Wetzel County, West Virginia Biography of Smith BLAIR ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 7-8 SMITH BLAIR has devoted himself with singular fidelity and efficiency to his duties as cashier of the Bank of Jacksonburg for over fifteen years. This is one of the prosperous banking institutions of Wetzel County. It was organized in 1903, being opened for business January 1, 1904, under a state charter. This bank has a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, surplus and profits of fifteen thousand dollars and average deposits of two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The president is L. E. Lantz. The Board of Directors comprise L. E. Lantz, S. J. Kilcoyne, of Mobley, W. K. Mclntyre and S. J. Mclntyre, of Alvy, A. L. Chambers, G. B. Meredith and W. T. Price, of Smithfield, A. G. Higgin- botham, of New Martinsville, F. M. Willey and John M. Lowe, of Jacksonburg, and W. B. Lowe, of Coburn. Smith Blair, the cashier, was born at West Union in Doddridge County October 4, 1882. Hia father, Jackson V. Blair, is one of the prominent lawyers of long standing at West Union. He was born in Harrison County, West Vir- ginia, in 1853, and as a young man removed to Doddridge County, where he taught school and married. In 1872 he began the study of law at West Union under Judge Stuart, was admitted to the bar, and has practiced with great success for over forty years. He once made the race for Congress against Blackburn B. Dovener as a democrat. He is an active member of the Baptist Church and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. He was judge advocate on Governor Fleming's staff. Jackson V. Blair married Miss Ella M. Smith, who was born at Smithton in Doddridge County in 1860. She was the mother of eight children: Julia, wife of P. M. Ireland, an attorney of the West Union bar; Smith; William Eldridge, of Detroit, Michigan; Nan Morgan, wife of George C. Crouse, of West Union, who has charge of the leasing department in West Virginia for the Hope Natural Gas Company; Jackson V., Jr., a revenue officer in the income tax department at Huntington, West Virginia; George Neely, in the bonding department of Le Fever & Company, stock and bond brokers at Akron, Ohio; Francis K., employed by the Portland Atlas Cement Association at Parkersburg; and Marion, a high school student at West Union. Smith Blair was educated in the public schools of West Union, in Bethel Military Academy at Warrenton, Virginia, and finished his preparatory course in West Virginia Univer- sity at Morgantown. He left Morgantown in 1901, and during 1902 kept up some special studies in the high school at West Union. In the same year he became clerk in a store at Pine Grove, and subsequently entered the Bank of Pine Grove as teller. With several years of banking experience he was chosen cashier of the Bank of Jacksonburg in 1905, and has held that post continuously and almost throughout the existence of the institution. As a banker he was able to do much work to assist the Government at the time of the war, particularly in the sale of Liberty Bonds. He is a democrat, a member of West Union Lodge No. 56, A. F. and A. M., has attained thirty-two degrees in the Scottish Rite in West Virginia Consistory No. 1 at Wheeling, and is a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. At Leesburg, Virginia, in 1908, Mr. Blair married Miss May Caldwell Powell, daughter of William L. and Fannie (Cald- well) Powell, her mother still living at Leesburg. Her father was a farmer there. Mrs. Blair is a graduate of Marshall Seminary of Winchester, Virginia. They have two children: Smith, Jr., born July 3, 1913, and William Powell, born February 14, 1915.