The children of William Blair and Catherine Harrison:
1. Hugh Blair (1813-1888), married Julie/Julia Stone, buried near Westminster, SC
2. A. Jackson Blair (1815- After 1830 census)
3. Harriett Blair (1817-1887) appears to have been a spinster, buried near Westminster, SC
4. Nancy Blair (1823-?)
5. Elizabeth Blair (1826-1892), buried near Westminster, SC
6. William Clark Blair (1827-1864), married Susan/Susie Wilkinson, Confederate soldier - probably died at Elmira NY POW Camp and is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira.
7. Thomas Harrison Blair (1828-1878 - age 50), married Permelia Colvin, buried near Union, Greene County, AL. I can find no record of Thomas actually serving during the Civil War but I did find a record where he provided provisions to the Confederacy. One of the children of Thomas and Permelia was Dr. Robert H. Blair of Dallas, TX who died at the very young age of 36. One of their daughters lived and died (age 57) in Greenville, SC (Viola Blair Poole).
8. Martha Blair (1831-1876), married Steven A. Marett, buried near Fairplay, SC
Son Hugh appears to have lived most of his life in the area that was Pendleton District in western South Carolina. Sons William C. and Thomas H. both wound up living in Greene County, Alabama. William C. enlisted with the Confederate Army while living in Alabama and he died during that war - Probably in New York at the Elmira Union POW Camp. For more on William's Civil War service, I prepared a paper about him - see here. I found a document indicating that Thomas H. Blair supplied materials to the Confederacy - he may not have served as a soldier.
In 1912, 395 acres of land that once belonged to Hugh Blair was listed for sale. This land is noted as "...about 3 miles south of Westminster, and lying east of the main Westminster and Fair Play road, and on Fuller's Creek, bounded on the southeast by lands of Susan Bibb, on the north by the Riley estate, and located on the settlement road leading from the Westminster and Fair Play road by the Blair's old mill place, and being the old homestead of Hugh Blair, which was willed by him to Kate Blair, who at the time of her death was Mrs. Kate Harrison...". Kate Blair married J. W. Harrison.[1] I was not able to locate Fuller's Creek on a present day map; However, the area described is likely on or very near the Choesta Creek and might be the land noted as adjoining Martin Harrison - See the Harrison land plats here.
Keowee Courier, September 11, 1912
Other than my own line, I have done little research on the children of William and Catherine and their descendants.
My line is through their son William Clark Blair who married Susan/Susie Wilkinson. Susan was the daughter of Signal Wilkinson and Neattie Harrison. Interestingly, Neattie's mother Mary was the sister of William Clark Blair's mother Catherine Harrison Blair. Signal Wilkinson was the son of Sgt. Elisha Wilkinson, the Revolutionary War soldier.
Due to William dying as a soldier for the Confederacy in 1864, William and Susan had only 2 known children: Harrison Franklin Blair (1858-1921) and Andrew J. Blair (1860-1891). Harrison Franklin Blair is my great grandfather. Andrew J. Blair appears to have been a bachelor and had no known children. Both men are buried in Franklin County, GA (A.J. Blair is buried next to his niece Reppard Blair who was born 2 years after he died - see below).
Susan/Susie Wilkinson Blair remarried after the death of William C. Blair. She married Oliver J. Vaughn and had several children with him, one of which was John T. Vaughn. My grandfather and granduncle were pallbearers for their 1/2 uncle (John T. Vaughn) when he died in 1960. Many of these Vaughns (including my 2nd great grandmother Susan Wilkinson Blair Vaughn) are buried in the New Hope Baptist Church cemetery near Cornelia, GA.
My great grandfather Harrison Franklin Blair married Sarah Elizabeth Verner on October 16, 1886. Sarah was the daughter of George Edwin Verner and Elizabeth Annie "Pleasant" Guest. These Verners are descendants of John Verner and Mary Pettigrew of Northern Ireland. Civil War General James Johnston Pettigrew is a descendant of Mary Pettigrew's brother Charles Pettigrew.[2] Annie Guest was the granddaughter of Captain Moses Guest, the Revolutionary War soldier whose wife was Mary Blair, the sister of Captain/Colonel James Blair. It is through Moses Guest's wife Mary Blair that we are related to Daniel Boone.[3]
Harrison (nicknamed Bud) Blair died of colo-rectal cancer and the age of 63. Sarah Verner Blair lived to be 101 - 12 days shy of her 102nd birthday. She was a charter member of the Sunshine Methodist Church, Mize, Georgia. One interesting fact about the children of Harrison and Sarah is that they all "went by" their middle names rather than their first name.
