Submitted by Dan Wilson dan.wilson@asu.edu

From Clyde, John C., Genealogies, Necrology and Reminiscences of the Irish Settlement , Easton, 1879, reprint 1998, Heritage Books.

Blair, James

Residing in the Settlement, married Martha Wilson, a descendant and connection of the Alllison and Wilson families. These Wilsons were not related to the Hugh Wilson family [Craig-Wilsons] of the Settlement. The Allisons were only connected with the Settlement as indicated under that head [see Allison info]. Note: there were Wilsons and Allisons in that part of Chester Co. that became part of Lancaster Co. See I.D. Rupp’s Lancaster Co. History, 1844

Children:

Blair, John – married Emma Hemphill a descendant of Moses Hemphill of Bath, PA
Blair, Margaret
Blair, Robert – married a Miss Oldenwelder, “we believe.” They had a family.
Blair, Keziah
Blair, Mary – married, no spouse mentioned.
Blair, William
Blair, Martha
Blair, Joseph Horner – died 6 Apr 1865, age 2 years.

From the research notes of Frank Thorpe Gorman of Princeton, NJ, now deceased, we have the following:

Blair, _____ died 1834, Durham, Northampton Co., PA m. Keziah Deeny (or Denny?), b. 17 Apr 1775; d. 24 June 1816, Durham, PA. They had a son, James Robbins Blair

Blair, James Robbins b. 7 Dec. 1810; d. 16 Jan 1896, Bath, PA. Buried at Greenmount Cemetery, Easton(?), PA., lot 301. He married Martha Henderson Wilson, a dau. of Robert Wilson and Margaret Henderson.

Note: there were Dennys in Chester Co. along with Wilsons and Allisons.

Blair-Henderson-Wilson-McLean family tree drawn by Frank Thorpe Gorman

Unknown father Blair

John(?) Blair

b. ??? Londonderry, Ireland

d. 1834(9) at Durham, PA

Married 12 May 1804; emigrated to Durham, PA; educated in Log College (of William Tennant?)

Unknown Mother Blair

James Robbins Blair

b. 7 Dec 1810

d. 16 Jan 1896, Bath, PA

bur. Lot 301, Greenmount Cem.

Married 19 Oct 1842 in Neshaminy Church;

Was a farmer for his Wilson and Horner cousins;

Unknown father Deeny

Keziah Deeny

b. 17 Apr 1775

d. 24 Jun 1816

Durham, PA

Unknown mother Deeny

William Riley Blair

b. 22 Feb 1860, Bath , PA

d. 20 Sep 1900, Burkeville, Nottoway Co., VA

Bur: Presby Church yard

m. in Burkeville, VA; lived in Narberth, PA after marriage; salesman in china dept. of John Wannamaker Dept. Store, Philadelphia; ;ater moved to Burkeville and operated a specialty dry goods store.

Unknown father Wilson

Robert Wilson

Unknown mother Wilson

Margaret Henderson Wilson

b. 27 Sep 1823

d. 4 June 1897, Bath, PA

bur. Lot 301, Greenmount Cem.

Unknown father Henderson

Margaret Henderson

Unknown mother Henderson

Alexander M. Blair

b.?

d.?

James McLean

Alexander McLean

Martha Leslie

Samuel Swan McLean

b. 7 Aug 1826; Mauch Chunk, PA

d. 16 July 1877

Burkeville, Nottoway Co., VA

Bur. Presby Church yard

Samuel Swan

Elizabeth Swan

Mary Smith

Jean Wilson McLean

b. 8 Sep 1869

d. 16 Apr 1948, Burkeville, Nottway Co., VA

Bur. Sunset Hill Cem.

Unknown father Wilson

Alexander Wilson

b. 1767 Co. Antrim, Ireland

d. 11 Apr 1855 Easton, PA

Was a quarryman at Bushkill Creek near Easton, PA

Unknown mother Wilson

Jane (Jennie) Gray Wilson

b. 25 Sep 1825

d. 5 Sep 1922

Burkeville, Nottoway Co., VA

Bur. Sunset Hill Cem.

Thomas McElroy

b. 1776 Doylestown, PA

d. 1823, Easton, PA

Margaret McElroy

b. 1793 or 1794

d. 13 May 1882

Unknown mother McElroy

Marriages from the Gorman research notes:

BLAIR

Martha Brainerd Gorman m. ???

Jean Elizabeth Findlay m. Frank Thorpe Gorman Jr.

Martha Wilson Blair m. Harris Markham Findlay

William Riley Blair m. Jean Wilson McLean

James Robbins Blair m. Keziah Deeny

McLEAN

Jean Wilson McLean m. William Riley Blair

Samuel Swan McLean m. Jane Gray Wilson

Alexander McLean m. Elizabeth Swan

James McLean m. Martha Leslie

Obituary of Jean Wilson Blair. Richmond Times Dispatch, 17 Paril 1946(8?)

Mrs J.W. Blair Dies at Daughter’s Home

A private funeral service for Mrs. Jean Wilson Blair, widow of William Riley Blair, who died Friday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Harris Markham Findlay, 1535 West Avenue, will be held at 3pm Saturday at the grave in the family cemetery near Burkeville.

Mrs. Blair resided during the earlier years of her life at “Inverness,” the Nottoway Co. Plantation of her parents, Co. Samuel Swan McLean and Mrs. Jane Gray McLean.

She is survived by her daughter, Mrs. Findlay of Richmond, two sons, Alexander McLean Blair of Arlington, and Montgomery McLean Blair of Richmond; five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Correspondence of Frank T. Gorman regarding naming of Helena, MT

Gorman wrote to the Helena, MT Chamber of Commerce on 16 May 1948 with a query about the naming of Helena, MT. He claimed that the town had been named for Helen McLean, a daughter of Col. Samuel Swan McLean and cited a reference in Cyclopedia of American Biographies, Vol. 5, pp. 291, published by the Federal Book Co., Boston, in 1903. The Helena Chamber of Commerce responded by saying that the officially accepted veiew is that the town had been named by a certain John C. Somerville in honor of his own home town in Helena, MN. Somerville presided over a meeting of the citizens of Last Chance Gulch on 30 Oct 1864 during which numerous names were suggested for the town. When a decision could not be reached by the citizens, Somerville broke the impass by declaring the town to be named for his home town in Helena, MT.

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