My Genealogy Hound

PROTAS BLUME. Under circumstances which would have utterly discouraged and disheartened a man of less resolute spirit and earnest purpose Protas Blume has worked his way upward to success. At times fate has seemed to be adverse and obstacles and difficulties have barred his path, but perseverance and energy have conquered all, and today Mr. Blume is living in honorable retirement in a pleasant residence in Yates Center, his toil in former years having brought to him a competence which now supplies him with all the necessities and many of the luxuries of life. If more young men followed his example, the word “failure” would appear less frequently in connection with biographical history.

Mr. Blume was born in Strasburg, Germany, May 6, 1832, and there spent the first ten years of his life, after which he came to America with his father, Joseph Blue, in 1842. They landed in New York City and then went to Cincinnati, O., where the father died of cholera at the age of fifty-eight years. His wife had died in Germany prior to his emigration to the new world. Our subject, then a young boy, engaged as an apprentice to learn the tailor’s trade and was employed in Cincinnati for five years, after which he removed to Moorfield, Indiana, where he secured a situation as a farm hand, working by the month.

As a companion and helpmate on the journey of life he chose Miss Christiana McKinzie, who was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, in 1823, and was of Scotch lineage. Their marriage was celebrated on the 19th of January, 1858, and Mr. Blume continued farming in the Hoosier state until 1862, when feeling that his country needed his services he enlisted as a member of Company B, Fortieth Indiana Infantry and participated in the battles of Nashville and Franklin. In the latter he was severely wounded in the back of the head and for a long time lay ill in the hospital, after which he was discharged on account of his injury, after serving for nineteen months.

Mr. Blume then returned to Indiana and as soon as he was able he and his wife removed to Madison County, that state, where he used the money which he had saved in the army to make partial payment upon a farm. To make the purchase he incurred an indebtedness of five hundred and sixty-three dollars. He labored hard and at length acquired the money with which to make full payment. On the 2d of December, 1867, therefore, he started for the recorder’s office with the money, but the man to whom he owed it failed to meet him. He then started to return and while crossing a bridge he was attacked by highwaymen, knocked senseless and the money taken from him. the robbers making their escape. This was such a discouragement that Mr. Blume resolved to lose what he had already paid on the farm and go to Kansas where he could obtain land from the government. Accordingly, in the spring of 1868, he arrived in Humboldt, Kas., with only a dollar and sixty-five cents in his pocket. The next day he began work for William Lassman at hauling sand. After three months he filed a claim to one hundred and sixty acres of land in Eminence township, Woodson County.

Since that time Mr. Blume has devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits, and has made one of the finest farms in the county. He has since taken one hundred and sixty acres of land each for two of his sons, and his home farm comprises two hundred and forty acres — a valuable tract on which is a fine residence and three large barns together with many other improvements. The cattle barn will accommodate sixty-five head of cattle, and he has two barns for the horses, together with cow pens and other buildings, somewhat resembling a little village. On the place is a fine grove of maples, containing ten hundred and twenty-eight trees in rows four feet apart in one direction, six feet in the other. At the well there are also nineteen trees, which were planted by his wife, who pulled up the switches and carried them home, planting them in their present location. They are now two feet thick and one hundred feet in height and stand as monuments to Mrs. Blume. As the years have passed Mr. Blume has met with a high degree of success in his farming and stock raising operations, and with a handsome competence sufficient to supply his wants throughout the evening of life he has retired to Yates Center where he is happily and quietly living with the wife who through more than forty years has been his faithful and devoted companion on life’s journey. They took up their abode in the city November 15, 1897 — the only removal they have made since coming to Woodson County.

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Blume was blessed with five children: Joseph D., who resides upon the home farm; Andrew J., who is living on one of his father’s farms near Buffalo; Jarvis Amos, who is now a practicing attorney of Chicago, where he has made his home for eight years; Anna, wife of D. M. Corley, and John H. The daughter was born in 1862 and died February 18, 1895, leaving a daughter in Basin, Montana, while the youngest son, born August 28, 1865, died June 6, 1877. Such in brief is the history of Protas Blume — a man whose industrious and upright life has ever commanded the respect and confidence of his fellow men. A resolute spirit has been the dominating element in his success and has brought him prosperity which is indeed enviable and equally as well deserved.