My Genealogy Hound

ANDREW BLAIR. The name of Blair signifies “a cleared field,” and the New England branch of the family has a tradition that the Blair coat of arms was granted by King Malcolm, of Scotland, for signal bravery in battle, for clearing the field of the enemy. Many of the name were along those who resented the attempt to supplant the Presbyterian form of worship by that of the English Church early in the sixteenth century. When in 1612 King James divided millions of acres into small holdings and offered them to the British, Sir William Brereton was visiting James Blair at Irvine, Scotland, and wrote that crowds of discontented people were passing through Irvine. A band of young men, of whom several bore the name of Blair, from Argyllshire, passed over to Londonderry, and other parts of Ulster, Ireland. These were the fathers of a Scotch-Irish generation, Covenanters, who were indomitable fighters for their religion, their homes and their adopted country. Lieut.-Col. Blair, Capt. James Blair and Lieut. David Blair were conspicuous for their bravery during these religious persecutions.

Blair Castle, at Blair Atholl, in Perthshire, the ancestral country seat of His Grace of Atholl, is a spacious and splendid residence. Part of the castle dates back to the thirteenth century. King James V of Scotland came there to hunt the red deer, and Mary Queen of Scots was royally entertained beneath its roof. The castle has never been deprived of the features which recall its ancient traditions, as a place of arms, and as the guardian fortress of the approaches to the main chain of the Grampians. It underwent several sieges, notably during the Cromwellian wars and the Jacobite rebellion, mementoes of which exist to this day. One of the turrets of the castle is adorned with the copper plated finial that surmounted the dome of the Mahdi’s tomb at Omdurman. Blair Castle is precisely the kind of ancestral home that one would expect of a Scottish duke who maintains a bodyguard of his own. The Duke of Atholl has a private guard of five hundred men, to whom its colors were presented by Queen Victoria in person. Every man stands over six feet. The corps is recruited from among the Duke’s retainers and tenants, clad, accoutered and armed at his expense, and officered by his eldest son and kinsman. “The Atholl Regiment” presents a magnificent appearance when marching with the long swinging Highland stride, to the strains of the regimental band of sixteen pieces.

Andrew Blair, the subject of this sketch, lived and died at the corner of Hanover and South streets, Carlisle. He was a son of William Blair and Sarah Holmes, his wife, and was born July 10, 1789. William Blair, the father of Andrew, was a son of William Blair, of Carlisle, and Mary Cowen, his wife, who was from Lancaster county. Sarah Holmes, his mother, was a daughter of Andrew Holmes, of Bonny Brook. William Blair, father of Andrew, died March 21, 1792, at the age of thirty-two years; his wife survived him about thirty-five years and reared their four children to honor the memory of herself and consort.

William Blair, the grandfather of Andrew, was a trustee of the Carlisle Academy as early as 1781. He was also a trustee of the Associated Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, and with two others, in 1796, purchased from the Penns the ground upon which to erect that church, a stone structure which is still standing on South West street, for £6. Afterward this was long known as the “Seceder Church.” This William Blair died at Carlisle on Dec. 7, 1802, at the age of seventy-three years, and is buried in the family plot in the “Old Graveyard,” sacred ground, given by the Penns to Carlisle for a place of burial. It is not known when his wife, Mary Cowen, died. She may be buried by the side of her husband, but there is no tombstone indicating that she is. William Blair’s son, Dr. Isaac Blair, was a member of the first class that graduated from Dickinson College. He located in Washington, Pa., where he practiced his profession until his death. His son, Dr. Alexander Blair, succeeded him.

Jane, the only daughter of William and Sarah (Holmes) Blair, died Aug. 13, 1864, at the age of seventy-nine years. She was the wife of John McClure, Esq., who lived at Willow Grove on the Letort Spring, on the southern outskirt of Carlisle, where their old stone mansion, built by the pioneer McClures, is still standing and in good condition. The McClures were an army family, and their mansion at “The Willows” long was a rendezvous for social culture. At one time all the land extending from Carlisle south as far as the toll-gate on the Baltimore turnpike was in the McClure name.

William, the eldest son of William and Sarah (Holmes) Blair, died unmarried on Sept. 29, 1861, in his seventy-fifth year.

Henry Cowen, their youngest son, died in 1814, unmarried, at the age of twenty-two years. The remains of all of the family rest in the Old Grave Yard at Carlisle.

Andrew Blair, the second son, was ordained as a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church, Carlisle, Dec. 25, 1825. He was one of the originators of the movement which resulted in the organization of the Second Presbyterian Church in 1832, and was one of the first elders of that church. One of his pastors, the Rev. Dr. A. T. McGill, a late president of Princeton College, New Jersey, said of him: “Andrew Blair was always a prince among the elders of the church.” One of our clergic historians wrote of him: “His fellow worshippers confided in him as a practical follower of Christ; they trusted his leadership and were devoted to him as a friend in joy or sorrow. They revered him as an oracle amongst them.” By the poor of the community he was termed “the pastor of the town.” He was an enthusiastic supporter of the free school system, and for twenty-five years was president of the board of school directors of Carlisle. Both in school and in church affairs he was associated with the late James Hamilton, Esq. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and was granted lands by the government for his services.

Andrew Blair was of stately form and commanding presence; a bulwark within himself and a natural leader of men. He possessed a clear-cut individuality; was noble-hearted and open-handed, and his dignity of person always dissolved into the kind Christian friend in the presence of physical or mental suffering. He was of stanch Presbyterian people whom intolerance and persecution drove from Scotland to Ireland and early in the eighteenth century from Ireland to America. When the ancestor of Andrew Blair came to Pennsylvania he brought with him, along other household goods, their grandfather clock, later named “Old Billy,” and that old clock is still chiming the hours in the home of William Blair, the fifth of America. Many years ago “Old Billy” was used for a gun cupboard and an accidental discharge made a bullet hole in his body. If animate the clock might relate some soul-stirring tales of Indian savagery in Cumberland county. The Cowen ancestry also brought their grandfather clock across the ocean, and it now is in the home of one of their name living in Chester county, Pa. Those were the days of sailing vessels, and the ancestors wrapped their clock in a feather bed, to make it sea proof, that it might tick to Young America.

Andrew Blair on March 31, 1812, was married to Elizabeth Hays, the Rev. Dr. Davidson performing the ceremony. Elizabeth Hays was a daughter of Joseph Hays, of Carlisle, and had a brother, Adam Hays, who graduated from the medical department of Pennsylvania University, was an assistant surgeon in the American army in the war of 1812, and afterward for some time practiced his profession in Carlisle, living where the Second Presbyterian church now stands. To the union of Andrew Blair and Elizabeth Hays there was born a large family. Andrew Blair, “the grand old man,” peacefully passed away July 21, 1861, after months of intense phvsical suffering which he bore with true Christian fortitude. His memory lingers and the goodness of his life will long perpetuate his memory. — [With highest esteem, a granddaughter, Jenny Blair, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.