Elijah H. Bland was born December 14, 1814, in Nelson Co., Ky. He was the eleventh of fourteen children (five sons and nine daughters) born to William and Sarah Peak Bland. William Bland was born in Prince William Co., Va., in 1777. In 1784 he settled with his father near Bloomfield, Nelson Co., Ky. Was a soldier under Wayne through the Indiana and Ohio campaign. His brother, Osborn Bland and wife and son were taken prisoners by Indians at "Burned Station" on Simpson Creek, Nelson Co. While Osborne was bound his wife made her escape and was in the woods seventeen days, when found by some hunters. Osborne returned after an absence of three years. They raised a large and influential family. William Bland moved to Hardin Co., in 1831, settled on Nolin Creek and died there aged eighty-five years. He was the son of John Bland, the emigrant, and his wife, nee Osborne, of Irish descent, who came early to the colony of Virginia. Sarah Peak Bland was born near Frankfort, Ky., the daughter of Daniel Peak, who married Miss Holderman. He lived to be over ninety years of age and participated in the Colonial wars.
Elijah H. Bland was reared a farmer and received a plain English education. At the age of twenty-three he left home and came to Louisville, but in a few years returned to Hardin Co., where he was sheriff for many years. He married Corilla, a daughter of Griffin and Rhoda Stile Willett, natives of Nelson Co. and New Jersey. They were born in 1798 and 1800 respectively and both lived to an advanced age. Griffin was the son of George Willett, who settled on Pottinger's Creek, near New Haven, Ky.
Eight children were born to E. H. and Corilla Bland; Belle married C. W. Rush, Chaplin, Ky.; Annie, V. B. Stiles, Hodgenville, KY.; Mattie, Joseph Farmsworth, Bowling Green, Ky.; and your correspondent, E. H. Bland, aged eighty-two is still living in Larue County.