Biography of W. L. Blair, pages 563/564/655.  History of DeKalb County, 
Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.

W. L. Blair

	It is with a great degree of satisfaction that we advert to the 
life of one who has made a success in any vocation requiring definiteness of purpose and determined action.  Such a life, whether it be one of prosaic endeavor or radical accomplishment, abounds in valuable lesson and incentive to those who have become discouraged in the fight for recognition or to the youth whose future is undetermined. During a long, strenuous and honorable career W. L. Blair, one of the substantial and representative citizens of DeKalb county, has directed his energies and talent toward the goal of success in this locality and by patient continuance has won, and is now numbered among the worthy an substantial farmer of Wilmington township. The subject bears the only survivor among a family of thirty-five relatives.
	W. L. Blair was born in Portage county, Ohio, on November 27, 
1831, a son of John and Margaret (Douglas) Blair, who moved to DeKalb 
county in 1835, settling in Concord township, at which time there were 
but nine families in the county, seven of whom were located in Concord 
township. The Indians were frequent visitors at their home and at one 
time the subject’s sister turned and empty barrel over him while she ran 
to the field to tell the men of the approach of the Indians.  Mr. Blair 
was reared to the life of a pioneer and early began assisting in the 
arduous labors of clearing the land, his education privileges being very 
limited.  The first school he attended was taught by Rev. Benjamin Alton 
in a log house on land now occupied by Christian Curie.  Mr. Blair is 
descended from a sturdy line of ancestors, his parents having been 
natives respectively of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.   They were the 
parents of nine children, namely: Mrs. Jane Notestine, deceased; Douglas, 
deceased; Mrs. Samantha Dragoo, deceased; Hiram deceased; Lucius J., 
deceased; William L., the subject of this sketch, and Benjamin, John and 
Carlin who are deceased.  The land which the subject’s father entered in 
DeKalb county is that now occupied by the present site of St. Joe, and 
there the subject of this sketch spent his early years.  He has always 
devoted his activities to agricultural pursuits, and, owing to this 
persistent industry, sound business methods and careful attention to 
the conservation of the soil and other practical features of successful 
agriculture, he has for many years enjoyed a splendid reputation among 
his fellow farmers. He owns thirty acres of land near the town of 
Butler, onto which he moved in 1865, and during the long period of his 
residence here he has continuously enjoyed the confidence and good will 
of the community.
	Mr. Blair has been twice married, first in 1859, to Amy Aldrich, 
to which union were born two children, Corwin B., of Gary, Indiana, and 
Mrs. Lena Corcoran, of Michigan.  Mr. Blair’s second union was to Mary 
L. Hall, the daughter of J. C. and Abigail (Norris) Hall, natives of 
New Hampshire.  Mr. Blair has reached an advanced age, heaven having 
lengthened out his life until he has been permitted to witness the 
vicissitudes of most remarkable epoch in the world’s business and 
inventive history, in all of which he has been and interested spectator.   
There is no doubt but that his long life has been due to this sterling 
character, his conservative habits and his pure thinking.  He is even 
tempered, patient, scrupulously honest in all the relations of life, 
hospitable and charitable, his many kindly deeds being actuated solely 
from his largeness of heart rather than from and desire to gain the 
approval of plaudits of his fellow men.  In all that constitutes true 
manhood and good citizenship he has been a worthy example and none 
stands higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the circles in 
which he moves.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com