“It is with a sense of profound sorrow that we pay a tribute to
the memory of Dr. Nelson G. Blalock, the distinguished member from
Walla Walla, of the constitutional convention. Dr. Blalock was born
in Mitchell county, North Carolina, in 1836. He was a graduate of
Jefferson Medical College, served as a surgeon in the One Hundred
and Fifteenth Illinois Regiment in the Civil war and came in 1873
to Walla Walla, the then metropolis of the northwest. The brilliant
young surgeon was in demand throughout the whole of the Inland
Empire. He became acquainted in his travels with the religious and
geographical work of the great Marcus Whitman and his chief ambition
appeared to be to develop the economic resources of that part of
Washington territory. For this reason the names of Marcus Whitman and
Nelson G. Blalock will be indelibly linked together in the building
and construction of our great state. One of Nelson G. Blalock’s
earliest exploits was, when roads were impossible, the building of a
large flume from the Blue mountains to Walla Walla, for the purpose
of transporting logs, fuel and lumber to that growing community. He
made a success of and was the pioneer of arid land wheat farming. As
early as 1881 he produced the unprecedented yield of fifty thousand
bushels of wheat on one thousand acres of arid land. After proving
that wheat could be successfully produced he turned to irrigation
projects, some of which now are honored in retaining the Blalock
name. He drilled for and found artesian water, utilized the water of
the various streams, and every one of the districts he founded is
now a prosperous and conservative community. I could go on and tell
you of his work to complete the Celilo locks and canal and of his
intense desire to see an open Columbia river, but those and local
problems are developing as he anticipated they would. In fact before
Dr. Blalock passed away he had the final pleasure of knowing that all
these great economic benefits to the Inland Empire would be finished.
In the 1913 session we were honored by having Dr. Nelson G. Blalock,
during one of our sessions, invited to take his place with our
speaker and then a few days later during the session we were shocked
to hear of his death. You do not wonder then that Dr. Blalock was
elected to represent the Walla Walla district at the constitutional
convention and we revere and honor that man, soldier, physician,
statesman who in the economic development of the Inland Empire was
the greatest man the northwest has yet produced, Dr. Nelson G.
Blalock.”

On the 13th of March, 1914, Dr. Blalock was stricken with apoplexy
while at work in his office and was taken to a hospital, where he died
the following day.

DORSEY S. BAKER, M. D.

No history of Walla Walla and the Inland Empire would be complete
without extended reference to Dr. Dorsey S. Baker, now deceased, who
for many years figured most prominently in the professional, commercial
and financial circles of the northwest. He stood in the front rank
of the columns that have advanced the civilization of Washington,
leading to its substantial development, progress and upbuilding. He was
particularly active in the growth of Walla Walla, where he continued
to make his home for many years. He recognized and utilized the
resources of the country and by establishing many business enterprises
contributed in marked measure to its development and progress. Widely
known, his life history cannot fail to prove of interest to the many
friends that he left behind and who still honor and cherish his memory.

Dr. Baker was born in Wabash county, Illinois, October 18, 1823,
and while still a boy in his teens became the active assistant of
his father, who was engaged in milling and merchandising. Thus he
received a thorough training that constituted the broad foundation
upon which much of the success of his later years was built. After a
time, however, he determined to enter upon a professional career and
with that end in view matriculated in the Jefferson Medical College of
Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1845 on the completion of
the full course. He located for the practice of medicine in Des Moines,
Iowa, but after remaining there for a brief period determined to follow
the advice of Horace Greeley, who said: “Go west, young man, go west.”
Accordingly in 1848 he started for Oregon, where he arrived in the
fall of the same year, having no money and no acquaintances in this
section of the country. He immediately opened an office and began the
practice of his chosen profession in Portland, which was then a small
town containing but one or two streets along the river front. Gold
was discovered in California the following year and Dr. Baker joined
the rush for the famous Eldorado. He remained in that state until
the spring of 1850 and then returned to Portland, where he entered
into partnership with L. B. Hastings in the conduct of a mercantile
enterprise. The following spring he again went to the mines, this time
his objective point being Yreka, which was then a newly developed
mining camp. In May of the same year, however, he once more returned
to Oregon and established his home in the Umpqua valley, where for
several years he devoted his attention to stock raising, to milling and
to general merchandising. He erected the first flour mill in southern
Oregon at the old town of Oakland in Douglas county, and in 1858 he was
conducting business in Portland as a hardware merchant.