afternoon, at the
age of 84.  A week ago last Saturday
evening Mr. Blackwell was taken seriously
ill and for a time his life was
despaired of, but last Thursday it was
announced that he was better.  On Monday,
however, a relapse came. 
Henry B. Blackwell was born May 4,
1825, in Bristol, Eng., the son of Samuel
and Hannah (Lane) Blackwell.  His
father, an advanced liberal, and an admirer
of American institutions, emigrated
with his family to this country
in 1832, and engaged in sugar-refining in
New York city, where he set up the
first vacuum pans in America.  The
family took an active interest in the
anti-slavery movement, and their home
on Long Island was a refuge for persecuted
abolitionists. 
He began his business life as an office
boy, later was employed in a bank, 
afterwards engaged with profit in the
milling business, and finally became
travelling partner in a hardware firm,
building up a large trade in the Wabash
valley. 
Wins Lucy Stone as Bride. 
In 1853 Mr. Blackwell attended a 
hearing before the Massachusetts Legislature
at which Wendell Phillips, Theodore 
Parker and Lucy Stone spoke in
support of a woman suffrage petition. 
On the spot Mr. Blackwell made up his
mind to marry Miss Stone, and after a 
long courtship (for Miss Stone had made
up her mind not to marry but devote
herself to this woman suffrage cause)
they were married on May 1, 1855, by
the Rev. (now Col.) Thomas Wentworth 


HENRY B. BLACKWELL. 

Higginson.  At that time they published
a joint protest against the undue power
given the man in the marital contract,
which greatly helped to get the laws
amended. 
He took part in campaigns for
woman suffrage amendments in Kansas
in 1867, in Vermont in 1870, in Colorado 
in 1876, and later in Michigan, Nebraska,
Rhode Island and South Dakota.  In
1889, when Washington, Montana and
North Dakota came into the Union as
states, he attended the constitutional
convention of each--at his own expense,
as usual--and labored for the adoption
of woman suffrage. 
The North Dakota convention, under
the influence of his eloquence, voted to
give women full suffrage, but reconsidered
and limited it to school suffrage. 
Montana gave tax-paying women a vote
upon all questions submitted to the tax-payers. 
Advocates Woman Suffrage.
In 1869, with Julia Ward Howe, Col. 
T. W. Higginson, Mary A. Livermore,
William Lloyd Garrison, George William
Curtis and others, he took part in
organizing the American Woman Suffrage 
Association, and for the next 20 
years he labored in it indefatigably,
travelling all over the United States,
generally at his own expense. 
He was a member of the Massachusetts
Club, the Republican Club, the
Twentieth Century Club and the Victorian
Club, and was much appreciated
as a speaker in all. 
He is survived by two sisters, Dr.
Elizabeth Blackwell of Hastings, Eng., 
aged 87 (the first woman to graduate
as a physician), and Dr. Emily Blackwell
of East Orange, N. J., aged 82, for
many years dean of the Women's Medical
College of the New York Infirmary; 
one brother, George W. Blackwell of
Cambridge;  a widowed sister-in-law, the
Rev. Antoinette B. Blackwell of Elizabeth,
N. J., aged 84, the first woman to
be ordained a minister, and one daughter,
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell. 


[*N. Y. Tribune - 
Sept. 8. 1909*] 
HENRY B. BLACKWELL 
Boston, Sept. 7.--Henry B. Blackwell, one of the
foremost advocates of woman suffrage in the
United States and prominent years ago in the
abolitionist movement, died to-day at his home in
this city, after a brief illness. 
Mr. Blackwell was born in Bristol, England, on
May 4, 1825, and early in life went to Cincinnati 
with his parents.  Favored with a good voice, he
was early brought into the Free Soil movement
and the cause of anti-slavery.  Having sheltered a
slave girl, a price of $10,000 was once put on his
head at a public meeting in Memphis.  IN 1853 he
met Lucy Stone, a well known advocate of woman's
rights, and married her two years later. 
In 1869, with Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Colonel T.
W. Higginson, William Lloyd Garrison and others,
Mr. Blackwell organized the American Woman's 
Suffrage Association.  He was its secretary for
twenty years, and for thirty years secretary of
the Massachusetts Woman's Suffrage Association.
He was editor in chief of "The Women's Journal" 
at the time of his death.  One daughter survives
him, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, herself a woman
suffrage leader of note. 


