Aaron Thomas Bliss (May 22, 1837–September 16, 1906) was a U.S. Representative from and Governor of the U.S. state of Michigan.
Bliss was born in Peterboro, New York and attended the common schools. He was employed as a clerk in a store in Morrisville, New York, in 1853 and 1854. He attended a select school in Munnsville, New York, in 1854 and moved to Bouckville, New York , in 1855 where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. During the American Civil War, Bliss enlisted as a private in the Tenth Regiment, New York Volunteer Cavalry , October 1, 1861 and served three years, being confined six months of this time in the Confederate prisons of Andersonville, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, Macon, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina. He rose in rank while in the service from private to captain.
In December 1865, he moved to Saginaw, Michigan and engaged in the manufacture of lumber. He was a member of the Michigan Senate in 1882. He was appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Russell A. Alger in 1885 and held the same position on the staff of the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1888. He was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first Congress, serving from March 4, 1889 to March 3, 1891. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress . He resumed the lumber business and also engaged in banking. He was department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in Michigan in 1897. He served as Governor of Michigan 1900-1904.
Bliss died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while on a visit for medical treatment. He is interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Saginaw, Michigan.
Last updated: 08-23-2005 16:23:28