Henry Williams Blodgett

Who was Henry Williams Blodgett?

Henry Williams Blodgett was a United States federal judge.

Blodgett was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1821. He moved to Illinois with his parents in 1831. As a boy, he helped his father establish a forge in Downers Grove, Illinois and worked on the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

He spent 1838-39 studying at Amherst Academy, and then returned to Illinois where he worked as a teacher and as a land surveyor. He read law with Illinois lawyers Jonathan Y. Scaremen and Norman B. Judd in 1844 and was admitted to the bar in 1845. He was in private practice of law in Waukegan, Illinois from 1845 to 1869. As an opponent of slavery, he became active in the Republican Party. He became the first member elected on an Anti-slavery ticket to the Illinois General Assembly in 1852, and served as an Illinois state representative from 1852 to 1854.

In 1855, Blodgett was one of the projectors of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company and he left public life to become involved with the railway's legal department. He subsequently served as a director and as president of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.