[*Boston Post
Sept 14
1909*]
[*"The Observant Citizen.*]
When the late Henry B. Blackwell
married Lucy Stone, the famous woman
suffragist, many years ago, the announcement
of the even cause much
surprise throughout the entire country,
it having been supposed that Miss Stone
would never marry.  In Boston and
throughout all Massachusetts, Lucy
Stone was the bete noir of the conservatives, 
and a set of verses had not long
before appeared in one of the Boston
papers, describing the fervent gratitude
that awaited the valiant man who
should marry her and by matrimony (it 
was assumed) reduce her to silence: 
"A name like Curtius' shall be his,
On Fame's loud trumpet blown,
Who with a wedding kiss shuts up
The mouth of Lucy Stone." 


[*Boston Post -  Sept. 9, 1909*] 
TO BURN BODY
OF BLACKWELL 
The body of Henry B. Blackwell will
be cremated at the Walk Hill Crematory
at Forest Hills Saturday at 2 o'clock.
The body will be taken to the crematory 
in a plain pine box, draped with a black
cloth.  The services will be conducted by
Professor Borden P. Bowne of Boston
University.  There will be congregational
singing and Mrs. F. J. Garrison will preside
at the organ. 
Later in the fall, when all of Mr. Blackwell's
friends return from their vacation,
a large memorial meeting will be held. 


[*Boston Globe
Sept. 8, 1909*] 
HENRY B. BLACK
AT HOME IN DORCHESTER 

Was Prominent as Journalist, Woman
Suffragist and Humanitarian. 

HENRY B. BLACKWELL 

Played Strong Part in Antislavery
Movement==Ill But a Short Time. 

Henry B. Blackwell, journalist, woman 
suffragist and humanitarian, died at
his home, Boutwell st, Dorchester, yesterday
afternoon aged 84 years.  Up to
the last, the "grand old man" retained
his brightness and cheerfulness. 
His last illness was brought about by
his efforts in the cause of reform, which
was ever uppermost in his mind and
heat.  On Friday, Aug 27, he was invited 

by Eugene Foss to the latter's
summer home at Cohasset, to talk over
with a few friends the subject of tariff 
reform, in which Mr. Blackwell was
much interested.  He greatly enjoyed
the trip, but got thoroughly chilled, and
the next day was seized with inflammation 
of the bowels, which brought
about his death. 
From the first acute attack he
seemed to have recovered, but the illness 

later took an unfavorable turn
and it was seen by all his intimate 
friends that the end could be only a
matter of days.  To the last his characteristic
consideration of others was
shown.  A few days before his death he
said of the trained nurse,  "Poor child,
she has a hard life," and then added,
"I pity everybody." 
He leaves two sisters, Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell of Hastings, Eng., aged 87,
who was the first woman to graduate as
a physician, and Dr. Emily Blackwell
of East Orange, N J, aged 82, for many
years dean of the Women's medical
college of New York infirmary; 
one brother, George W. Blackwell of
Cambridge;  a widowed sister-in-law,
Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of
Elizabeth N J, aged 84, the first woman 
Continued on the Third Page. 


HENRY B. BLACKWELL
DEAD IN DORCHESTER

Continued From the First Page. 
to be ordained a minister, and one
daughter, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell,
the noted woman suffragist.  Mr. Blackwell
left directions that his body
should be cremated. 
Came to America as a Boy.
Mr. Blackwell was of English birth
and parentage.  His native city was
Bristol, Eng, where he first saw the
light of day Mary 4, 1825.  His father 
was a sugar refiner.  IN his political
views he was an advanced liberal and
an admirer of American institutions.
When business reverses came upon him,
although the leading merchants of Bristol
combined and offered to lend him 
any amount of money at 2 percent if
he would remain at home, he decided to
emigrate to American. 
With his wife and children he landed
in New York in 1832, where he engaged
in sugar refining.  He set up the first
vacuum pans ever used in the country.
In England the elder Blackwell had
been a "Clarkson abolitionist," and
after his arrival in America he took an
active part in the antislavery movement.
Business motives induced him in
1838, to move to Cincinnati, O, where 
he died almost immediately after reaching
that city. 
At the time of his father's death Henry
B. Blackwell was a 13-year-old boy. The
family which was left consisting of a
widow and nine children.  Being without
adequate means of maintenance, it
was necessary that all of the members
who were able to should assist in the
general support.  The mother and the
three elder daughters opened a school. 
It is related of Henry that he assisted
in the running of the household by acting
as the family cook.  In a broken
coffee pot he concocted delicious stews. 