The children of Harrison Franklin Blair and Sarah Elizabeth Verner:
1. Henry Lee Blair (1887-1968), married Rubye Lois Bailey, buried Franklin County, GA. Lee and Rubye had the following children:
· Martha Ray Blair (1925-2004), married William Jackson Hollis, they had 4 children. Martha & Bill are buried in Decatur, GA
· Gerald Bailey Blair (1927-2008), married twice – 2 children by his first wife. 2nd wife was Faye Lee. Gerald & Faye are buried in Marietta, GA
· Mary Lee Blair (1932-2003), married James York, 1 child. Mary is buried in Gwinnett Count, GA
· Sarah Emilyn Blair (1933-2013), married Charles Golden and they later divorced, no children. Sarah is buried in Franklin County, GA.
2. Sidney Lawrence Blair (1888-1947), never married, veteran of World War I, died in Augusta, Georgia (VA Hospital), buried Franklin County, GA. Suffered from mental illness likely due to combat in WWI or possibly due to genetics. On his WWI draft registration, he is listed to be Medium height, stout, brown eyes and dark hair.
3. Benjamin Edd Blair (1890-1970), married Sara Janet Barrow, Edd and Janet are buried in DeKalb County, GA. Edd was a Detective with the Atlanta Police. On his WWI draft registration dated June 5, 1917, he stated that he was a student in the Southern College of Pharmacy in Atlanta and he is shown to have been "Tall, slender, with brown eyes and black hair". Edd and Janet had the following children:
· Sara Vivian Blair (1918-1996), married Charles Everitt, buried Decatur, GA
· Reba Ann Blair (1919-1990), buried Decatur, GA
Atlanta Journal November 30, 1990
· Henry Edward Blair (1926-2017), married Charlotte (lnu) and they had 3 children.
4. Hattie Reppard Blair (1893-1973), never married, buried Franklin County, GA
5. William Farris Blair (1894-1935), veteran of World War I, also served in the same unit as his brother Lawrence (162nd Infantry) married Nezzie Payne Taylor, Farris is buried in Franklin County, GA. Farris and Nezzie had the following children:
· Jimmie Ruth Blair (1930-2020), married William H. Friar, 2 children. Jimmie is buried in Stephens County, GA
· Josephine Blair (1927-1997), married William Odum, 1 biological child; 1 adopted child. Jo is buried in DeKalb County, GA
6. Holman Morris Blair (1900-1984), married Teresa Grimsley, no children, buried Franklin County, GA
Copy of Sarah Verner Blair's Bible listing names and birthdates.
Sarah Elizabeth Verner Blair, Circa 1950s
This photo was likely taken on the front porch of my grandparents' home on Highway 320
This house burned down in the 1990s. A Korean church now occupies that land.
Sarah Elizabeth Verner Blair
1960
Henry Lee Blair and Rubye Bailey Blair
I am not sure where this photo was taken - I do not recognize the house.
Henry Lee Blair and Rubye Bailey Blair
Circa 1960s
Henry Lee Blair and Rubye Bailey Blair
This is how I remember my grandparents. Photo taken in 1960s.
The are standing on the right side of their home on Highway 320. There was a 1 car standalone garage just out of the picture on the right. The last car my grandfather owned was a Rambler. My grandmother did not drive - never had a driver's license to my knowledge. This house burned down in the 1990s.
Children of Lee and Rubye Blair: Martha, Gerald, Mary & Sarah
Circa early to mid 1940s
Lee Blair, circa 1910-1920
L-R: Martha Blair Hollis, Sarah Blair, Dora Black Bailey(?), Samuel Charles Bailey
Martha and Sarah are the daughters of Lee and Rubye (Bailey) Blair; Charles is the brother of Rubye and the uncle of Martha and Sarah. Photo taken about 1995-1997.
A family reunion 1963 at Lake Hartwell Dam. Everyone on the back row is now deceased (except for the baby); L-R: James York, Mary Blair York, Gerald B. Blair, Faye Lee Blair, Martha Blair Hollis, Janice E. Hollis, Rubye Bailey Blair, William J. Hollis, Sr. and Henry Lee Blair. The author and his brother are the only ones who decided to drink from their cups as the photo was taken!
Sidney Lawrence Blair, World War I
Lawrence Blair
Morris Blair and Teresa Grimsley Blair
Circa late 1970s
Morris & Lee Blair
Farris Blair and Nezzie Payne Blair
Jimmie Ruth Blair, Reppard Blair and Josephine Blair
Jimme Ruth and Josephine are daughters of Farris and Nezzie Payne Blair
Reppard is the spinster sister of Farris.
