James C Blanding
| Date of Interment or Death | 06/13/1929 |
|---|---|
| Location | Old Fairview |
| Section | D |
| Block-Lot-Grave | 9-1-5 |
Obituary
FUNERAL HELD FOR JAMES C. BLANDING Brother of Local Residents Dies Tuesday Following Extended Illness Funeral services for James C. Blanding, who died Tuesday, following a long illness, were held this afternoon from the Blanding home. James C. Blanding was born in 1848 in Pennsylvania. He came to Richland county in 1871 after having served in Company “A”, 41st regiment of Wisconsin infantry during the latter part of the Civil war. Surviving are his wife, two brothers, Walter D. and Joseph S. of this city, and two sisters, Mrs. Emma B. Burbank and Mrs. Jessie B. Fisher, the latter of Devils Lake, N. D.
Obituary James C. Blanding was born in 1848 and in May 1864 responded to Lincoln’s call for “hundred day” men enlisting in the 41st regiment of Wisconsin volunteers at the age of sixteen, and serving until the end of the Civil war. His army papers recite that he gave his age as 18 at the time of enlistment, which was at Lancaster, Wis. James Blanding finished his education after the war at Platteville, Wis. And in 1871 secured a contract from the government to run the township lines over an area near what is today the city of Grand Forks. In the following years until 1877 he was engaged wholly in the business of running meridians, standard guides and subdividing townships.
In 1874 he had a contract to survey most of the southeast portion of Richland county. Another of his contracts was on the Sheyenne near Barrie. The outfitting of all deputy surveyors, who were getting Dakota territory ready
for the vast influx of settlers, was done at Yankton and his headquarters until 1877 were at Yankton. He was the only member of the Blanding family who did not claim Wahpeton as his hime. He knew Wahpeton first as a spot on the prairie, then as Richville, next as Chihinkapa and then by its permanent and beautiful name of Wahpeton. He was essentially a frontiersman. He spent some time as a miner and prospector in the Black Hills, with all the ups and downs of that exciting but precarious business. When Henry Villard was president of the N. P. railroad he was employed to run the survey of a line to be built from Laurel, a village west of Billings, Mont., to Cook City, a big mining camp in the Shoshones, east of the Yellowstone Park. He also worked as a surveyor in the Yellowstone Park, making his home thereafter in Montana. He owned a ranch near Gardiner for many years, being forced to retire because of failing health.
Headstone photograph(s)
Location
Old Fairview is located on the southern half of the cemetery grounds.