Did Business in Many Lines. 
As a business man Mr. Blackwell met
with success.  His business career began
as an office boy, when he was
employed in a bank.  Later he engaged
with profit in the milling business, and
finally he became traveling partner in
a hardware firm, building up a large
trade in the Wabash valley.  For seven
years he traveled on horseback all
through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in
the interest of his firm.  At a later
period in his life he moved to New
Jersey, where he engaged in the book
business, in sugar refining and in real
estate, making money in all. 
As a young man Mr. Blackwell was
endowed with brilliant talent.  He was
a great favorite socially.  Being possessed
of a fine voice for singing and
speaking, full of energy, and abounding
with fun and wit, he was sought for
on all occasions when a good time was
planned.No account of Mr. Blackwell's life
would be complete without some mention
of his antislavery principles.  IN
1853 he took an active part in the Free 
Soil movement.  It was a speech that he
delivered before a joint meeting of the
knownothings and the free soilers in
Cincinnati which brought about a coalition
between the two parties in Ohio.
This coalition resulted finally in the
election of Salmon P. Chase as governor
of Ohio, a position from which he
afterward rose to be chief justice of the
United States.  It was in this same year
that Mr. Blackwell made his first speech
for woman suffrage at a great convention 
in Ohio. 

Reward of $10,000 on His Head. 
 The following year, 1854, a reward of
$10,000 was placed upon Mr. Blackwell's
head at a public meeting in Memphis,
Tenn.  An antislavery convention, which
was in session during this year, received
notice that a family of southerners
was about to pass through Ohio,
having with them a little slave girl.  A
party of hot-blooded abolitionist determined
to make this a test case.  They
boarded the train at a certain station
and took the little girl off by force.  It
happened that Mr. Blackwell was the
one who caught up the child.  The affair
made a great stir, with the result
that a large premium was offered for
his head. 
In his married life with Lucy Stone
Mr. Blackwell's character shone forth
in its strongest and purest light.
In his relations with his sweet, lofty-souled
wife he exhibited an instance of
man's chivalry toward woman that is
rare in the chronicled experiences of
human lives.  It was in 1853 that he
made up his mind to marry the woman
who afterward became his wife, if he
could.  The occasion that brought hearing
in Boston in support of a woman
suffrage petition that was headed by
Louisa Alcott's mother. 
Lucy Stone, Wendell Phillips and
Theodore Parker were the speakers in
favor of the petition.  The eloquence of
the gentle, noble woman who spoke in 
those days as few women have ever
spoken, riveted the heart of the young
man with its persuasive charm.  Her 
modest, womanly manner as she pleaded 
against what she believed to be the injustice
of the law toward women,
touched the chivalrous instinct which
lay so deep in the nature of Henry B 
Blackwell in a way that was new to
him, and he determined then that this
woman, and no other, should be his wife. 

Confides His Love to Garrison. 
He confided his wishes to William
Lloyd Garrison, who shook his head dubiously
as to his prospects of success,
but gave him a letter of introduction 
to Deacon Henshaw of Brookfield, where
Lucy lived.  He was hospitably received 
by the good deacon, who told him that
Lucy was away on a lecture trip, but
was expected home that afternoon. 
When he returned to the farmouse, he
found her there standing on the kitchen
table, whitewashing the ceiling. 
It so happened that Lucy Stone, had
made up her mind never to marry,
meaning to devote herself wholly to the
work for equal rights.  It was a long
and difficult courtship that Mr. Blackwell
experienced.  But he promised to
devote himself to the same work, finally
persuading her that together they could
do more for it than she could alone. 
So on May 1, 1855, he and Lucy Stone
were married. 
No man was ever more loyal to a
woman than he to her.  From that
time to the hour of her death, and since
the promise which he gave to her then
inspired his whole subsequent life.  HIs
fidelity to the vow which he made to
his life companion was never lost sight
of.  When his wife died he said to his
daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell:  "We
must try to keep mother's flag flying." 


