Reuben L. BLAKELY, section 11, Union Township, postoffice New York, is a son of Isaac Blakely, who was born in East Tennessee, January 31, 1814, and removed when twenty years of age to Morgan County, Illinois, and thence to Iowa, and worked in the Dubuque lead mines for a time, and in 1835 settled on Round Prairie, Jefferson County. He was married December 1, 1836, to Elinor Lauman, of Indiana, and removed in 1838 to Rich Woods, where in 1844 he entered a tract of Government land, two and a half miles from Fairfield. He sold his land in 1850 and bought a tract four miles southwest of Centerville, where he lived three and a half years. He then removed to West Grove, Davis County, Iowa, where he now lives. He has represented his county in the State Legislature, and is a fine specimen of the early settlers of Iowa, and is still hale, hearty and active. He has entered hundreds of acres of Government land, of which R. L. Blakely's farm is a part. This land he entered in 1854, riding a mule to the land office and distancing a rival, who rode a powerful but logy horse. He and his companion were obliged to ride to Wolf Creek, to the house of Mr. Ryan, seven miles distant, for a place to stay all night. Reuben L. Blakely was born on Round Prairie, Jefferson County, Iowa, July 2, 1838. In 1858 he went on a business trip to Missouri, and extended it by starting for California, overland, driving a Government contractor's team as far as Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory. From there he returned to Leavenworth, Kansas, and from there the next year went to Pike's Peak. While going down the Platte he had a notable trip, as the Indians were hostile and were burning the prairies to destroy the feed. His party was stopped by Sioux, and narrowly escaped losing their cattle. In 1860 he settled down to the life of a farmer, and that year lived on his father's Davis County farm. In the spring of 1861 he settled where he now lives, which at that time was uncultivated. He cut the timber and hauled it to the saw-mill with an ox-team, and then hauled the lumber back to his land and built his house, which was 17 x 17 feet in dimension. This has given place to a large two-story frame house, and his other farm buildings are comfortable and commodious. His farm of 240 acres is all under cultivation, and is one of the most valuable in the township. Mr. Blakely was married in August, 1860, to Minerva Hockersmith, a native of Randolph County, Missouri, but reared in Davis County, Iowa, where her father, John Hockersmith, settled in 1843. They have eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, of whom the eldest son is married, and the rest are still inmates of their father's house. Mr. Blakely has been a Democrat in politics since his majority, and was a part of the time the only man in Union Township to handle the tickets of that party. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1866.
