Ritchie County, WV: Bios - Robert S. Blair
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Submitted by Valerie Crook

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

pg. 10
Ritchie County

ROBERT S. BLAIR. The name Blair has been one of the
most prominent in the bar of Ritchie County for over half
a century. The present legal representative of the name,
Robert S. Blair, Jr., has practiced there for thirty years or
more, and has maintained the high reputation accorded to
his honored father.

Mr. Blair was born in Harrisville November 19, 1865,
son of R. S. and Rachel C. (Core) Blair. His mother was a
daughter of George A. Core. R. S. Blair, Sr., was born at
Parkersburg February 24, 1835, son of David and Elizabeth
(Beeson) Blair. David Blair's father came from Ireland.
Elizabeth Beeson was a daughter of Jacob Beeson and a
granddaughter of the pioneer settler at Beesontown, now
Uniontown, Pennsylvania. R. S. Blair, Sr., was left an
orphan at the age of three weeks, and was reared by his
grandmother Beeson and his aunt, Ann Gardener. At the
age of twelve he was apprenticed to learn the saddler's trade,
and subsequently General Jackson secured him an appoint-
ment to the Virginia Military Institute, where he remained
four years. He graduated under Stonewall Jackson. After
leaving there he came to Harrisville, clerked in a store, and
while in the office of Judge Cyrus Hall studied law and was
admitted to the bar. For many years thereafter he had an
extensive practice in all the State, Federal and other courts.
He died January 21, 1892. He was a democrat all his life.
R. S. Blair, Sr., and wife had four children: Dr. A. C.
Blair, born July 27, 1863, in practice at Ellenboro, Ritchie
County; Robert S., Jr., born November 19, 1865; Catherine
E., born November 21, 1867; and Dr. H. C. Blair, born June
22, 1886, now at Reeder, West Virginia.

Robert S. Blair, Jr., grew up at Harrisville, attended the
public schools there, Bethel Military Academy in Virginia,
the University of West Virginia, and graduated in law from
the University of Virginia and was admitted to the bar at
Chariottesville. For a time he was with the legal depart-
ment of the Crescent Iron Works of Virginia, and then joined
his father as a partner about six months before his father's
death. During the past thirty years Mr. Blair has carried
on an extensive practice in all the courts of his section of the
state. He has satisfied his ambitions within the strict limits
of his profession, but has also at different times been active
in the democratic party and in 1916 was the democratic
nominee for the State Senate, being defeated by only thirty-
one votes in a district normally republican by 1,500.

In December, 1896, Mr. Blair married Mary E. Wolfe.
They have one daughter, Mary R., born January 22, 1916.