Faithful to Woman Suffrage.
In 1869 Mr. Blackwell and his wife
moved to Boston, where in 1870 the
Woman's Journal was started.  Having
acquired a competence in business, he
was then free to devote himself to reform.
The money to found the paper
was earned by Lucy Stone, as Mr. 
Blackwell's wife was always known. 
Its first editor was Mary A. Livermore,
who, in the course of a year or two,
was succeeded by Mr. Blackwell.  In
connection with Mrs. Stone, Col T. W. 
Higginson, Julia Ward Howe, William
Lloyd Garrison and others, Mr. Blackwell
was instrumental in organizing the
American Woman Suffrage association
in 1869. 
For more than 30 years he was corresponding
secretary of the Massachusetts
woman suffrage association, a position
from which, on account of his age, he
has just retired.  All over this country,
his voice has been heard in behalf of
woman.  He always spoke eloquently
and simply and with a fine choice of
words.  Though for a half century he
addressed meetings for equal rights, he
never received money in return for his
services.  Usually, he defrayed the cost
of his expenses besides. 


[*Boston Herald
Sept 9, 1909*] 
HENRY B. BLACKWELL
A distinct, individual personality
has gone from the ranks of Boston's
reformers with the closing of the
mortal life of Henry B. Blackwell.
He was so youthful in his spirit to
the last, so constant in his championship
of causes to which he had
dedicated himself decades ago, and
so prolific and persistent in his expression
of opinion on all issues of
the hour that had to do with what
seemed to him human uplift!  He
was a pioneer in advocacy of many
laws bettering women's status.  He
also was a pioneer in the practice,
which too few men have imitated,
of quitting fortune-making when a
competence has been secured, and 
then setting about using the remaining
years in social service. 


[*Boston Advertiser
Sept 8, 1909*] 
HENRY BLACKWELL, ADVOCATE
OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE, DEAD 

Served for 56 Years in Movement, Supporting
It Generously With Money as
Well. 
Henry B. Blackwell, the famous advocate
of woman suffrage, died at 12:30 yesterday
at his home, 45 Boutwell st., Dorchester.
He was 84 years old but retained
his activity until the time of his last illness. 
On Friday, Aug. 27, he made a trip
to the former home of Eugene N. Foss,
at Cohassete but on the way home became
chilled, and next day was seized with inflammation
of the bowels.  He seemed to
rally for a time, but the illness later took
an unfavorable turn and he died yesterday. 
He was born May 4, 1825, in Bristol, Eng., 
the son of Samuel and Hannah (Lane)
Blackwell.
His father emigrated with his family to
this country in 1832.
In 1838 the father moved to Cincinnati.
The son began business life as an office 
boy, later was employed in a bank, afterwards
engaged in the milling business, and
finally became travelling partner in a hardware
firm. 
He became a member of the old Literary
club of Cincinnati, to which Rutherford B. 
Hayes, Ainsworth R. Spoffor, the late 
Librarian of congress, and other men afterward
prominent belonged. 
IN 1853 he took an active part in the
free soil movement.
On account of the leading part that Mr.
Blackwell took in the rescue of a slave
girl, a reward of $10,000 was offered for his
head, at a public meeting in Memphis,
Tenn. 
In 1853, during a visit to Massachusetts,
he attended a legislative hearing at which
he met Lucy Stone, to whom he was married
in 1856 by Rev. Thomas Wentworth
Higginson.  On this occasion they published
a joint protest against the inequalities
in the marriage law. 
Soon after he moved to New Jersey,
where he engaged in the book business, in
sugar refining, and in real estate. 
In 1869, with Julia Ward Howe, col. Higginson,
Mary A. Livermore, William Lloyd
Garrison, George William Curtis, and others,
he took part in organizing the American
Woman Suffrage Association.  He was 
the unpaid secretary of the American Woman
Suffrage Association for 20 years, of 
the Mass. Woman Suffrage Association for
30 years, and of the N. E. Woman Suffrage
Association from its organization in 1868 
to the time of his death. 
When the Woman's Journal was started
in Boston in 1870, with Mrs. Livermore as
editor-in-chief, he and his wife, with Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe and Col. Higginson, were
on the editorial staff.  Two years later
Mrs. Livermore resigned the editorship,
and Mr. Blackwell and his wife took it up. 
He is survived by two sisters, Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell of Hastings, Eng., 87, and
Dr. Emily Blackwell of East Orange, N. 
J., 82;  one brother, George W. Blackwell
of Cambridge, a widowed sister-in-law, 
Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of Elizabeth,
N. J., 84, the first woman to be ordained
a minister, and one daughter, Miss 
Alice Stone Blackwell.
He was a member of the Massachusetts
club, the Republican club, the Twentieth
Century club and the Victorian club. 



