Henry N. Blake
Henry N. Blake was a lawyer and newspaper editor who served as associate justice and chief justice of the Montana Territorial Supreme Court and as the first Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court after statehood.
Blake was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1858 with an LL.B., and practiced law in Boston until April, 1861. He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War before mustering out in 1864 after being wounded a second time. After the war, he wrote the book Three Years in the Army about his military service and moved to Montana in 1866.
He was appointed an Associate Justice of the Montana Territorial Supreme Court by President Ulysses S. Grant and served from 1875 until 1885. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court in 1889 by president Benjamin Harrison. He also served the first Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court from 1889 until 1893.
In 1916 he was announced as Harvard's commencement speaker.
