Blanchard Family.

Nathan Augustus Cobb was born in Spencer, Massachusetts on June 30, 1859 to William H. and Jane (Bigelow) Cobb. His father, a Civil War veteran, worked variously as a carpenter, millwright, factory foreman, and farmer before he struck out for California in 1874, never to be seen again by his wife and only son. Despite the responsibility of supporting his mother as a farm laborer, Cobb graduated from Spencer High School and even maintained perfect attendance for numerous terms. In 1876 he moved onto the property of local businessman Charles N. Prouty and worked as a stable hand. Keenly interested in the natural world around him, Cobb saved his wages and purchased a microscope with which he gave informal lessons to the Prouty children. Encouraged by his employer, Cobb sat for the local schoolteachers' exam and was appointed headmaster of the Wire Village School before being promoted to the head of the No. 3 Grammar School in Spencer. During this time, he developed friendships with Fred Proctor and Joseph H. Greenwood, the latter of who introduced Cobb to drawing and painting and eventually gained renown as a New England landscape artist.

As a result of his close bond with Fred Procter, Cobb lodged with the Proctor family at the outset of his teaching career. Edward Proctor, the pater familias, had settled in Franklin, Michigan (near Detroit) during the 1830s but returned to his native Massachusetts following the death of his first wife and a child in 1841. While residing in the household, Cobb became close with Alice Vara Proctor (born in Spencer on April 22, 1854), a fellow teacher, enthusiastic botanist, and skilled sketch artist. The two spent much time together studying plants and sketching their findings and were engaged in 1877.

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