Edmund Blanchard

Edmund Blanchard (c.1824 – December 27, 1886) was a lawyer and prominent businessman in Centre County, Pennsylvania. He was an early promoter of rail transportation in the area.

The son of John Blanchard and Mary Miles, Blanchard was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania and educated at Dartmouth College. At one time a law partner of Andrew Curtin, he also served as district attorney for Centre County and subsequently became senior partner of the corporate law firm Blanchard and Blanchard, the other principal being his brother Evan. Blanchard & Blanchard's clients included the Bellefonte and Snowshoe Railroad and the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad.

Blanchard had been an early investor in the Bellefonte & Snowshoe, and served as a director of the Tyrone and Lock Haven Railroad. This company was reorganized as the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad, of which he served as treasurer. Blanchard's history with these lines put him on good terms with Pennsylvania Railroad officials, who financed the Bald Eagle Valley and later took control of both that railroad and the Bellefonte & Snowshoe. Blanchard's other business interests included the Bellefonte Glass Works, the Bellefonte Car Works, and the Moshannon Land and Lumber Co.

Because of his connections, Blanchard headed a group of Centre County businessmen that, in 1881, appealed to President George B. Roberts of the PRR to build a branch from Bellefonte to the iron ore deposits at Scotia. Blanchard and his associates saw the line as key to cutting transportation costs to bring ore to the blast furnaces at Bellefonte, and hired Samuel Brugger to survey a route from Bellefonte to Scotia, with a branch to State College.

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