Reppard Blair and her niece Martha Blair
Photo probably taken in either Atlanta, GA or Greenville, SC 1940s or 1950s
Never married
Edd Blair
Circa 1940s
Edd Blair, his wife Janet
Barrow Blair and son Ed Jr.
Atlanta Journal, January 2, 1970
Ed Blair, Jr.
Circa 1940s
Late 1700s era log cabin/house as it looks today. The family home of my mother and her siblings.
Possibly two dogtrot type houses put together. This house is now located in downtown Carnesville on property owned by the Franklin County Historical Society.
Newspaper Article about the relocation of the old home place
June 22, 1988
Family group photo in front of the old log cabin/house when it was located on the Middle Fork of the Broad River. The river is located just beyond the tree behind them. Note that the front windows no longer exist - I seem to recall that they were damaged during the move of the house from this location to downtown Carnesville. Pictured L-R, back row: Sarah Elizabeth Verner Blair, Henry Lee Blair, Rubye Lois Bailey Blair, Rosa Muriel Ledbetter Bailey; L-R, front row: Mary Lee Blair, Martha Ray Blair, Sarah Emilyn Blair. I am guessing that Gerald Bailey Blair took the photo. Circa 1940s.
The house in the photo above is the house that my mother and her 3 siblings grew up in and it is now standing on the grounds of the Franklin County Historical Society in downtown Carnesville, Georgia. It was owned by the Crow family and rented by my grandparents for many years but then later bought by the family and it remained unoccupied for many, many years. Upon the death of the wife of my granduncle Morris Blair in 1993, the house was donated to Franklin County by his widow Teresa. It was moved from its original location on the Middle Fork of the Broad River (GPS 34.382323, -83.286546) to the historical society property. During my life, Morris Blair owned a lot of the land between Highway 320 and the Middle Fork of the Broad River along Goolsby Road where the old house was located. He farmed cotton on much of the land. The house that he lived in is still standing and is located at GPS 34.389150, -83.276228. It is my understanding that my grandparents (and my mother) also lived in that newer house for some period of time.
Seeing this house today gives me a greater understanding of my mother and her family. The impoverished lifestyle that they endured was not uncommon to rural families in north Georgia at this time. They were not uneducated people; They simply lived a lifestyle that was more in common with their frontier ancestors than we today can ever imagine. My grandmother (Rubye Bailey Blair) had a 2 year college education (Young Harris College, Blairsville, GA) and my grandfather was the county coroner at one time. My grandmother became a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution using David Verner as her Revolutionary War ancestor. Both of my grandparents were founding members of the Franklin County Historical Society in the early 1960s. My grandmother was the secretary of the historical society for many years. She was required to learn Latin in school and I remember her often saying what a loss it was that most schools were no longer requiring kids to learn the language. She had a few books that were in Latin and I remember her still being able to read the language in her later years. Of the many fond memories that I have of my grandmother, the one that stands out was when I first saw her with her hair down. She always wore her hair up in a bun on her head but one day (I was probably a teenager) I saw her with her hair down and I was completely shocked to see that her hair went all the way to her waist! Not only was I not used to seeing her that way, only young women of my age were wearing their hair long and only a very small percentage of them had it that long. It was not a regular occurrence to see any girls or women with hair that long - my grandmother was in her 60's. My grandmother was also a fantastic cook. I remember my mother tried for many years to duplicate her cornbread recipe. She eventually gave up trying. My mother even made cornbread right beside her mother and it never tasted the same: Same oven and same ingredients. (My mother was also a great cook and her cornbread was great - her mother's was just a tad better.) My grandmother never learned how to drive and when she rode with any of us you could hear her foot constantly tapping the floorboard which was a sign of her nervousness. When we would come to a stop the foot tapping became more of a stomp. My grandfather did drive but to my knowledge his speed never approached the speed limit. I remember my father got behind him one day when they drove on the interstate (I-85) for a few miles and my grandfather never got his car much over 40-45 miles per hour. My father was not a fast driver with us kids but even he was glad when we reached our destination. Different generations: My father grew up when cars were commonplace and he probably was driving as a teenager; My grandfather was likely well into his twenties before he drove a car and horses were still used for transportation in rural NE Georgia well into the 1930s. Just a guess but it was likely a requirement for him to own and operate a car when he was the county coroner but he would have been in his 30s by that time. Life moved slowly in rural Franklin County - which may not have been such a bad thing.
