Admitted to the West Virginia bar, Bland began practicing law in his native Weston,
Lewis County, West Virginia. Bland moved west to
Atchison, Kansas, in 1887, where he became the prosecuting attorney of
Atchison County, Kansas (from 1890 to 1892) and won election as mayor of
Atchison in 1894. Bland was elected judge of the second Kansas district in 1896. He was reelected in 1900, but resigned in 1901. He entered the wholesale drug business in 1901 and moved to
Kansas City, Missouri in 1904. He was the vice president and later president of the McPike Drug Company of Kansas City until 1917. He then became a banker. In 1907, Bland was elected as president of the Manufacturers and Merchants' Association of Kansas City. In 1909, he was elected as president of the
Kansas City Commercial Club. He was elected to a second term but declined to serve. Meanwhile, Bland's political career began as he became chairman of the Kansas City River and Harbor Improvement Commission 1909-1918, director of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, and vice president of the Mississippi Valley Waterway Association. Bland won election to the Kansas City Board of Education in 1912 for a six-year term and served as vice president and president. Bland also served as chairman of the
First Liberty Loan campaign in Kansas City for
World War I. He served in later liberty loan committees. He ran as a
Democrat to represent
Missouri's 5th congressional district in the Sixty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1919 – March 3, 1921), but lost his bid for reelection in 1920 to the Sixty-seventh Congress. Bland moved to Florida and settled in
Orlando in 1921. He engaged in banking, become president of the First National Bank of Orlando in 1921, and served as a member of the Orlando Utilities Commission for three years. He also served as vice president of the First Bond and Mortgage Company. ==Personal life==