Correspondence and other papers of Alde L. T. Blake, including exchanges with Jane Addams, Ben Lindsey, Governor Woodbridge N. Ferris, and Anna Howard Shaw, and other materials documenting Alde Blake's suffragist activities. Scrapbooks of William F. Blake largely concerning family history and business interests, and his correspondence; a volume containing copies of private and unofficial letters written by William Blake to various persons during his tenure as U.S. Consular Agent. A volume with copies of letters sent by Robert Blake in his capacity as U.S. Consular Agent serving in Canada, including detailed commercial report about London, Ontario in 1873. Freeman N. Blake's Law School notebook. Also, included a genealogical tree of Kutsche family. Correspondence, notebooks, wills, certificates, and other materials relating to other Blake, Kutsche, and Tuck family members. Visual materials include two photo albums, as well as numerous photographs (some oversize), daguerreotypes, and one tintype. Photographs include photos of Anna Howard Shaw, Jeanette Rankin, and others following a lecture by Dr. Shaw; also group photos, possibly of woman suffrage groups.
William Frederick Blake and his twin brother Freeman Dawes Blake were born in Farmington Falls, Maine to Increase Blake III and his wife, Sarai Tarbell (Farnsworth) Blake, of Norridgewock, ME. For nine years, 1870-1879, William Blake was U.S. Deputy Consul at London and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Blake's paternal uncle, Freeman Norton Blake, was U.S. Consular Agent. On March 15, 1881 Blake married Alde Louise Tuck. The couple moved to Chicago, Ill. and then to Grand Rapids, Mich. In Grand Rapids Blake entered the wholesale grocery business and became a tea merchant.
Alde Louise T. Blake was born in 1857. Her parents were Cyrus Dean Tuck and Adaline Lucy Tuck. Alde Blake was the third woman elected a Grand Rapids School Board Member. She was elected in 1899 in the Third Ward and served one term. Alde Blake was a member of the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association and in 1912 she served as the Association campaign secretary. In 1920, Alde Blake served as an officer of the newly formed Michigan League of Women Voters, serving on the Republican State Central Committee, and running for the state legislature in 1920.
The Blakes had four daughters: Ethel, Dorothy, Barbara, and Isabel. Ethel Farnsworth (Blake) Kutsche (1985-1961) was educated in private schools and the old Grand Rapids Kindergarten Normal Training School. She Graduated from Ferris College, Big Rapids, MI. Ethel Blake married Rudolph Paul Kutsche. She was a Choir mother at Park Congregational Church in Grand Rapids and a Member Daughters of the American Revolution. Dorothy Stuart Blake held A.B. from Oberlin College and M.A. in teaching from Harvard. She taught classics in the Grand Rapids school system.
