William Scott Blair
WILLIAM SCOTT BLAIR, of South Bethlehem, Armstrong county, justice of the peace, is a respected resident of that section, where he has been in the employ of the C. E. Andrews Lumber Company for a number of years. He was born Nov. 10, 1859, in Mahoning township, this county, son of John C. and Sarah Ellen (Halderman) Blair and grandson of William Blair. William Blair and his father, Alexander Blair, were pioneers of Armstrong county, settling in what is now East Franklin township, where they cleared and improved a farm. In his later life William Blair moved to Clarion county, Pa., where he died. He married Nancy Campbell, and they had the following children who grew to maturity: Alexander, John C., Esther (wife of John Motherel), Elizabeth, Jane, James, Samuel Q., and Margaret.
John C. Blair, son of William and Nancy (Campbell) Blair, was born in Pennsylvania. He was reared in Clarion county, and worked as a collier for many years, also clearing and improving a farm of 140 acres in Porter township, Clarion county. He died there when seventy-two years old. His wife Sarah Ellen (Halderman), daughter of John and Mary (Williams) Halderman, was born in Pennsylvania, and she also is deceased. Her parents were pioneer settlers in Mahoning and Wayne townships, this county. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Blair four grew to maturity: William Scott; Anna B., who married J. L. Van Dyke; and Charles Edgar and Carrie Edna, twins, the latter the wife of Winfield M. Lerch. The father served one year during the Civil war as a member of Company A, 98th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. William Scott Blair grew up in Porter township, Clarion county, and received his education in the public schools. He remained on the homestead, assisting his father until he reached the age of twenty-three years. From 1883 to 1890 he worked the place on his own account, in the latter year going to Elk county, where he was employed by the W. H. Hyde Lumber Company, of Ridgway, until 1898. For the next two years he acted as superintendent of the Ridgway Water Works, and then for two years was employed in the electrical and dynamo department of the Ridgway Dynamo & Engine Company. Since 1902 he has resided at South Bethlehem, in Armstrong county, and has been in the, employ of the C. E. Andrews Company, of New Bethlehem, as assistant foreman of the planing mill. He has become very well known in this connection and in various other activities. In 1908 he was elected justice of the peace for South Bethlehem, in which office he is still serving, and he is a prominent member of the First Presbyterian Church of New Bethlehem, of which he has been an elder for seven years. He is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, and in political connection is a Republican. On Jan. 2, 1883, Mr. Blair married Florence May Phillips, daughter of Jacob and Lovina (McMillan) Phillips, of Porter township, Clarion Co., Pa. They have four living children: Mabel M., wife of W. S. Lininger; Frank H.; John Carlton; and Fannie E., wife of Omar G. Beham.
Source: Pages 762 - 763, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed February 1999 by Doris Rizza for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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