Biography
First Vermont Cavalry Volunteers
Blinn, Charles Henry, of San Francisco, Cal., son of Chauncy and Edatha (Harrington) Blinn, was born in Burlington, Jan. 27, 1843.
Educated in the schools of his native place, he was prepared for the University of Vermont, when he entered the army.
He enlisted, August 21, 1861, in the famous 1st Vt. Cavalry, serving three years and four months. He was attached to Sheridan's Cavalry Corps; participated in the battles of Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Wilderness, Winchester, Cedar Creek, and twenty-six skirmishes. He was wounded and taken prisoner at Middletown, Va., May 25, 1862, in a cavalry charge led by General Banks; his horse was killed by a cannon ball from a battery stationed within three hundred yards, fell with sixteen others and was ridden over by a company of the 1st Maine Cavalry; was in prison at Lynchburg and Belle Island, Va., from May 25 to Sept. 17. His regiment has the honor of having captured at Cedar Creek forty-two cannon, the largest number taken by any regiment during the war. He was honorably discharged at Burlington, Nov. 19, 1864.
After the war he was two years chief clerk at the Welden House, St. Albans. He went to California in 1868, and for six years was with the Wells-Fargo Express Co. In 1875 he became an editorial writer of the "Alta California." In 1878 he was appointed chief permit clerk in the San Francisco Custom House, which position he still fills.
The positions he has occupied in the Grand Army of the Republic are too many for our space; suffice it to say, he is now quartermaster and secretary of Veteran Guard, G.A.R., George H. Thomas Post, etc. For five years he has been secretary of the Pacific Coast Association, "Native Sons of Vermont." He is a regular attendant and contributor to Simpson Memorial Methodist Church.
He was married, Dec. 15, 1870, to Nellie, daughter of Albert and Lucy Holbrook, of Salem, N. H. She is (1894) the leading elocutionist of the Pacific Coast. Mrs. Blinn is a powerful political speaker, and took the stump for Hayes, Garfield, Blaine, and Harrison. Their union was blessed with a son: Holbrook, born in 1872, graduated at Boy's high school, spent two years in college, and is now a rising young actor.
Source: Jacob G. Ullery, compiler, Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont, (Transcript Publishing Company, Brattleboro, VT, 1894), Part III, p. 21.
Charles Henry Blinn, adjuster of duties in the custom house of San Francisco, to which position he was appointed on the 1st of April, 1902, is a native of the Green Mountain state, his birth having occurred in Burlington, Vermont, on the 27th of January, 1843. He belonged to a family of eight children, being the third in order of birth among five sons and three daughters whose parents were Chauncey and Editha M. (Harrington) Blinn. In the paternal line he is descended from French Huguenot ancestors who settled in Shelburne, Vermont, in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Since that time representatives of the name have been found in various portions of New England, and several were identified with the patriotic army in the war of the Revolution, while Chauncey Blinn served his country as a soldier of the war of 1812. He was a master wheelwright by occupation, and followed that pursuit for a number of years.
Charles Henry Blinn acquired his education in the public schools of his native city and later benefited by instruction received in the academy of Burlington, Vermont, where he pursued a preparatory course, fitting him for entrance in the state university. He was thus a student at the time of the inauguration of the Civil war in 1861. His interest centered in his country and its welfare, and prompted by a spirit of patriotism he and his two brothers enlisted in the First Regiment of Vermont Cavalry under Colonel L. B. Platt. This regiment served in all the battles of the Potomac and was in the great cavalry charge under General Farnsworth, of General Kilpatrick's division, in the sanguinary conflict at Gettysburg. Mr. Blinn afterward served under Generals Custer and Sheridan. In 1864 he was in the Shenandoah valley with Sheridan's army and with the Army of the Potomac in General Grant's campaign. After the expiration of his three years' term of service, following the battle of Cedar Creek, he was mustered out on the 19th of November, 1864.
After the war he entered the office of the Central Pacific Railroad Company at St. Albans, Vermont, as a clerk, and later accepted the position of chief clerk at the Weldon House at St. Albans, a famous summer hotel. Subsequently he occupied a similar position in the Ottawa Hotel at Montreal, Canada, and the year 1868 witnessed his arrival on the Pacific coast. He has since been a resident of California and is thoroughly in sympathy with the interests of the great west, co-operating in public measures for general advancement and improvement. On his arrival in this state he accepted a position with the Wells Fargo and Company's Express, with which he continued until 1874, when he resigned in order to accept a position as one of the writers on the Daily Alta, a newspaper of San Francisco, with which he was connected until 1878, when he accepted a position in the custom house at San Francisco as chief permit clerk. He acted in that capacity until the 1st of April, 1902, when he was promoted to adjuster of duties in which capacity he is now serving.
In 1880 Mr. Blinn was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Holbrook, a native of New Hampshire, a daughter of Hon. Albert Holbrook. At the time of her marriage she was a distinguished actress and was well known on the stage under her maiden name, being leading lady with W. E. Sheridan and also playing in the old California theater with Lawrence Barrett and John McCullough. To Mr. and Mrs. Blinn has been born one son, who has gained distinction by reason of his histrionic talent on the London stage.
Mr. Blinn belongs to George H. Thomas Post, G.A.R., and has been its quartermaster for the past twenty-one years. He is financial secretary and treasurer of San Francisco Council No. 540, National Union, in which capacity he served for fourteen years. He is now a director of the Veterans Home Association, having served for ten years, being appointed three times by the successive governors Budd, Gage and Pardee. He is also chairman of the supplies committee for the association. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and a close study of the questions and issues of the day has enabled him to support his political preferences by intelligent argument. In matters of citizenship he is progressive and patriotic, giving to his country in days of peace the same loyal devotion that he manifested when on southern battlefields he followed the starry banner of the nation.
Source: History of the New California Its Resources and People, Volume II; The Lewis Publishing Company - 1905Edited by Leigh H. Irvine.
