Born: Jan­u­a­ry 21, 1852, Lon­don, Ohio.

Blake moved to near Day­ton, Vir­gin­ia, in the ear­ly 1870’s. There he worked with the Rue­bush-Kieff­er Com­pa­ny pub­lish­ers un­til 1889, when he moved to Ron­ce­verte, West Vir­gin­ia. There he part­nered with J. W. Hess in pub­lish­ing the Ron­ce­verte News. Around 1891, Blake bought Hess’ part of the news­pa­per and changed the name to the Val­ley Mess­en­ger and News. In De­cem­ber 1897, Blake formed The West Vir­gin­ia News. He pub­lished both papers un­til 1901, when the Vall­ey Mess­eng­er and News was con­sol­i­dated into the lat­ter pa­per. Blake’s works include:

• Sweet Fields of Eden, with John Ten­ney and Al­dine Kieff­er (Day­ton, Vir­gi­nia: 1882)
• Sabbath Bells, with An­tho­ny Sho­wa­lter, B. F. Nyse­wan­der and Charles E. Pri­or (Day­ton, Vir­gi­nia: 1884)
• The Roy­al Pro­cla­ma­tion, with Al­dine Kieff­er (Day­ton, Vir­gi­nia: 1886)

Music

1. When the Battle’s Over