My Genealogy Hound

J. W. BLAIR, a prosperous farmer of Platte township, Buffalo county, is a native of New York and a descendant of York State parentage of Irish and English origin. His father, Charles Blair, and his mother, Delilah White, were both born, reared, always lived and died in York State. His mother having died when he was young, but little of her personal and family history has been preserved in his recollection and none in manuscript or other more enduring form. His father lived to a great age, dying January 2, 1870, having passed his ninety-ninth year. He was a man of remarkable vitality and great physical vigor. He led a very orderly, temperate life, and thus in a great measure husbanded his strength. He served in the war of 1812, but never occupied any civil positions of distinction, being a plain, industrious, useful farmer. He was three times married and was the father of twelve children, three by his second marriage and nine by the last. These were (by the second marriage) — Charles, Mary and Katie; by the last — Julia A., Ann, Mary, Maggie, John Wallace (our subject), Eliza, Elizabeth, William and Melissa. He was of Irish ancestry, his father, whose christian name was also Charles, being a native of Ireland who came to this country when a lad sixteen years of age, as family tradition relates.

John Wallace Blair, the subject of this notice, was born and reared in St. Lawrence county, N. Y., growing up on his father’s farm, where he received the rudiments of an elementary education and was trained to the habits of industry and usefulness common to farm life. The first event of importance in his life was his enlistment in the service of his country at the opening of the Civil war. He entered the Union army in December, 1862, going into Company K, Sixtieth New York infantry. His regiment started from Ogdensburg, N. Y., but he joined it at Washington, D. C., where it rendezvoused. It saw its first service at the second Bull Run, and was soon afterwards transferred to the Western department, being part of the detachment that was sent to the relief of Burnside, at Knoxville, Tenn. It then entered the Atlanta campaign, and, beginning with the engagement at Lookout mountain, he was in all the fights down to Atlanta, chief among them being Resaca, Ringgold, Marietta, New Hope church, Peach Tree creek, Kenesaw mountain and the two days’ fight at Atlanta. He was then with Sherman in his famous march to the sea, winding up with the campaigns through the Carolinas and surrender of Johnston’s army at Goldsboro, N. C., participating in the grand review at Washington and being discharged at Ogdensburg, N. Y., July 31, 1865. He served as a private and had the good fortune never to be captured or wounded. Returning to his native place at the close of the war he settled down to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, which he followed as assidiously as he had fought to suppress the rebellion, and, measured by his means and strength, with as much success.

He married in 1869, and sometime afterwards moved West and settled in Muscatine county, Iowa, where he resided till coming to Nebraska in July, 1884. On coming to this state he bought a relinquishment on a tract of land in Platte township, Buffalo county, being part of the old Fort Kearney military reservation. On this he filed a soldier’s homestead claim, settled, and has since resided there. This tract comprises one hundred and fifty-two acres and a fraction, and lying between the channels of the Platte river, is mostly hay-land. Mr. Blair has added to it by purchase a quarter section adjoining it, making a large tract, which he has well stocked and some of which is well improved. He is a farmer in the strictest sense of the word, and is a successful one. He believes in the diversification of farm interest and carries out in practice what so many teach only in theory. He has a good home and good improvements; every thing on his place gives evidence of the thrift, order and good management that prevail there.

Losing his first wife after moving to Iowa, Mr. Blair married again in August, 1876, the lady whom he married being Miss Nancy E. Hallenbeck, then of Iowa City, Iowa, but a native of Pennsylvania. Seven children have been born to this union — Gertrude A., Isaac Herbern, May Ursula, William Wallace, George Robert, Maud Delilah and Schuyler Morton. For these, and because he is a public-spirited citizen, Mr. Blair has taken great interest in the educational interests of his township, having been a member of the school board ever since he has resided in it. He has never aspired to public life and has never filled any public position. He votes the straight republican ticket and is a stanch supporter of the principles and practices of his party.