February 4, 2010

On September 5, 1854, Maine school teacher Caroline “Carrie” Eastman married Calvin Bliss. The next day, the newlyweds left for West Helena (Phillips County), where they established a school for “misses,” with Bliss as principal and his wife as teacher. They later moved to Batesville (Independence County), where Calvin Bliss worked as a land agent. During the Civil War, he served in the Union army, but the area became unsafe for Unionists by 1863. Caroline Bliss and several other families left the area in June, arriving safely in Bradford, Maine, over a month later. The Blisses reunited in Arkansas after the war.