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Born: May 12, 1840, Worcester,
Massachusetts, United States
Died: December 19, 1900, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupation: Telegrapher
Source Citation: History
of Early Chicago, Modern Chicago, and Its Settlement, Early Chicago and
The Northwest by Albert D. Hager, page
540 and Genealogy of the Bliss Family in
America.
GEORGE HARRISON BLISS was born May 12, 1840, in
Worcester, Mass., of Perrin and Persis A. (Bullard) Bliss. The
family came to Chicago in 1854, having been preceded by the father
in 1852. He engaged in bridge and railroad building, and died in
1879, being followed by Mrs. Bliss in 1880. In 1858 young Bliss
learned telegraphy: and was employed by the Illinois &
Mississippi Telegraph Company, at Dixon Ill., in 1859, and at
Muscatine, Iowa, in 1860. He was stationed at Aurora, Ill., in
1861, as operator for the same company and ticket agent for the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. In 1862 he returned to
Chicago, and served six months in the main office. and some months
in the office of the superintendent of the Chicago &
North-Western, where he became chief operator in 1863. Shortly
afterward be was appointed superintendent of telegraph for that
company; in which position he continued until the spring of 1873.
Meanwhile, in conjunction with L. G. Tillotson & Co., of New
York City, he established in 1867 the first important manufactory
of electrical goods in Chicago, continuing until the fire, after
which it was resumed for one year, when Mr. Bliss bought out his
partners and merged the business in the stock company, George H.
Bliss & Co., capital $40,000. The new enterprise requiring all
his time, he resigned his position with the Chicago &
North-Western in 1873; and in 1875 his company was embodied in the
Western Electric Company, of which he became general agent. In
1877 he disposed of his interest therein, and engaged in the sale
of some of Edison's earlier inventions. His health becoming
impaired, he was largely occupied in a successful endeavor to
restore the same by journeyings to and from Utah and other
sections of the Northwest, in 1879 and 1880. In 1881 he became
general western agent for the Edison electric light, being the
first to introduce that system in the West. In 1882 the Western
Edison Light Company was organized, with a capital of $500,000,
and he was appointed its general superintendent. Mr. Bliss was
married December 19, 1865, to Miss Mary M. Gilbert of Worcester,
Mass., by whom he has had four children--Grace Ethel in 1869,
Julian Perrin in 1872, Gilbert Ames in 1875 and George Edison in
1882. Mr. and Mrs. Bliss are members of the Plymouth
Congregational Church, of which Mr. Bliss is a deacon. He has been
a Mason for about twenty years, and is a Republican in politics.
He has been a resident of Hyde Park since September, 1871.
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Lineage
| #2 |
Thomas Bliss and Dorothy Wheatlie of
England and Rehoboth (7 children) |
| #21 |
Jonathan Bliss and Miriam Harmon of
Rehoboth (10 children) |
| #67 |
Samuel Bliss and Mary Kendrick of
Rehoboth (10 children) |
| #167 |
Capt. Nathaniel Bliss and Mehitable
Whittaker of Rehoboth, MA (7 children) |
| #474 |
Timothy Bliss and Anne Hale Kingsley of
Royalton, VT (12 children) |
| #1333 |
Aaron Bliss and Mary Woodbury of
Royalston, MA (11 children) |
| #2952 |
Stephen Bliss and Esther Bliss of
Royalston and Orange, MA (10 children) |
| #5885 |
Perrin Bliss and Persis Ann Bullard of
Chicago, IL (3 children) |
| #9405 |
George Harrison Bliss and Mary Gilbert
(4 children) |
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