Strangers to Us All
Lawyers and Poetry

Charles W. Bliss

(1846-1931)
Illinois

Charles W. Bliss was a Hillsboro, Illinois lawyer. He graduated from McKendree College (Lebanon, Illinois), in 1869 and opened a law office in Hillsboro where he practiced law until 1892 when he bought the Montgomery News and then became senior editor. He died, October 22, 1931, at the age of 85. He was known for his "prose rhymes." [The Edwardsville Intelligencer (Illinois), Oct. 23, 1931]

"Charles W. BLISS, attorney, Hillsboro, was born in Montgomery County, January 8, 1846, to Rev. Alfred BLISS of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a native of Bradford, Vt., where he was born in 1811, to Seth BLISS, a farmer, who died in Vermont. The son came early to this county, and engaged in farming, but subsequently entered the ministry. The maiden name of the mother of our subject was Jerusha STRONG. She is the mother of eight children, five of whom are now living - Eliza A., wife of James I. MOODY, a farmer of Fillmore Township; Celesta J., wife of E. C. DEVORE, a lawyer of Seymour, Ind.; George A., a hardware merchant at Nokomis; Alice, deceased wife of Lyman C. ALLEN, a farmer of Fillmore Township. She left three children - Charles W., Nellie J., wife of John C. WHITE, a lawyer at Effingham, Ill. Our subject worked on the farm and attended the common schools, and graduated from McKendree College, at Lebanon, in June, 1869. . . ." [Montgomery County, IL. History of Bond and Montgomery Counties Illinois 1882 - Part II][online text]

Writings

Thomas A. Bliss, The Goose Bone Papers: Writings of Charles W. Bliss, country newspaper editor . . . weaver of words (Hillsboro, Illinois: The Hillsboro and Montgomery County News, 1981)(Hillsboro, Illinois: The Hillsboro and Montgomery County News, 1986)