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T. T. BLAKELY
Vol. 5, p. 1844

T. T. Blakely is now secretary and manager of the Chamber of
Commerce at Okmulgee. However, he is the type of man who is always
larger than any office with which he happens to be connected. Mr.
Blakely is a man of unusual parts and talents. Perhaps the dominant
quality in his makeup has been enterprise, and he has succeeded not
only in doing a large amount of work and business through his
individual efforts, but has been peculiarly effective in getting
other men to do what he wants them to do.

He was born at Grafton, Massachusetts, April 18, 1873, son of C.J.
and Nellie M. (BACON) Blakely. His father was born in Northern
Vermont and his mother in Canada, so their birthplaces were not far
apart, being separated by the international boundary line. They grew
up and married in that community, and by trade the father was a
shoemaker. Eventually he was made foreman of the finishing department
in one of the large show factories of Grafton, Massachusetts. He
later invented a machine which performed an important part in the
making of shoes. Leaving the East he finally located at Janesville,
Wisconsin, when his son T.T. was two years of age. He established a
shoe factory at Janesville and has spent the rest of his days in that
city. The mother passed away in 1906 at the age of sixty-two. She was
at one time president of the Grand Lodge of the Rebekahs of Wisconsin
and the father was also an active lodge man. In their family were
five children, three daughters, after whom in age comes T.T. Blakely,
and then a younger brother.

Mr. Blakely was reared in Jansville, and finished the high school
course there in 1891. At an early age, though he lived in a
comfortable home, he found it necessary to do something practical in
addition to acquiring knowledge and living the usual routine of
boyhood. He paid much of his expenses through high school by carrying
laundry. In 1891 he entered the State University at Madison, where he
paid his expenses by handling a laundry agency, by collecting bills
and running a students' club. In the summer vacations he sold books
for three years. In 1895 leaving the university he spent a year as a
teacher in Janesville, and the returned to school and completed the
literary course in 1896. He also gained some credits in the
engineering course.

From 1896 to 1900 Mr. Blakely was principal of the high school at
Middleton, Wisconsin, and from 1900 to 1904 was superintendent of
schools at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. During that period he also
conducted summer schools for teachers at Janesville and other places
in the state. Mr. Blakely has the distinction of having organized the
first teachers' association in Dane County, Wisconsin, a county of
which Madison, the State capital, is the county seat with 400
teachers connected with the schools. He was elected the first and
second president of the association, and filled that office in 1898-
99. While engaged in teaching in Wisconsin he spent his summer
vacations largely as a book agent, selling students' reference books,
the Encyclopedia Britannica and Stoddard's Lectures. Probably few men
have had a more successful experience in the book business than Mr.
Blakely. Because of his success he received an offer from the E.R.
Dunmont Publishing Company of Chicago, at $50 per week and expenses,
to cover the company's territory in Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. He was then South, the company paying
the expenses of the removal of his family, and he covered the states
of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and
Georgia. During this time his family resided at Shelby, North
Carolina, Spartansburg, South Carolina, Columbus and Dawson; Georgia,
and Montgomery, Alabama. He was next sent north to Toronto, Canada,
and continued his work as a canvasser all along the lake region, and
still later located at Coffeyville, Kansas. For two years his family
lived at Mound Valley, Kansas, and he continued his work as a
canvasser through Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. In that
district he covered every town above 5,000 population.

From 1907 to 1912 Mr. Blakely had his residence at Caney, Kansas,
having gone there when gas was discovered. He entered the real estate
business, and for a time was very successful in that field. When the
gas supply gave out he lost all his investments and started all over
again. This time he began selling Florida lands, with headquarters at
Lakeland, Florida.

In September 1914, Mr. Blakely was elected secretary of the Chamber
of Commerce of Bartlesville, Oklahoma and after a year accepted a
similar position at an advanced salary at Okmulgee, where he is now
doing a great deal to vitalize and organize the work of the local
chamber of commerce. During his residence at Caney, Kansas, he was
elected a member of the city council and also served on the county
high school board of Independence, Kansas, having been chosen as a
republican. Fraternally he is a Mason and Odd Fellow. Mr. Blakely has
great ability as a public speaker and in his long varied career has
been called upon to exercise this talent on many occasions.

In 1898 he married Hattie Louise FERRIN, who was born at Darlington,
Wisconsin, and is a graduate in music. Five children have been born
to their union, but their daughter Moyne died at the age of eight
months. The four sons are: Thurston, Merle, Kenneth and Malcolm. Mr.
and Mrs. Blakely are members of the Presbyterian Church at Okmulgee.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Allison Sheldon July 27, 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916).