Born on July 21, 1821, in Amherst, Massachusetts, Blodgett read law in 1844.

[1] Blodgett was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant on January 10, 1870, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by Judge Thomas Drummond.

He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 11, 1870, and received his commission the same day.

[1] Following his retirement from the federal bench, Blodgett served as United States counsel before the Bering Sea Tribunal of Arbitration for settlement of differences between the United States and Great Britain involving fur seal fisheries in the Bering Sea from 1892 to 1893.

Blodgett owned Crab Tree Farm in Lake Bluff, Illinois, which was later sold and split between William M. Blair and Grace Durand, and is still in operation.