Napoleon Bonaparte Blanton was born in Missouri about 1830, and in a letter written to Charles H. Dickson, several years before his death, thus explains the origin of his impressive name: “I was first named James by my grandfather on my mother’s side. My father was of French descent and was a friend of Napoleon, but my grandfather hated him. After my father and my grandfather had quarreled about Napoleon, my father changed my name to that of the great general.” In September, 1854, Mr. Blanton moved from Jackson County, Missouri, and settled on the Wakarusa. He left that locality in 1857 and became one of the members of the Humboldt Town Site Company. In the second year of the Civil war he was mustered into the Union service as captain of a company in the Kansas Infantry, but resigned in the following year. He had already served as a representative from Allen County in the First State Legislature; was instrumental in causing the land office to be moved from Mapleton to Humboldt in September, 1861, and was re elected to the State House of Representatives in 1868. He spent the last years of his life at Sulphur, Oklahoma, and died at Wichita, Kansas, where one of his married daughters resided, April 30, 1913, from injuries received in an automobile accident.