[*Columbus Ohio News  Sept 8, 1909*]

HENRY BLACKWELL,
REFORMER, DIES
IN BOSTON

For Half a Century He Had
Worked for Woman's
Suffrage. 

Henry B. Blackwell, long known as
one of the foremost reformers and agitators
in the cause of woman's suffrage,
died suddenly at his home in Boston
Tuesday.  He was 84 years old and for
many years had been editor of The
Woman's Journal, a paper devoted to
the interests of women.  He was the
husband of Lucy Stone and shared with 
her the humiliation and hardships of the
pioneers in the cause for equal rights
for women. 
During the abolition movement Mr.
Blackwell was active in behalf of the
slave, writing and speaking constantly.
During his early manhood he was the
friend and neighbor of Henry Ward
Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. 
Attends Meeting. 
One of the last activities of his life
was a visit to the suffrage meeting at
Marble House on August 24.  His description
of that meeting follows: 
Beautiful Newport never looked more
beautiful than it did to me last Tuesday,
August 24, when, at 3 p. m., the
great iron gates of Marble House were
thrown open to a mixed assembly of
suffragists and society people, the latter
hitherto unconnected with the movement,
who responded to the invitation
of Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont to view this
most splendid of all American residences,
hitherto closed to all but the
personal friends of its owner, each one 
paying $5 to the woman suffrage cause
for the privilege and for the subsequent 
lecture.  Passing through the lower part
of the house with ample time to admire
the costly architecture, furniture and
decorations, I emerged into the wonderfully
beautiful grounds, stretching back
to a glorious vista of open ocean. 
The meeting was held in a large tent,
with a raised platform and seats in
front of it to accommodate a thousand
persons.  Promptly at 4 o'clock appeared
on the lawn on their way to the platform, 
on which five hundred persons
were already seated, Mrs. Belmont, Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe in a wheeled chair,
Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Mayor Boyle
of Newport, and a dozen other invited
guests.  Briefly and with graceful self-possession,
Mrs. Belmont welcomed her
visitors and introduced the major, who,
in his turn, spoke briefly and introduced
Mrs. Howe, an impromptu speaker.
When she appeared everyone rose and
remained standing till she had finished.
Rounds of applause greeted her, as,
supported by Mayor Boyle and her
daughter, she stepped to the edge of the
platform.  She said in part: 
Advocate For Fifty Years. 
"I've been an advocate of woman's 
suffrage for 50 years.  The change that
I have seen in the position of women
in the 90 years of my life is something
miraculous.  I remember the colleges
where no one would have thought of inviting 
us, and now how welcome women
are to the colleges and co-educational
institutions. 
"The many vocations that are open
to women that never were thought of
then, have increased and are increasing
every year.  Women are now better
friends with each other because they
so much better understand each other.
Men used to say:  'Women cannot reason,
women have no logic,' but always
when a woman amounted to something
they would say that the woman was an
exception. 


