STEPHEN L. BLACHLY, M.D., one of the oldest and most skillful practitioners in Washington county, is descended from a long line of distinguished men, eminent in the profession; but among this galaxy of brilliant medical lights we must look in vain for one whose skill in any case surpassed that of his descendant, the gentleman of whom we write, who is not only an ornament to the modern school of medicine, but a worthy and honored representative of a race of expert physicians. Dr. Ebenezer (1) Blachly, the first physician in the family, was a son of Aaron and Mary (Dodd) Blachly, and lived in Huntington, Suffolk Co., Long Island. His children were: Elizabeth, Ebenezer (2), Joseph, Benjamin and Daniel, of whom Ebenezer (2), born in 1709, entered his father's profession, and married Hannah Miller, who bore him the following children: Francis, Zopher, Ebenezer (3), Miller, Sarah, Cornelius, Mary and Marcy. The son Ebenezer (3), born in 1735, was a surgeon in the Revolution. He married Mary Wickham, and they had twelve children, five of whom were also physicians. He died in 1805, and his son Ebenezer (4), born in 1760, entered the war of the Revolution before he had reached the required age, and took an active part as surgeon throughout the conflict, after which he married Elizabeth Spencer, and reared a family of nine children: Nancy, Ebenezer S., Henry W. (father of subject), Mary J., Juliana, Bayard P., Eliza, Joseph W. and Oliver; with the latter two their mother passed the declining years of her life. Dr. Henry Wickham Blachly was born in Paterson, N. J., April 17, 1786. He first studied medicine with his father, finishing in New York City, and finally settled in Washington county, Penn. On January 9, 1806, he married Hannah Loveridge, who bore him twelve children: Ebenezer S., a graduate of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, who practiced thirty years in Waynesburgh, Greene Co., Penn. (he was twice married, first time to Martha Hanna, who bore him five children, and after her death he married Elizabeth Allison; but one of his children grew to maturity--Byard Milton Blachly, M.D., who practiced for about thirty years in Waynesburgh; Greene Co., Penn., where his father practiced); Milton Blachly died at the age of sixteen; Eveline Blachly married Dr. William B. Porter (they died leaving three children -- two daughters and one son, John H. Porter, who was a physician and died soon after completing his medical studies); Maria J. Blachly married Dr. Lutellus Lindley, of Connellsville, Fayette Co., Penn. (she died leaving one son, Dr. Henry B. Lindley, of Perrysville, Allegheny Co., Penn.); Stephen L. (subject of sketch); Eliza Blachly married John Milton Lindley (he died leaving three children: Byard, a banker and lawyer in Winfield, Iowa; Collin M., a physician in Zollersville, Penn., and Sarah); Oliver B. Blachly married Ellen Cracraft, by whom he had five children: Byron, Henry, Oliver, Mary and Howard (his second wife was Ella Hunt); Joseph Warrin Blachly was a physician who practiced successfully in his native county for a number of years (he was married to Eliza Minton, by whom he had four children: Maria, Ella, Joseph Warrin and Frank, a physician practicing at Clarksville, Penn.); Lucilla Caroline Blachly married T. N. Day, and their living children are: Henry B., Homer (a physician practicing at Avoca, Iowa) and Cora L.; Harriet Newel Blachly married Harvey Lindley, and their children are: Henry B. (who married Sarah Van Kirk), Ann Eliza (married to Sal. Cozad), Oscar, Howard and A. Lincoln; Henry W. Blachly, a physician who practiced for many years at Cavett, Ohio, died in 1889 (his wife was Caroline Cracraft, and they had two children: Mary, married to Dr. Emerick, and Henry W., a lawyer of Van Wert, Ohio); Hannah Louisa Blachly, the youngest of the family, never married, and lives at Sparta, Penn. The father of this family died at the age of sixty-two years, having practiced medicine forty years in Washington county; the mother passed from earth in 1887, on her ninety-seventh birthday, and they are buried at Prosperity. Stephen L. Blachly, the subject proper of this memoir, was born December 11, 1815, in Sparta, Washington Co., Penn. He read medicine with his father till twenty-two years of age, and on account of the prevalence of smallpox at that time was called upon to begin an active career before his preparatory study was fully completed. He was educated at Washington College, and later received his degree from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. On January 9, 1840, he was united in marriage with Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Lindley, who was of Puritan descent, and to this union were born five children, vis.: two died in infancy; Mary Minerva, who has been twice married, first to Stephen J. Day, and after his decease to S. McVey, of Sparta; Henry Spencer, a druggist in Waynesburgh, Greene county, Penn., and Dr. Oliver L., in Sparta, who married Anna, daughter of Rev. John Sherrard. Mrs. Blachly died November 25, 1857, and July 28, 1859, Dr. Blachly married Maria, daughter of James and Margaret Wade, of Fayette county, Penn. Dr. Blachly has resided in the same place over fifty years, and while engaged in general practice has become a skilled surgeon, and has always had an extensive practice; he has frequently been president of the Washington County Medical society, of which he is one of the oldest members, and is also censor for the Eighth District of the State Medical Society of Pennsylvania, also a member of the American Medical Association, and the Alumni Association of Jefferson Medical College. He has always had a very extensive practice, and he retired from active life in 1890. Physically he enjoys good health. He is about five feet ten inches in height; weighs 190 pounds; is erect in stature; and has become a very strong man by exercise, and care, though he was not robust when young. His father was about the same height, but weighed 160 pounds. The Doctor never used intoxicating liquor; in his youth he commenced smoking, but gave it up. He has been a member of "Upper Ten Mile" Presbyterian Church fifty-eight years, and has been an elder in same thirty-five years.

Text taken from page 236 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed January 1997 by Karen Souhrada of Pittsford, NY as part of the Beers Project. Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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