An Ancestor to Remember, Part II








John Arza Blake with his 11 children.
Daughter Allie sits to the far left,
Daughter Eva Ann to the far right.
Son Guy Evan sits next to Eva Ann,
while the baby of the family, Lester,
sits on his father's knee.






When last we left the family of young Guy Evan Blake, the nineteenth century was drawing to a close.  The family was still feeling the loss three years before of 43-year-old Ann Eva McCammond Blake, whose death occurred just a few weeks after the birth of her last child.  But a new century was about to begin....

In Oshkosh's Daily Northwestern newspaper, readers learned of troubles far away in South Africa as English colonizing efforts met resistance from local Boers.  In Chicago, a huge fire took the lives of nine firefighters.  And from the Philippines, readers learned of the death of Spanish-American war hero, General Henry Lawton, whose remains were to be transported back to the United States.

Residents of Oshkosh could find plenty to entertain them as they contemplated the future on New Year's Eve 1899.  At the Grand Opera House, the comedy Hogan's Alley would star Joe Flynn and feature "13 Big Vaudeville Acts" and "12 Handsome Girls."  For those seeking a less secular way to ring in the New Year, the Blake family's church, the Algoma Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Algoma Boulevard First United Methodist), was featuring sermons entitled "The Voices of the Centuries" and "The Bloody King."

When the census taker visited the family of John Arza Blake on June 4, 1900, he found a full house of people.  Eldest daughter Allie had married in February, and she and her husband August Gumz, along with their daughter, Ollie, were living with John Arza and six of the children.  The three oldest sons, John Orva, Franklin, and James Harvey had left home prior to the census visit.  John Orva, suffering from asthma, had left school after his junior year in high school and in 1900 was working as a day laborer in Wells, North Dakota.  Perhaps his adventures in North Dakota proved enticing to younger brother, Guy Evan, as he would follow his brother to North Dakota more than a decade later.  While the whereabouts of John Arza's second son, Franklin, are unknown in 1900, younger son, James Harvey, left a colorful memoir of his life that sheds light on the adventuresome nature of the Blake boys.  Leaving school at 13 (over his father's objection) to take a job in town, James Harvey Blake by age 20 was working as a lumberjack in the northern woods of his native Wisconsin, a career choice that he would pursue for a decade. 

Ida Belle Gallagher



Changes happened rapidly for the Blake family in the first decade of the new century.  The year 1902 saw John Arza and at least one of his daughters stricken with small pox.  In 1904, the second-oldest daughter, Eva Ann, married grocer Bert Bessex and left the small house on 10th Street.  And in 1907, ten years after the death of his first wife, John Arza married schoolteacher Ida Belle Gallagher.  They would welcome John Arza's 12th child, daughter Emily, in 1910.

By 1910, John Arza's parents, Norman and Hannah Blake, were getting along in years, and John Arza purchased a home on Vine Street nor far from their home.  John Arza, his wife, Ida Belle, new baby Emily, and the two youngest boys, Guy Evan and Lester, were counted there in the 1910 census in April of that year.  By this point, Guy Evan was 16 years old and would soon follow in the footsteps of his older siblings by dropping out of school. 

According to son James Harvey's unpublished memoir, John Arza understood the value of education and wished to see all his children graduate from high school.  This was not to be, however.  Of John Arza's dozen children, only Emily, the daughter of former schoolteacher Ida Belle, would actually finish high school; sadly enough, she graduated one month after her father's death.

By the time he was 19 in 1913, Guy Evan Blake was living in Taber, Alberta, Canada, with his older brothers, Franklin, Elbert, and Willie Jay.  As coal-mining was the major business in town, it is likely that the four boys were engaged in either mining itself or any of its ancillary industries.  It was while living in Canada that Guy Evan received word of yet another tragic death in his family.

Eldest Blake son John Orva had settled at Seaside in Klatsop County, Oregon.  Youngest Blake son Lester, quitting school at age 16 in June of 1913, had also moved to Seaside, seeking the kind of opportunities that may be available on the west coast on the nation.  On August 6, Lester and some of his Seaside friends went to the nearby beach to hunt sea lions (apparently a legal activity in 1913).  A careless movement with his shotgun caused the weapon to fire, fatally wounding 16-year-old Lester.  The grief experienced by the close-knit (although far-flung) clan cannot be overestimated as death claimed yet another member of the family far too soon.

After Lester's death, Guy Evan Blake left Canada for Oshkosh--this time in Oshkosh Township, Wells County, North Dakota.  By 1917, he had settled at Arena in Burleigh County, North Dakota (abandoned in 2004, Arena is now considered a "ghost town").  It was here that Guy Evan heard of his nation's entry into World War I.

President Woodrow Wilson's decision to lead the United States into the Great War had been a long time in coming.  While war had raged in Europe since August of 1914, it was not until early 1917 that Wilson, along with millions of Americans, had enough of German aggressiveness.  The decision by the German government in January 1917 to return to their policy of unrestricted submarine warfare led to the sinking of several American merchant vessels.  In addition, American leaders became aware of an attempt by Germany's Foreign Minister to enlist Mexico as an ally in the war, enticing the Mexican government with promises of help in capturing parts of Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona.

While he had campaigned in 1916 on the slogan that he had "kept the country out of war," on April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany.

In North Dakota, far from his family back home in Oshkosh, Guy Evan Blake registered with the Select Service Administration on June 5, 1917.  According to his draft registration card, Guy Evan was tall and slender, with light brown hair and brown eyes.  Reported in the book Roster of the Men and Women Who Served in the Army or Naval Service of the United States of its Allies from the State of North Dakota in the World War, 1917-1918, he enlisted into military service on July 27, 1917, at Bismarck, North Dakota.  Trained as a truck driver, Guy Evan served with three different medical detachments in Europe before being discharged as a Sergeant First Class on June 4, 1919, from Camp Custer in Michigan.

While life on the front lines with a medical detachment has been somewhat romanticized by "Lost Generation" authors like Ernest Hemingway, there was nothing glamorous about the service performed by Guy Evan Black.  Conditions were bleak, and soldiers with the medical units served on the front lines. Injuries sustained in the Great War were especially horrendous as the traditional military emphasis on offensive moves met with the absolute killing power of defensive weaponry.  What Guy Evan Blake saw and heard on the front lines would no doubt remain with him for the rest of his life.

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When the war ended in late 1918, it was back in the United States, back to civilian life.  Guy Evan Blake had big plans.  Influenced by his work with medical detachments during the War, he considered pursuing a career as a doctor.  In Part III of An Ancestor to Remember, we'll see what fate had in store for Guy Evan Blake.

Click here to read An Ancestor to Remember, Part III.  Find out what happens to Guy Evan Blake after the Great War as he is faced with, and overcomes, tremendous obstacles, finding love and fulfillment in the process.