The Rev. Alfred Blake (1809 - 1877) was officially the first graduate of Kenyon College in Gambier in 1829. He went on to earn a Masters of Art degree from the College in 1832, and, following study at the Bexley Theological Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio, he was ordained into the deaconate of the Episcopal Church in September 1837, and into the priesthood in 1839. Following his ordination into the priesthood, he was a deacon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Eaton, Ohio until 1840 when he returned to Gambier to become Associate Principal of Milnor Hall, a grammar school. In 1842, he accepted a call to become Rector of Harcourt Parish, a post he resigned 18 months later. He then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where he served as city missionary under the auspices of Christ Church Cincinnati. Blake returned to Gambier in 1852 to become Headmaster of the newly-founded Harcourt Place School, a private school for boys, remaining in the Village for the rest of his life.
In 1841, he married Ann Jane Leonard (1819 - 1901). They had six children: Alfred Farnsworth Blake (1842-1900); Charles Royal Blake (1845-1904); John Brooke Blake (1848-1850); Leonard Blake (1851-1907); Ann Elizabeth “Bessie” Blake (1854-1937) and Francis Wharton Blake (1858-1927).
This collection includes sermons written by The Rev. Alfred Blake, as well as his diaries and those of two of his children, Bessie and Leonard. Most of the diaries are too fragile to be scanned, but the sermon collection includes both transcripts and scans of the original documents. Except where noted, the transcripts were completed by John D. Green, a descendant of The Rev. Alfred Blake via his son, Charles Royal Blake.