"We used to believe that once, but
then we could not believe it any more,
because we knew better.  A man would
say 'madame is an exception,' but I 
realized that the majority of women
were also capable of intellectuality.
"The world will be very much enlarged
for us when we appreciate what
women really are.  We are coming to
find out what the capacity of the real
woman is, that she is making up for
the centuries of waste behind her."
The Rev. Anna H. Shaw said in part: 
"If one aspired to long life only, she
ought to become a woman suffragist.
There is nothing which makes one forget
oneself, the ills of one's life, the
discouragements and despair which
enter into human experience so much
as a great truth, which has absorbed
one's whole being, and when one becomes
possessed by a great truth she is
able to rise above all things in the inspiration
and hope of it. 
"When one looks into the face of
Mrs. Howe and realizes that she is but
one of a numerous company of women
who more than half a century ago
espoused a cause more unpopular at
that time than any other, one can see
what the outcome of our movement will
surely be. 
Sense and Self-Respect. 
"Although I have not been in the
movement for half a century, for 40
years I have been in it energetically,
and for 35 years I have done nothing
else.  I hope to be able to serve the
cause as long as it needs my services.
How long that will be depends upon
the intelligence of American men and
the self-respect of American women.
These are the two things which will
solve the whole problem." 
Among those present were:  Mrs. Stuyvesant
Fish, Miss Lota Robinson of Baltimore; 
Mrs. Francis B. Hoffman, Mayor
P. J. Boyle, Alderman William Shepley,
Frank F. Nolan, the Rev. C. W. De Lyon 
Nicholls, Mrs. P. Kernochan, Mrs.
Charles B. Alexander, Mrs. Edward Lauterbach,
Mrs. Roswell Hitchcock, Mrs.
Fred Dent Grant, Mrs. Isaac Clothier 
and daughter, Mrs. William I. Hall of
Philadelphia, Mrs. Benjamin F. Clyde,
Mrs. Richard C. Stevens, Congressman
F. Gillett of Springfield, Mrs. Franklin
MacVeagh, Mrs. Joseph Sampson Stevens,
Mrs. Peter D. Martin, Mr. and Mrs. 
Harry Lehr, Mrs. Austin Gray, Mrs.
Charles L. Hoffman, Mrs. Pembroke
Jones, Mrs. A Langear Norris, Miss
Hayes, Mrs. Harry Lawrence, Mrs. Wirt
Dexter, Mrs. Stanley McCormick, Mrs. J.
G. Leakins, Griswold Thompson, Jay
Coogan, Sidney Smith, Mrs. Oliver Harriman
and Mrs. Sadie Jones. 
On Saturday afternoon there was another
suffragist meeting at Mrs. Belmont's
marble house, addressed by Professor
Charles Zeublin.  The meetings
were under the direction of Ida Husted
Harper. 


[*Union
New Haven Conn
Sept 8 1909*]
Henry Blackwell
Boston, Sept. 8.--Henry B. Blackwell,
one of the foremost advocates of woman's
suffrage in the United States
and prominent years ago in the abolitionist
movement, died yesterday at his
home in this city after a brief illness.
Mr. Blackwell was born in Bristol, 
Eng., May 4, 1825. 



[*Chicago Tribune
sept 8 1909*]
OBITUARY.
HENRY B. BLACKWELL, one of the
foremost advocates of woman suffrage in
the United States, died yesterday in Boston,
Mass.  He was born in England in 1825. 


[*Boston - C. S. Monitor
Sept 8 1909*] 
HENRY B. BLACKWELL PASSES ON.
Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the
Women's Journal, one of the earliest advocates
of women's suffrage in America
and a prominent anti-slavery worker,
passed away at his home, 45 Boutwell
avenue, Dorchester, Tuesday.  He was
the husband of Lucy Stone and a friend
of Wendell Phillips, John G. Whittier and
other prominent opponents of slavery. 


[*Chicago - Record - Herald
Sept 8 1909*]
HENRY B. BLACKWELL, one of the foremost
advocates of woman suffrage in the United 
States, and prominent years ago in the abolitionist
movement, died yesterday at his home in Boston
after a brief illness.  He was born in Bristol,
England, May 4, 1825.[*Oakland Calif.
Enquirer - Sept.14, 1909*]
DEATH OF HENRY B. BLACKWELL.

