Biography of Achilles Blaker, pages 971 / 972.  History of De Kalb County, 
Indiana.  Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885.

Achilles Blaker, deceased, was born in Pennsylvania about 1803, a son of 
Jesse Blaker.  In 1834 he moved to Maumee County, Ohio, where he followed 
blacksmithing several years.  He built one  mile of the Lake Shore & 
Michigan Southern Railroad in 1852, and the same fall took a three-mile 
contract on the same road three and a half miles east of Butler at the State 
line.  He moved his family to Butler in the spring of 1855, and the 
following spring bought the Butler House of John Rose.  This building had 
four rooms, two below and two above, separated by board partitions.  It was 
used for hotel, church, dancing-hall and public meetings for some years.  
Mr. Blaker was a public-spirited, and energetic man, and was influential in 
advancing many of the improvements of the town of Butler. He was married 
three times; first to Susan Meers, by whom he had one child---Susan, who 
married J. M. Howard, and died in LaSalle County, Ill., in December ,1884, 
leaving a family.  Mrs. Blaker died in Pennsylvania, and he then married 
Mary Walton, who at her death left three children---George, of Maumee, 
Ohio; William, of Lafayette, Ind., and Arabelle, wife of Col. J. D. 
McKain, of Marseilles, Ill.  His third marriage was to Mrs. Eliza Scottow, 
a native of Gloucestershire, England, born in 1817, widow of John Scottow.  
She came to America in June, 1832.  Mr. Blaker died Feb. 6, 1868, aged 
sixty-two years.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com