JUDGE GEORGE BLOW,
A resident of Norfolk, Virginia, was born in the county of Sussex, and
was the third son of George Blow and Eliza Waller, daughter of Robert
Hale Waller, of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Judge Blow received his early education at the private school of
George Halson, in the city of Norfolk, and from thence was sent to the
college of "William and Mary," where he graduated, and subsequently
to the University of Virginia, taking the law course under Prof. Davis.
Whilst engaged in the practice of law in San Antonio, a city in the
then Republic of Texas, he was elected a member of Congress for the
county of Bexar, and served through the session of 1840.
In consequence of the condition of the country, growing out of difficulties
with Mexico, preceding annexation, he returned to Virginia in
1841, and resumed the practice of his profession in the city of Norfolk.
In 1860 he was elected a member of the convention called to consider
and define the course of the State in the then existing troubles. He
was elected as a member of the Union party, and pledged to support
all honorable measures for its preservation, save by the means of armed
coercion.
This contingency arose when the proclamation of President Lincoln
called upon Virginia for her quota of troops to enforce the laws and
crush out the rebellion.
Judge Blow, together with many other members of the convention
similarly pledged, considered that an unnecessary and unconstitutional
war was about to be invoked, and that, in a question of arms, the place
of Virginia should be with her southern brethren, and he voted for and
signed the Ordinance of Secession.
In 1861 he joined the army of Virginia as lieutenant-colonel of the
41st regiment, and served as such until its reorganization in 1862.
In 1870 he was elected by the legislature judge of the 1st judicial
circuit of Virginia, in which position he served for two terms, or sixteen
years, and then resumed the practice of his profession.
