FREDERICK JOHN LEONARD BLANDY, one of the oldest and most prominent manufacturers and improvers of portable steam-engines and circular saw-mills in America, was born in Bristol, England. He lived with his father, Benjamin Blandy, Esq., until 1835, attending the best academies and receiving a good, sound education. He came with his father's family to New York, and from there to the then small town of Zanesville, Ohio, which his father had previously selected, after many months' travel and observation, as their future home. Henry Blandy, the brother of the subject of this sketch, went into the forge and furnace business, with a large stock of general merchandise to pay the hands with, and Frederick was the clerk and salesman, until its close. From this situation he went to New York and clerked in a large manufacturing establishment, where he accumulated some means. In 1840 his father started him, with his brother Henry, in the foundry business, which, by their united efforts and fidelity to each other, progressed rapidly, and they built up a large trade. The first heavy contracts they made were for the iron work for the Zanesville Waterworks and for the Zanesville Gas Light Company. By this time they were well into the machine business, having turned out many steam-engines and other machinery, and had now large and powerful works. They contracted to build a large number of locomotive engines for various roads. About this time, in the fall of 1851, Frederick married Miss Julia Johnson, of Philadelphia, Penn., and this marriage has been productive of six children—four sons and two daughters. The firm built one of the largest rail mills in the country, but the party in whose interest it was built failed. This, with the universal failure of most of the railroads in Ohio, in 1853, induced them to abandon this branch of their business, and, through perseverance and energy, they preserved their good name and credit untarnished. At this period they commenced to build their celebrated portable engine and saw-mill, invented by Frederick, which has proved the ne plus ultra.
In 1863, requiring greater facilities for their increasing trade, they purchased the Newark Machine Works, and in 1865 the aggregate sales reached over $1,250,000. In 1866, when in the zenith of prosperity, their Zanesville works burnt down, incurring a loss of $200,000. Rebuilding commenced before the ruins were cold, and in less than four months the finest and best equipped works in America were in successful operation upon the ruins. At this time Frederick built his present residence, which is considered the finest in the county.
Frederick has great taste for agriculture and horticulture, supervising his three farms within a few miles of the city; owns large coal interests in the Perry County fields and in Muskingum County; is a director and stockholder in various industrial interests, and Vice-President of the Union Bank. Such is prosperity and the legitimate result of well digested plans properly managed.
BLANDY, FREDERICK JOHN LEONARD, manufacturer and inventor, Zanesville, is a native of Bristol, England, having been born in that place in May 1820. His parents were Benjamin and Jane (Addison) Blandy. His mother was related to the poet of that name, and was also an aunt of Hopkins, the distinguished painter. Another nephew of this lady was a page to Princess Charlotte. The commencement of the recorded history of the Blandy family dates with the landing of William the Conqueror. The family acquired high consideration in England. Frederick Blandy gained his early education in Goldsten's and Hewlet's academies, and for two years pursued his studies under the auspices of Professor John Lewton. In 1832 Benjamin Blandy came to the United States with a view of finding a new home for his family in America. Among the points visited was Zanesville, then containing a population of thirty-eight hundred, and giving promise of great future development. The natural advantages surrounding this place pointed it out as a great manufacturing point in the future. Returning to England, he, with his family, set sail to the United States, landing in New York City in the fall of 1833. Cholera was then raging in some portions of the country, and, as he was solicitous for the safety of his family, he deferred carrying out his plan of settling in Zanesville until spring, passing the winter in Orange, New Jersey. Arriving at Dresden, Muskingum County, Mr. Blandy and his family pursued the remainder of their journey on a small steam packet which plied between that place and Zanesville. Notwithstanding some substantial progress had already been made at that day in steam navigation on our Western rivers, the contrast with the present time is very marked; and the subject of this sketch recalls to mind with vividness the difficulties attending his trip to Zanesville. In many places the river was too shallow to be navigated. Horses would then be landed and attached to the boat, and they would drag it bodily until water was reached deep enough to float the craft. In 1835 Mr. Henry Blandy, Frederick's elder brother, formed a business association with parties under the firm name of Dillon, Blandy & Co., and started a forge and furnace for the manufacture of iron from the ore, at Licking Falls, four miles from Zanesville. A large store-room, stocked with groceries, dry goods, etc., for the supply of the hands employed at the furnace, was placed in charge of Frederick, who was then only fourteen years old. It may be fairly presumed that a boy at that age must be thought to have considerable executive ability to fill a position so responsible, the onerous character of which was further enhanced by his surroundings. The county was in a rude and uncultivated state, and the loneliness of his situation was very trying to one so young. Alive to possible dangers, he slept at night on the counter, with a revolver under his head, ready to defend his trust in case of emergency. At the end of eighteen months, the enterprise proving unremunerative, the business was closed up and the partnership dissolved. The store department, under Frederick's charge, had made over six thousand dollars; but he received nothing but his board for his labor, although he had rendered valuable service, and endured many privations and hardships, including a year's experience with the prevailing disease of the country, fever and ague. Upon leaving, he engaged with a large manufacturing establishment in New York City as clerk and salesman. After a few months' trial the proprietor desired to employ him permanently at a very liberal salary; and at the end of two years he returned to Zanesville on a visit to his home, where he was prevailed upon to remain with his mother and sisters during an absence of his father in Europe. His employer in New York offered a further increase of salary on learning of his intention, but without avail, he feeling that he