FRANK BLAINE ST. CLAIR

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 376-377
Monogalia

FRANK BLAINE ST. CLAIR is one of the younger men of
progress identified with the substantial development of
Monongalia County. He is a farmer and Hereford cattle
breeder, living in Union District, seven miles north of
Morgantown, on the Point Marion Road.

This farm where he lives today is his birthplace, and
both he and his mother were bom in the same house, which
stood almost on the site of his present home. He was born
January 12, 1880, son of Edgar W. and Elizabeth (John)
St. Clair. His father was bom in the same district in
1839, and died in 1901, at the age of sixty-two. The
pioneer of the family was Jordan St. Clair and his wife,
Malinda, who lived out their lives on a farm on West Run.
Jordan St. Clair is survived by two sons, Millard and
Leroy, and a daughter, Carrie, widow of Edgar Donley.
Edgar W. St. Clair was married at the John homestead.
Elizabeth John was a daughter of William John. and in-
herited a third of his estate and has lived practically all
her life on the farm. For a number of years Edgar St.
Clair operated a store at Easton and later at Stewartstown,
and then took the management of the John homestead.
He did general farming here and he also had an extensive
business as a timber buyer. He bought a number of tracts
of standing timber, gave employment to a large force of
men in the logging season, operated a saw mill and also
rafted great quantities of lumber and timber down the
Cheat and Monongahela rivers to Pittsburgh. He owned
the old St. Clair place of 100 acres four miles from his
own home. He was a director of the Second National
Bank of Morgantown. Edgar St. Clair was not only an
efficient business man but had unusual abilities in a pub-
lic way, being able to make effective public speeches and
was a party worker in the Republican ranks. He served
four terms in the State Legislature during the '90s. He
and his wife were members of the Forks of Cheat Baptist
Church, the oldest church of that denomination in the
state.  He was survived nine years by his widow, who
passed away in 1910, at the age of sixty-eight. Their
two children are Myrtle and Frank Blame. The former is
Mrs. Charles Hunter, and she owns a part of the old St.
Clair homestead.

Frank Blaine St. Clair finished his education with two
years in West Virginia University, and then took charge
of the homestead. On October 24, 1898, he married Mabel
J. Echart, daughter of William and Belle (Moore) Echart.
Her father was born in Monongalia County, but as a young
man removed to Kansas, where he married and where for
some years he followed the trade of stone mason at Topeka.
He then returned to West Virginia, and is still active In
his trade at Morgantown. Mabel Echart was born in Kan-
sas and was nine years of age when brought to West Vir-
ginia. Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair have three children: Dale
Mortimer, Edgar William, a senior in the Morgantown High
School, and Helen Elizabeth, all at home. Mr. and Mrs.
St. Clair are members of the Eden Methodist Protestant
Church. They live in a very attractive country home, hav-
ing built their residence four years ago. Mr. St. Clair
has continued in a measure in the lumber business in which
his father was engaged, and operates a portable saw mill.
For several years he has been a successful breeder of
Hereford cattle.


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