The recent death of Henry B. Blackwell at hi 
home at Dorchester, Mass., removes one of the distinguished
men who played a strong part in the an
slavery movement.  Mr. Blackwell was a journa
woman suffragist and humanitarian, and retained
vigor to a remarkable degree up to the ripe age o
He lately crossed the continent to Seattle to att
the national convention of the Equal Suffrage Assoc
tion, at which he was one of the speakers. 
Mr. Blackwell was an associate of William Lloy
Garrison and Wendell Phillips in the anti-slavery ag 
tation, and at one time a reward of $10,000 was plac
on his head at a public meeting at Memphis, Tenn., b
cause he had been one of a party to take a little
slave girl by force from a Southern family passing
through Ohio. 
Abolition having been accomplished as a result of the
Civil War, Mr. Blackwell became early identified with
the woman suffrage movement, and was one of the
most active and consistent advocates of political equality
until his death.  He was married to Lucy Stone, a
woman of brilliant attainments, with whom he was a
co-worker until the close of her life on the lecture
platform and through the press in advocacy of political
equality without distinction as to sex. 
In connection with Mrs. Stone Colonel T. W. Higginson,
Julia Ward Howe, William Lloyd Garrison and
others, Mr. Blackwell was instrumental in organizing
the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869,
and for more than thirty years he was corresponding
secretary of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, 
a position from which he only lately retired
on account of his advanced age.  All over the country
his voice has been heard in behalf of the cause of
woman.  He always spoke eloquently, simply and directly
and with fine choice of words.  For more than
half a century he has addressed meetings for equal
rights and never received money in return for his services.
Usually he defrayed the cost of his own expenses
besides. 
Mr. Blackwell leaves two surviving sisters, both physicians,
and a daughter, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, a
noted woman suffragist with whom he had been associated
in recent years in the editing of the Woman's
Journal of Boston.  Mr. Blackwell was a man of distinguished
attainments, of striking personality, and was
generally referred to as "the grand old man of the
equal suffrage movement in America." 


[*Taunton Mass-  Herald - News
Sept. 9, 1909*]
THE DEATH OF A GOOD MAN.
The world has lost a notable figure,
the United States a most exemplary
citizen, this commonwealth a beloved
adopted son, and the writer in common
with thousands of others who knew 
him a very dear friend by the death
of Dr. Henry B. Blackwell.  One of 
the most lovable men in the world, 
a man who as old age crept upon him
kept young and vigorous, abreast of
the times, a leader in thought and an
advocate of every principle that tends 
to uplift humanity. 
He had a heart as big as an ox's in
that small, frail body of his, he had
  dauntless courage that nothing
ould quench, he was as gifted an 
orator as where was in public life and
his voice was always raised in behalf
of some good cause.  He was sweet
and lovely in disposition, defeats
never made him pessimistic, he looded
at all things and all movements in a 
broad way and criticism never stung
him into irritability. 
The country has seen too few men
like him.  His sympathies were always
with the oppressed, and with 
those who were denied their rights.
He was one of the few Abolitionists
on whose head a price was ever put.
The city of Memphis once offered
$10,000 for his head!
The writer remembers hearing Dr.
Blackwell make a most eloquent
speech in the Illinois theatre in Chicago,
several years ago at the National
Reciprocity Conference in which in
a general way he passed over in rapid
review the growth of this country and
of science.  When he first came to
America he said Chicago was not in
existence, that marvelous city with
its hundreds of miles of streets bordered
with magnificent business blocks
and palatial homes and teeming with
the great commerce of the Middle
West.  There was not a steam railroad
in the whole world and but few steamboats, 
there was no Atlantic cable, no
electric light, no street cars, no telegraph,
no telephone, no phonograph,
no automobiles.  So much had the
span of this man's life witnessed in
wonderful development in every field
of human endeavor. 
Slavery was a Divine institution,
human beings were sold in bondage,
and humanity had made but little
progress.  The Western boundary of
the United States was what was
known as the Western Reserve.  


Dear Doctor Blackwell played his
part in the development of the country,
in arousing public sentiment in
favor of abolishing the curse of
slavery, in advocating the rights of
woman, and in raising his voice in behalf
of all movements for the benefit
and improvement of mankind. 
He was a clear thinker, a man who
knew words and how to use them, who
was far seeing and who dealt with
conditions not with theories.  Who
was loyal to his party but who refused
to accept everything that bore
the party label.  Who pointed out its
mistakes kindly but earnestly, and
who was not dismayed by the threats
of party leaders no lured by their
cajoleries.
He was a man in every sense of the 
word.  He was true to his friends,
and his going away will leave a great
void.  His work will live after him
and his memory will be a pleasure to
those who knew and loved him. 


[*Ansonia  O. 
Sentinel -  Sept 8/09*] 
The death of Henry B. Blackwell, in
Boston, yesterday, removes one who
has long been a foremost advocate of
woman's suffrage, earnest and aggressive.
He was for years editor of
the Woman's Journal, one of the leading
organs in the cause of woman's
suffrage.  It is said that when he and
Lucy Stone were married they traveled
thirty miles to find a minister who
would tie the knot without using the
word "obey."  This word is now commonly
omitted from the marriage ceremony, 
it having been found, long ago,
to be without significance.  Women
simply won't.