owed it to his father to forego the temptation-Mr. Blandy promising to establish him in business on his return from Europe, which he did in 1840. He built for him a large foundry, furnished a small capital, and loaned him some money, for which he was paid interest, Frederick having some money of his own, which he added to the common stock. His brother Henry was associated with him in 1847, under the firm style of H. & F. Blandy. At first, the business comprehended the manufacture of stoves, plows, hollow-ware, threshing-machines, castings, etc. They kept seven or eight teams constantly on the road, peddling their wares among the farmers, and frequently found it necessary to take horses in exchange for farming implements, etc. These horses were kept until a large drove was collected, when Frederick would drive them across the mountains on the common roads, occupying twenty-one days on the way to the city of New York. The foundry gradually increased in importance, so that in 1849 it took rank among the largest manufacturing establishments in Ohio, and began to exert a large influence in building up and extending Zanesville's business relations with the outside world. The miscellaneous character of their manufactures was discontinued, and their operations confined to the production of a few specialties: There was finally added a machine-shop, and H. & F. Blandy soon became widely known as a large contracting firm. The first two contracts of importance were for the iron work of Zanesville Water Works, and for the Zanesville Gas Works. In 1850 the Ohio Central Railroad-since merged into the Baltimore and Ohio-was built, and H. & F. Blandy turned their attention to locomotive building. They took contracts to build locomotives for this and other roads. Among the roads they helped equip were the Ohio Central, Mad River and Lake Erie, and Cincinnati, Wilmington and Zanesville, and Steubenville and Indiana. They built the first locomotive ever constructed in Ohio, and thus became the pioneers in this branch of industry in this State. The subsequent failure of the Ohio Central and other roads they had been working for induced them to abandon the enterprise, after sustaining heavy losses by the failures. In one instance a failure left them with twelve large locomotives on their hands which had been contracted for. They were subsequently disposed of at a sacrifice. At about this period they built, for a firm at Ironton, Ohio, a rail-mill, with a capacity of seventy tons of T-rails per day, and in connection
made several million bricks, erected twenty dwellings for the operatives, opened coal mines on an extensive scale, and when about ready to start the firm they represented failed, causing a great and embarrassing loss of means to H. & F. Blandy. In 1855 the locomotive works were changed into a manufactory of portable steam-engines and sawmills, which they constructed on a new and improved plan, introducing inventions designed by Frederick. These inventions were so important that their machines were the most excellent manufactured, and it soon became necessary for the inventor to have recourse to the law courts for protection against infringements on patent-rights. A great deal of litigation grew out of some of these suits, and the highest legal talent in the State was employed on both sides. In every instance Mr. Blandy came out victorious. On the breaking out of the Rebellion the firm was doing a large business in the South, and had outstanding debts aggregating $150,000 scattered through all the Southern States. The whole was a dead loss to them; but their business continued to thrive, notwithstanding the great loss, and they executed large government contracts during the war. Their business increased to such an extent that in 1863 they found their works in Zanesville too circumscribed to turn out their machines fast enough; and they accordingly purchased the Newark Machine Works, at Newark, Ohio, which equaled in size and efficiency their Zanesville works; and in 1865 they built and sold over $1,250,000 worth of machinery. In these works they have built many powerful stationary engines for blast furnaces and mills of all kinds, up to five hundred horse-power. In 1866 the Zanesville works were entirely consumed by fire, involving a loss of $200,000. With characteristic promptness, Mr. Frederick Blandy set about clearing away the ruins with a large number of men, preparatory to the erection of new works on a much more extended scale. Mr. Henry Blandy was at that time in Europe. In less than four months the old site was occupied by one of the finest and best equipped machine works in the United States. Just prior to the illness and death of his brother, they had entered into two very extensive contracts. One, the iron work for the Chicago custom-house; the other, the Fullerton avenue conduit machinery for pumping out the Illinois river in the city of Chicago. Mr. Frederick Blandy has completed both these contracts since his brother's death. He is now sole proprietor of the Blandy Steam-engine Works. He is a stockholder in various corporations, and is very active in his efforts to advance Zanesville's material interests, encouraging with means and influence every deserving public enterprise. He is president of the Zanesville Union Bank, the Ohio Furnace Coal Company, and of the McIntyre Building Association; is a director in the Brown Manufacturing Company, and largely interested in various coal companies, besides being an extensive land-holder and stock-breeder. He was married to Julia Johnson, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and by this union has had issue of six children, four sons and two daughters. The latter have exhibited wonderful talent in painting and drawing, and their work bears the impress of genius. A most melancholy event in his family history was the loss of his two sons, Frederick A. and Harry J., between whose deaths only five months intervened. Both were remarkably intellectual young men, graduates of Harvard, where they took their degrees with high honors. Severe mental application and undue neglect of physical health resulted in complete prostration, terminating with quick consumption. Frederick graduated from the law department of Harvard, and was subsequently admitted to practice by the supreme court of this State. Immediately after his admission he became associated with the celebrated firm of Collins & Herron, of Cincinnati, where he early indicated marked adaptation to his profession, and was in a fair way to verify the prediction that he had a bright future ahead. Harry was a graduate of the medical school; and both brothers had decided talent for drawing, but in a less marked degree than their sisters.
Information Sources
- Ohio, the Future Great State: Her Manufacturers, and a History of Her Commercial Cities 1875, pages 152-153
- The Biographical Cyclopædia and Portrait Gallery , V1, 1883, pgs. 168-169