My Genealogy Hound

Prof. Joseph P. Blanton, president of the State Normal School at Kirksville, one of the well known educators of Missouri, and a man who has done as much as any citizen toward the advancement of educational matters in the State, came originally from Cumberland County, Va., where he was born January 29, 1849. His parents, Joseph and Susan (Walker) Blanton, were also Virginians by birth, and there they died, the former when Joseph P. was but an infant, and the latter when he was seven years old. Left an orphan at this early age, young Joseph soon made his home with an elder brother, Rev. L. H. Blanton, D. D., present chancellor of Central University, at Richmond, Ky. He attended various representative institutions of learning in the Blue-Grass State, subsequently returning to Virginia in 1861, where, at the age of fifteen, in 1864, he entered the freshman class of Hampden-Sydney College, but during this session his attention was diverted from study to the battlefield, and he soon joined the Third Regiment Virginia Cavalry, Confederate States Army, under command of Gen. Fitz Hugh Lee. He was present at the surrender of Appomattox, but escaping went South and joined Gen. Joe Johnston’s command in North Carolina. Returning home in 1865, Mr. Blanton re-entered college, from which he was graduated in June, 1869, with deserved honor. He soon embarked upon a professional career as a teacher, near Paris, Ky., and later took charge of a school near Lexington, from where, in the fall of 1871, he came to Missouri, having been elected to the chair of Latin and Greek in Watson Seminary, at Ashley, Pike County. June 25, 1872, Prof. Blanton was married to Miss Anna Craig Bell, a union which has proven a happy one. In 1874 he was elected to, and for two years successfully held the position of principal of Parker Seminary at Troy, Mo., at the expiration of which time, through his influence, the seminary was united with the public schools of the place; following this he remained at the head of affairs two years longer. In 1878 he was elected superintendent of the city schools of Mexico, Mo., which were thoroughly reorganized under his direction. In 1882 he assumed control of the duties of his present position, a capacity in which he has served with signal credit, and to the satisfaction of all.