The family (Marie, Gustav, and their three children, Gertrude, Kate and Victor) sailed from Antwerp on July 14, 1850, aboard the Julia Howard, arriving in New York on August 21.

Victor received the groundwork of his education in public school and by the age of 12 he began to support himself by working as an office boy and earned the means to pursue his studies.

His family was one of marked culture, not only had his father distinguished himself by work in natural sciences, but on his mother's side as well, two uncles had been prominent in literature and politics.

He was also privileged to have been a personal acquaintance of Peter Cooper, the great industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and founder of the institution, whose example and teachings were strongly influential in molding Victor's character and in his life work.

[12] He joined the Oakes & Rathbone Company in Parkersburg, West Virginia, which produced sulfuric acid for the bromine distillers in the region.

Bloede's familiarity with the textile industry led to the idea of manufacturing aniline dyes to increase profits.

There were only two companies producing dyes in the U.S. Bloede was determined to manufacture aniline by nitrating benzene to form nitrobenzene, followed by reduction.

Lacking a distillation column, he used an old boiler shell connected with a condensing coil but the benzene quality was poor.

Cooling was accomplished by running cold spring water over the top and sides of the nitrator, keeping the reaction within a range of five degrees Fahrenheit.

The institution, which came to be known as the Eudowood Sanitorium, began operation in June 1899, existed on a 23 acre (0.093 km²) campus in Towson, Maryland until July 1964.

[17] It was accepted by Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs, as president, in the presence of the Governor of Maryland, Austin Lane Crothers, Reverend Bishop William Paret, Mayor of Baltimore, J. Barry Mahool, and a large and distinguished gathering.

The last remnant of the hospital complex, a barn that was originally part of the Stansbury farm that previously existed there, still stands.

He believed in physical and mental exercise for a sound body and mind, he recommended to others which methods he himself had used and gained such success.