Representative Harrison Gray Otis Blake

Harrison Gray Otis Blake (March 17, 1818 – April 16, 1876) was a U.S. Representative from Ohio, state legislator, Civil War officer, and local official whose career spanned law, politics, and business in the mid-nineteenth century. He was born in Newfane, Windham County, Vermont, on March 17, 1818. During his childhood he moved with his family first to Salem, New York, and then, in 1830, to Guilford, Medina County, Ohio, reflecting the broader westward migration of New England families into the Western Reserve region of Ohio.

Blake was educated in the public schools and, as a young man, pursued the study of medicine for one year at Seville, Ohio. He soon turned his attention from medicine to commerce and the law. In 1836 he moved to Medina, Ohio, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits while reading law. After completing his legal studies, he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Medina, establishing himself as an attorney in the growing community.

Blake entered public life in the Ohio General Assembly in the 1840s. He served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1846 to 1847. In 1848 he was elected to the Ohio State Senate, where he rose quickly in influence and served as president of the Senate. His state legislative service helped to solidify his standing in Ohio politics and prepared him for later responsibilities at the national level.

With the emergence of the Republican Party in the 1850s, Blake aligned himself with the new political organization. He was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Cyrus Spink, the Representative for Ohio’s 14th congressional district. He took his seat on October 11, 1859, and was reelected, serving in the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses from October 11, 1859, to March 3, 1863. Representing a northern Ohio district in the tense years immediately preceding and during the early part of the Civil War, he participated in the national debates over secession and the Union war effort. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1862 to the Thirty-eighth Congress.

During the Civil War, Blake moved from legislative to military service. In 1864, with the conflict at its height, he entered the United States Army and was commissioned colonel of the 166th Ohio Infantry, one of the “Hundred Days” regiments raised for short-term service to reinforce Union forces and relieve veteran troops for front-line duty. His regiment formed part of the broader mobilization of Ohio volunteers that supported the Union cause in the war’s later stages.

After the war, Blake was offered but declined the appointment as Governor of Idaho Territory, choosing instead to remain in Ohio. He resumed the practice of law in Medina and maintained active interests in banking and mercantile pursuits, reflecting his long-standing engagement with both the legal profession and local business. In 1866 he served as a delegate to the Loyalist Convention held in Philadelphia, a gathering of Unionists from both North and South that supported the Reconstruction policies then under national consideration.

Blake continued his public service at the local level in the postwar years. He served as mayor of Medina from 1870 to 1872, contributing to the civic and administrative life of the community where he had lived since the 1830s. He remained a prominent figure in Medina until his death there on April 16, 1876. Harrison Gray Otis Blake was interred in Spring Grove Cemetery in Medina, Ohio.