Ernest A. Blow (1862-1936)

Journalist.

Born at Whitby, Ontario in 1862, he apprenticed in the printing grade then came to Winnipeg in 1879. On his first day in the city, he got a job with the Manitoba Free Press and, except for three short periods, remained on its staff until 1919 when he resigned to join the Colonization and Resources Department of the Canadian National Railways. He travelled extensively for the newspaper and railway, in 1886 and 1887 doing newspaper work at Vancouver, British Columbia, the first city editor of the first paper established there. In 1892 he travelled through the Northwest Territories and along the British Columbia coast as far as Alaska. He was President of the Newspaper Cartoonists Association of Manitoba which, around 1909, published a book of caricatures of prominent Manitobans entitled Manitobans As We See ‘Em: 1908 and 1909.

On 11 September 1884, he married Jane Elizabeth Lyons at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. They had three daughters: Olive Mabel Blow (b 1885, wife of Dr. J. W. Moran), Jean Alice Blow (b 1892), and Gertrude Eveline Blow (b 1896, wife of R. B. Vaughan). He retired in 1929 and moved to Woodlands, Manitoba.

He died suddenly at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on 18 August 1936, while visiting his daughter.

Sources:

Birth registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Manitobans As We See ‘Em, 1908 and 1909 by the Newspaper Cartoonists Association of Manitoba, c1909.

“E. R. Blow, former mayor of Whitby, Ont., dies, aged 70”, Manitoba Free Press, 20 September 1930, page 21.

“Ernest A. Blow, pioneer resident of Winnipeg, dies”, Manitoba Free Press, 19 August 1936, page 2.

This profile was written by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 6 December 2009

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