Biography

12/17/1870 - 11/29/1926

BLAKSLEE, James Irwin, Jr., a Representative from Carbon County; born in Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe), Carbon County, Pa., December 17, 1870; attended, Cheltenham Military Academy; graduated, Hill School, Pottstown; lieutenant, Company E, 8th Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard (1897); quartermaster and commissary, Reserve Hospital Corps, United States Volunteers (1898-1899, Spanish-American War); telegraph operator, station agent and yardmaster, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Delano; employed, Pennsylvania Railroad; chair, Carbon County Democratic Committee (1905-1906); secretary, Democratic State Executive Committee; part owner, Lehighton Electric Light and Power Station; elected as a Democrat to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to the 1907 term and served 1 term; not a candidate for reelection to the House for the 1909 term; presidential appointee (Wilson), Assistant Postmaster General, United States Postal Service (1913-1920); died, November 29, 1926 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; interred, Mauch Chunk Cemetery, Jim Thorpe, Carbon County, Pennsylvania.