 In 1848 , Blaine was hired as a professor of mathematics and ancient languages at the Western Military Institute in Georgetown , Kentucky . Although he was only eighteen years old and younger than many of his students , Blaine adapted well to his new profession . Blaine grew to enjoy life in his adopted state and became an admirer of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay . He also made the acquaintance of Harriet Stanwood , a teacher at the nearby Millersburg Female College and native of Maine . On June 30 , 1850 , the two were married . Blaine once again considered taking up the study of law , but instead took his new bride to visit his family in Pennsylvania . They next lived with Harriet Blaine 's family in Augusta , Maine for several months , where their first child , Stanwood Blaine , was born in 1851 . The young family soon moved again , this time to Philadelphia where Blaine took a job at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind ( now Overbrook School for the Blind ) in 1852 , teaching science and literature . 
