Oscar Lemuel Blount Obituary
Obituary from Jeff P. (I'm sorry I lost most of my email- please contact to claim you credit!!)
OSCAR L. BLOUNT....Oscar L. Blount was born in Hillsdale County, Michigan, August 24, 1851. He moved to Kansas in 1879 and to Oklahoma in 1893. He was married to Emma Bullard September 16th, 1872 and from this union were born 12 children, three of whom preceded him in death. Those surviving him are Josephine Gilchrist and Earl Blount of Seiilng, Maude Gates of Orange, Calif., Streeter Blount of Campo, Colorado, Clara Mont of Ahum Wis., Ollie Bramer of Mesa Ariz., Jeff Blount of Sand Point, Idaho, Jennie Webber of Two Buttes, Colo., and Mattie Blount of Bolivia, South America. His wife, three sisters, and one brother, twenty three grandchildren and nine great grandchildren also survive him. He died on the first day of January, 1925 and was buried at Seiling on the second day.
A TRIBUTE......I knew him twenty-four years. He was an individual and his individuality made him remarkable and made him interesting. He refused to tread the beaten paths of thought. I never knew a mind so thirsty for knowledge. His life was a constant grasping for truth and he dared to follow the torch of his reason no matter where it lead. He accepted nothing that was not proved or that would not stand the test of reason or measure with the known laws of Nature. He was a logician without the usual training of logicians. He could reason from cause to effect with the most unerring precision. He hated shams and hypocrisy and was not tainted ---(this is a crease in the newspaper and is not readable). I never knew a mind so abssolutely without superstition. It had no place in his life. I never knew a man whose physical, mental and moral courage equaled his. Of fear he had none. His life was devoted to hard labor and he wanted to be one of those who helped to produce the substance which feeds the world. Hence he Hated parasites. He believed that every person should perform some useful service to society and he did his best. He once told me that he had about six months schooling when he was a boy, yet he was the great reader and had the most analytical mind I ever knew in one who had none of the advantages of education and leisure time to pursue investigation. He had read the World's history and had one of the most retentive memories for historical lore that I have known. He was a student of everything that presented itsself to his mental vision. He accepted nothing by faith, but demanded the evidence. He did not claim to know the unknowable and was not afraid to say "I do not know". He never said, "I know" but always "I want to know." He had read much of the classical literature of the world and although his last years were of suffering and pain he was always searching for something good to read, something that would add to his store of knowledge. His idea of education was, that it was useful information on all useful subjects, no matter how obtained, and measured by that standard he took rank among the educated. He knew that stuffing from a text book did not constitute education and did not regret that he had none of it, He disliked crowds and preferred home life, surrounded by good books and a few chosen friends. He believed that religion was that prompting from within which urges a man to do good or to do right and was not related in any way to any system of superstition. He had made a profound study if the so called religions of the World and traced them all to the same source, superstition, or fear of the unknown. As a thinker he was in advance of his time and surroundings and hence was not understood or appreciated. He was a lone tree on the mountain of independent thinkers. He believed that death was the perfect rest and he died as he lived without fear and without doubt, a man to be emulated.
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