BIOGRAPHY: Blair ALEXANDER, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 61-3
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BLAIR ALEXANDER, a leading citizen and business man of Conemaugh, Cambria 
county, Pennsylvania, and a son of William and Clarissa J. (Lee) Alexander, was 
born January 1, 1857, at Duncansville, Blair county, Pennsylvania. His ancestors 
were among the distinguished people of early colonial times.
     James Alexander, his grandfather, was a descendant of the Alexanders that 
came to America shortly after the second Mayflower fleet. They were of Scotch-
Irish extraction, and were among the early settlers of Franklin county, 
Pennsylvania, having removed thither from the north of Ireland to New England, 
thence to Franklin county; thus were they peculiarly fortunate both in their 
race and environment; a Scotch-Irish people in a New England atmosphere is a 
felicitous combination.
     James Alexander was born near Fahnettsburg, Franklin county. He married 
Margaret Holliday, a niece of Adam and William Holliday, the founders of 
Hollidaysburg, and a daughter of Samuel Holliday. Mr. Alexander was a soldier in 
the War of 1812, and served at Lundy's Lane and Niagara. His marriage occurred 
in 1817, at Dry Run, in Path Valley, Franklin county, and he immediately 
afterward came to Blair county, locating three miles from Hollidaysburg, and 
followed the occupation of a farmer; he died there, on the old Alexander 
homestead, near Duncansville, Blair county.
     The father of our subject was born on the Alexander homestead in 1827, and 
died June 9, 1869 at Conemaugh, Pennsylvania. He was a clear-headed, thoughtful 
man, a great reader, and mainly self-educated. He came to Conemaugh valley in 
1858, and followed the avocation of a merchant, first at Duncansville, and then 
at Conemaugh, until within two years of the time of his death. He was a whig in 
politics, later a republican, but never sought office, although, because of the 
implicit confidence, placed in him by the people, he was frequently solicited to 
become a candidate. In religion he was a Presbyterian, being a leading member 
and a deacon in that body. He was an enterprising man, too, and possessed a 
sagacity in business matters which enabled him to acquire an ample competency 
for his old age.
     Among his brothers and sisters, eleven in number, are the following:  
Margaret, born at Duncansville in 1818; John H., born in 1820, and now living in 
Davenport, Iowa; Ann M., born in 1822; James and Mary (twins), born in 1829 or 
30; Temple, born in 1831, and Charlotte. One died in youth.
     The father of Blair Alexander married and had a family of four children:  
Blair; Anna L., wife of Mr. Billingham, a master mechanic in the employ of the 
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, at Garrett, Indiana; William A., a locomotive 
engineer, who died February, 1891; Clarissa J., wife of A. B. Hutchinson, agent 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad company at Fairchance, Pennsylvania.
     The grandfather of Mr. Alexander on the maternal side was Ezra Lee, a 
native of Herkimer county, New York, and a son of Walter Lee, a native of 
Connecticut, who was an early settler of Herkimer county. Ezra Lee was connected 
in blood with the famous Lee family of Virginia, a very high distinction. His 
wife was Ann W. Harvey, a daughter of Benjamin Harvey, who died at the age of 
one hundred and thirteen, and who preached until he was one hundred and eleven. 
Ezra Lee died in Herkimer county, New York, in 1884.
     His family consisted of the following children: Frank Hutchinson, 
Minnesota; James of Utica, New York; the mother of our subject; Ezra, who died 
young; William, who was killed at Mobile, Alabama, during the late war; Albert, 
who was wounded at the battle of the Wilderness, and died in Conemaugh from the 
effects in 1866. At Conemaugh the mother of Mr. Alexander was married the second 
time, in 1878, to Robert Niz, now superintendent of construction and general 
foreman of the Johnson company, at Lorain, Ohio. He was connected with the 
Pennsylvania Railroad company for twenty-seven years in various capacities; was 
a burgess of the borough of East Conemaugh, and a prominent and active citizen.
     Our Subject was educated in the public schools and at the Glade Run 
academy, Armstrong county, attending the latter school one term. He learned 
telegraphy, and worked at intervals for about seven years in the Pennsylvania 
railroad office at Conemaugh, and for one year in the main office at Pittsburg. 
He taught school two terms, and in 1886 embarked in the grocery and 
confectionery business at Conemaugh. He is a member of the Junior Order United 
American Mechanics, at Conemaugh; is treasurer of the Conemaugh Building and 
Loan association; and was one of the organizers of the Conemaugh and Franklin 
Water company. He is a presbyterian and a republican; is at present a justice of 
the peace, and has held other local offices.
     Our subject has many causes for self-gratulation. He has the 
characteristics of a good race; his ancestry embraces historic names; he has 
within himself those qualities which bring success and give to a man an enviable 
reputation among his fellow-creatures.