William G. Blakely  William G. Blakely (August 29, 1829April 19, 1920) was an American miner, lawyer, and a Methodist minister. He served as a district attorney, judge, and legislator in Arizona, where he lived the majority of his life. Blakely was born in the Delaware County town of Kortright, New York on August 29, 1829. He was educated first in the local school system, then at the Delaware Academy, and graduated from the New York State Normal School in Albany. In 1849, he left for California in pursuit of riches during the gold rush. After four years of mining, he returned to New York and paid off the mortgage on his father's farm with his mining wealth. He then studied law in Delhi at the office of Amasa J. Parker after which he returned to California, settling in Sonora, where he practiced law and continued mining. In Sonora, he discovered the prosperous Eureka mine in 1858. Blakely was ordained a minister of the Methodist church, receiving a license from the California Methodist Episcopal conference. In 1861, he left California and moved his family to Carson City in the adjacent Nevada Territory where he began the practice of law. He was appointed Nevada Superintendent of Public Instruction by Governor James W. Nye in 1861 and was heavily involved in organizing the territory's public school system. Blakely then relocated to Austin where he constructed a Methodist Episcopal Church and served as its pastor. He simultaneously continued mining and developed a stamp mill to treat gold-bearing quartz from the Mother Vein mine. Blakely then moved to Pioche where he continued mining and practicing law. He also developed mines in Cerbat and Mineral Park in the Arizona Territory. He moved again in 1871 to Kingman, the county seat of Mohave County where he was elected judge of the Mohave county court and later appointed by Governor C. Meyer Zulick as probate judge and superintendent of schools. In 1880, he was first elected Mohave County district attorney, serving until 1904. During this period, Blakely continued his law practice. He was the attorney in Kingman for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, and also represented many other large mines and businesses in the area. In 1893, Blakely was selected to be a permanent representative of Mohave County to the statehood committee. He then became a superior court judge, and representative in the upper house of the 24th Arizona Territorial Legislature of 1907. He introduced a bill to prohibit the sale of alcohol in the territory and another to prohibit "the establishment of a saloon within one mile of an educational institution".