Frank Bly (1890 - 1929)

Born 31 Jan 1890 in North Mountain neighborhood, Shenandoah County, Virginia

Ancestors

Died 28 Feb 1929 at age 39 in Strasburg, Shenandoah County, Virginia

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Biography

Frank Bly grew up like the rest of his brothers on the Bly farm at the foot of Little North Mountain, west of Strasburg, Virginia, and worked with steam tractors and threshing machinery from as early as he could remember. He purchased the Philip Bly farm on the hill south of Strasburg, soon after marriage and also acquired two steam tractors and threshing machinery.^[1] By this time the steam tractors were not only used for operating threshing machines and saw mills but were designed to haul heavy loads, such as logs, rocks and apple wagons. They also provide power for drills and rock crushing machinery, especially in road building. He had a thriving business and often needed hired help. His brother-in-law, Alvon Strosnider, was living and working with him, but was killed in a tragic accident while working with their steam engines on the Valley Pike at Fishers Hill in 1922.^[2] Strosnider's death affected Frank Bly so intensely that he sold his steam tractors and equipment and focused only on farming and occasionally helping others at harvest time.^[3] He died of stomach cancer in 1929 at the age of 39.^[4]

Sources

• Daniel W. Bly, A History of the Bly Family, Baltimore, MD (1992), pp. 97-8
• Find A Grave: Memorial #24702965, Riverview Cemetery, Strasburg, Virginia.

Footnotes

1. ↑ United States Census, 1920, Virginia, Shenandoah County, Davis Dist. Family #79, p. 4B: "machinist-own business."
2. ↑ William Hall, "The Loss of a Young Engineer," Farm Collector, March-April, 1978. (A magazine for steam engine enthusiasts and collectors of vintage farm equipment.)
3. ↑ From his son, Granville F. Bly.
4. ↑ Virginia Death Certificate #6774-Shenandoah County, 1929: https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/9278/43004_162028006053_0141-00155?pid=274471&treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=EVG24975&_phstart=successSource