Spencer Langdon Blodget, of Huntington Beach, has been a resident of California since 1885 and is well known in banking and business circles. He and his wife, Carra Myrtle Belnap Blodget, represent some of the oldest American New England families. Of Puritan English stock, their ancestors fought in every American war. The first American ancestor of Mr. Blodget was Thomas, who spelled his name Blogget. He came from Norfolk, England, in 1635. Mrs. Blodget’s first ancestor was Abraham Belnap, who came from County Kent in the same year. Twelve of the Blodget and Belnap families were soldiers in the Revolutionary war.

Spencer Langdon Blodget was born at Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1859. He is a son of William Oren Blodget, born at Gorham, New York, in 1824, a school teacher and merchant at Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, who served as first lieutenant in the 151st Pennsylvania Infantry at the battle of Gettysburg; a grandson of Arba Blodget, a soldier of the War of 1812; and great-grandson of Solomon Blodget, a direct Revolutionary ancestor of Brimfield, Massachusetts. Other ancestral lines represented in William Oren Blodget were Thomas Maule, known in history as the first defender of Free Press, who lived at Salem, Massachusetts: Isaac Sternes, Gregory Stone, Walter Haynes, Sergeant John Tidd and other Puritan pioneers.

The mother of Spencer L. Blodget was Esther Ann Spencer, who was descended from Squire Benjamin Spencer, whose controversy with Ethan Allen of Vermont resulted in riots and the outlawry of Allen. Benjamin Spencer and his five sons were United Empire Loyalists and moved to Canada, where the family lived for generations.

Spencer Langdon Blodget finished his education as a student in the Annapolis Naval Academy, but resigned to engage in business. He was a merchant in Pennsylvania, and on coming to California in 1885 settled at Bakersfield. For a number of years his home has been at Huntington Beach, and he was cashier of the First National Bank of that town from 1906 to 1913 and is still a director. He served as colonel of the California Sons of Veterans in 1888, and for ten years ending in 1898 was lieutenant in the California National Guards, Company G of the Sixth Regiment at Bakersfield. Mr. Blodget is a republican, a Knights Templar Mason and Shriner and past master of Bakersfield Lodge and Huntington Beach Lodge and past commander of Bakersfield Commandery of the Knights Templar.

He and Carra Myrtle Belnap were married December 17, 1878. She was descended from Jesse Belnap, a Revolutionary soldier who forged the chain to obstruct the passage of the Hudson at West Point. Her father, A. M. Belnap, came to California in the gold rush of the fifties, crossing Nicaragua in Central America. Later he returned to Youngsville, Pennsylvania, and was postmaster there for twenty-one years. He returned to California in 1886, and died at Bakersfield in 1910, at the age of eighty-five. His wife was Ellen Fletcher, descended from Robert Fletcher, and from Ezekiel Cheever, the “Boston Schoolmaster.” Carra Myrtle Belnap was born at Youngsville, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1860, and died in 1893. S. L. Blodget married in 1895 Florence Langdon.

Mr. Blodget by his first wife had five sons and one daughter, all now grown. The oldest, Claude R. Blodget, is in business at Bakersfield. The second, Percy L. Blodget, is a mining engineer. The third, Rush M. Blodget, is an attorney. The fourth. Ward B. Blodget, is chief geologist of the Santa Fe oil properties. The youngest, Lewis W. Blodget, is city attorney of Huntington Beach. The one daughter, Marian B., is the wife of C. C. Ramsey, of Bakersfield, California. All the sons are Leland Stanford men except Lewis. Four of them have military records. Claude served as a sergeant in Company G, Sixth Regiment, California Volunteers, in the Spanish-American war. The other three had their military experience during the World war. Percy was captain of the United States Engineers; Ward, a private in the 23rd Regiment of Engineers, and Lewis, a first lieutenant in Headquarters Company, 13th Regiment Infantry.