NORTHWESTERN IOWA ITS HISTORY AND TRADITION VOLUME II 1804-1926 G. H. Bliven George H. Bliven has been actively and successfully engaged in the practice of law in Sioux City for the past twenty-eight years and is accorded a liberal clientage. He is a western man by birth, by training and by preference and possesses the enterprising spirit which has ever been characteristic of the growth and development of this section of the country. He was born on a farm in Dakota county, Nebraska, October 22, 1875, his parents being Curtis B. and Sarah (Stormer) Bliven, the former a native of New York and the latter of Pennsylvania. They were married in 1867, became residents of Sioux City, Iowa, in 1888 and his mother still makes her home there. His father died in September, 1916. The Bliven family comes of Welsh ancestry, the lineage being traced back to the immigrant ancestor who left the little rock-ribbed country of Wales in 1634 to establish a home in the new world. The grant-grandfather, Samuel Bliven, served in the Revolutionary war, going to the front with the troops from Rhode Island. The grandfather, Charles B. Bliven, was a private of the Second Nebraska Volunteer Cavalry in the Civil war, serving from May, 1863, until June, 1864. He also did military duty against the Indians in South Dakota and he is acquainted with every phase of pioneer life, having settled in Dakota county, Nebraska, when it was a frontier region in 1857. George H. Bliven attended country schools in Nebraska to the age of twelve years and then, following the removal of the family to Sioux City, continued his education in the public schools there, being graduated from the commercial department of the high school with the class of 1891. After farming for four years he determined to make the practice of law his life work and with that end in view became a student in the lowa department of the State University of Iowa at Iowa City, from which he was graduated with the degree of LL. D. in 1898. Immediately afterward he opened a law office in Sioux City, where he has since remained. A contemporary biographer said of him: "His preparation of cases is most thorough and exhaustive. He seems almost intuitively to grasp the strong points of law and fact, while in his briefs and arguments the authorities are cited so extensively and the facts and reasoning thereon are presented so clearly and unanswerably as to leave no doubt as to the correctness of his views or of his conclusions. Every point is given its true prominence and the case is argued with ability and power, so that he rarely fails to gain the verdict desired. In addition to his law practice he has other business interests, being president and treasurer of the Hawkeye Investment Company and secretary of the Central Adjustment Company." On the 19th of October, 1904, in Sioux City, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Gliven and Miss Sara E. Murphy, whose father, George Murphy, came to Sioux City in 1854. They are the parents of a daughter and a son: Katherine, who was born October 13, 1905, and who is the wife of R. B. Plotts, of Omaha, Nebraska; and George H., Jr., whose birth occurred on the 8th of October, 1906, and who is now a student in the State University at Iowa City, Iowa. Mr. Bliven gives his political allegiance to the republican party but has never been a political in the sense of office seeking. He is interested in municipal welfare, however, and cooperates in many movements which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. He made a creditable record as a member of the school board from 1912 until 1924. The military chapter in his life history covers five and one-half years' service as a private and first sergeant of Company L of the Fifty-second (now Fifty-sixth) Regiment of the Iowa National Guard. In religious faith Mr. Bliven is a Presbyterian, while fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, belonging to Landmark Lodge No. 103, A. F. & A. M.; Sioux City Chapter No. 26, R. A. M.; Columbian Commandery No. 18, K. T.; Sioux City Consistory No. 5, A. N. O. S. R.; and Abu-Bekr Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He is a director of the Masonic Building Association and also belongs to the Lions Club, the Sioux City Boat Club and Sioux City Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Almost his entire life has been passed in Sioux City and his record is as an open book to his fellow townsmen, who entertain for him warm regard and recognize the fact that he has made wise use of his time and opportunities, while his talents have brought him enviable success in his chosen life work. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/