John Noah Bliss

John Noah Bliss was born at Sholebrook in the Whittlebury Forest about three miles south of Towcester, England, in April, 1833. He worked for the Duke of Grafton from the age of accountability until late in his sixteenth year, when he decided to come to America. After spending six weeks at sea he landed in New York in 1850 on his 17th birthday.

John N. Bliss, his wife Charity Thorn Bliss, and first born George W. Bliss in Napoleon about 1861.

John N. Bliss worked as a second engineer on a Great Lakes boat, spending some of his winters in Henry County as a boarder on the old Kilpatrick farm near the Maumee River in Harrison Township. It was at this time that he met and courted Miss Charity Thorn. Miss Thorn was the daughter of John David Thorn and Hannah Stutes, who as a family moved from New Jersey in the early 1850's and settled along the Maumee River in Harrison Township.

John N. Bliss and Charity were married in Henry County on December 21, 1859. G. W. Miller, Minister of the Gospel performed the ceremony. They lived first in a log cabin and later in a house on Road 7. Both before and after his marriage John Bliss worked tile ditching. There was much unimproved land in Henry County yet in the 1850's and 60's. He then purchased a farm in Section 26 of Harrison Township. The farm was 80 acres of land and was known as the Gilbert and Herr farm for some time. To John and Charity Bliss were born three sons. They were George W., Clellan, and Edward Jacoby Bliss. Mrs. Bliss became ill and on the 6th anniversary of their marriage in 1865, Charity passed from this life.

Mr. Bliss' second marriage was to Miss Catherine (Cassie) Carter, who in addition to caring for his three children, bore him seven of their own. They were Wesley, Ellen, Clara, William, John T., Matilda and Mattie. Clellan and Matilda both died young but the other children married as follows: George married Alvanda Balke;

Ellen married Sanford Knepley; Clara married William Stoner; William married Hattie Johnson; Mattie married William Hess; John T. married Jessie Ellsworth; and Edward Jacoby married Emma Campbell.

Mr. Bliss, residing a mile east of Shunk, was well known in this area. Though he never ran for public office, he was very active in local politics. He was an uncompromising Democrat and many sought his counsel and advice.

In 1883 he purchased 40 acres of land in Harrison Township from S. S. Blair for $42.50 per acre.

John N. Bliss claimed distant relationship to P. P. Bliss, the great Evangelist of the 1880's and to Cornelius Bliss, a member of President McKinley's cabinet. On April 20, 1900, John Bliss was startled to see friends and neighbors coming to his home. It was his 67th birthday celebration and the fiftieth year in the United States. They brought him a sofa and many good things to eat for the party. Many stories were told about how things were done in days gone by. Even the children picked Easter flowers for the party to decorate the tables. He loved his adopted country and did much to develop it.

John N. Bliss (seated) on the front porch of his farm in Section 26 of Harrison Township Circa: 1880's.

John Bliss died on August 6th, 1900, of Brights disease. He left a widow, eight children, a brother in England, another in Scotland and a sister in Missouri. Funeral services were held in the Shunk Evangelical Church. The Rev. W. J. Dempster of the Presbyterian Church in Napoleon officiated. Burial was in Hoy Cemetery.

Many Bliss cousins live in Henry County today. His son Edward J. Bliss, born 1864, married Emma Campbell who came from Fairfield County, Ohio, to live with her uncle Lyman Conrad. Of this union three children lived, Elma Crossland, George Bliss (both of Napoleon); and the late Anna Kent, mother of nine children, one being Emma Kent Harrison, who as a child attended Sheets School and Randall Hill School on Road P east of Napoleon and is now a resident of Henry County.

Submitted by a Descendant