Distant Cousins: Henry Lee Blair, Rubye
Bailey Blair and Susan Josephine Verner (Mrs. William Henry Budd) - They all share a common Verner ancestor. Not shown is DeKalb County Judge John Early Verner who is also a cousin.
The land that I remember my grandparents owning, and where they built a house, is now owned by a Korean church. I think he owned about 150-200 acres at this location. That house was built in the late 1940s and it burned down sometime in the 1990s. When my grandmother died in 1982, the land was Willed to my mother and her siblings and they owned that land for many years before deciding to sell. The last time I drove up there, the barn was still standing. This property is located at GPS 34.421524, -83.321715. Esco Dalrymple owed the farm across the highway. He later built a convenience store right on the highway that is still standing. My grandfather also owned another tract of land (about 50 acres I think) that he occasionally farmed - I do not remember the exact location but it also was on Highway 320 towards Toccoa about a mile or so from his home. When my mother and her brothers inherited that land, they had a legal issue with one of the adjoining property owners who decided to cut a road through it. They filed a lawsuit but lost because none of them currently lived in Franklin County (local cronyism favored the defendant).
My grandfather (Lee Blair) was elected Franklin County coroner in 1928. His brother Morris owned or part-owned a hardware store in downtown Carnesville. Like his sister Reppard, Morris lived in Atlanta when he was young. He was a streetcar operator for some of the time that he lived in Atlanta. My mother told me that he said he moved back to Carnesville " to be a big fish in a little pond rather than the other way around". Morris and his brother Lee (my grandfather) were very different: My grandfather spoke very little whereas Morris was quite the talker. I remember Morris sitting around the fireplace talking about our ancestors and history but unfortunately, I remember nothing of his stories. They were both characters: I remember my grandfather's laugh and Morris's distinctive voice. On the back of my grandparents' house was a back porch of sorts. It was screened in and faced south. It was where they peeled apples, shucked corn, shelled beans and so forth. When my mother and her siblings divided up the property after my grandmother died, my mother got one of the chairs that sat on that back porch. The rear two legs were worn at an angle due to the way my grandfather would rock back in the chair while he was sitting in it. My grandfather would "roll his own" cigarettes from pipe tobacco he kept in a small pouch and I remember being fascinated at how he would do this without spilling a single bit of tobacco. I see this technique in movies from time to time and it always reminds me of him. They owned a few "plow mules" and later a tractor. He would slaughter his pigs and chickens for the food that they ate and most of the vegetables came from their own garden. Heat came from 2 fireplaces and later they installed a propane heater. In the winter, there was almost always a fire going in their bedroom fireplace and it probably was the only room in the house that was heated during the winter months. They were frugal and recycled because of necessity. Hardly anything was thrown away. When us grand kids visited from the city, we were very firmly scolded if we wasted anything: You ate everything that you put on your plate or filled your glass with. You did not waste water which came only from the well. Even toilet paper was rationed. We have been told that my parents' generation had more in common with our frontier ancestors than we realize and in my mother's case, this was very true and the visits that we made and the time that we spent with my grandparents on their farm in NE Georgia is my window to what life was probably like when the area was first settled by my ancestors.
Henry Lee Blair's WWI draft registration dated June 5, 1917 noted him to be a farmer, tall & slender with brown eyes and hair. I believe he was around six feet tall.
Ed Blair moved to Atlanta and he was a detective with the Atlanta Police department for many years.
Lawrence Blair served in World War I and had what they called Combat Fatigue back then - now called PTSD. He was in and out of hospitals for many years until he finally succumbed to the disorder while in his 50s.
Farris Blair, like his father, died very young of some type of cancer.
Morris Blair spent 10 years in Atlanta as a street car operator. He returned to Franklin County and ran a hardware/grocery store in downtown Carnesville. He also farmed cotton.
Reppard Blair never married. She worked at Regenstein's department store in Atlanta for a while. I do not know when she returned to Franklin County but she was living there at least from the 1960s until she died.
My mother, Martha Blair (daughter of Lee and Rubye) left home shortly after she graduated from Franklin County High School in 1943. She lived in Greenville SC for a short period: She lived at the "Y" and worked at Globe Drugstore in downtown Greenville. The friends that she made in Greenville lasted a lifetime. I lived in Greenville from 1979 to 1994. About 1984, I had some old family photos that I needed to get duplicated and enlarged and Globe Drugstore was the only place in town that could do it. Back in those days, it took weeks to get photos developed. When I finally got the photos back there was note inside that said "Say hello to Martha for me" - the note was from one of the friends that my mother made there in the 1940s! She recognized my mother in one of the photos.
While living in Greenville during most of WWII, my mother dated several soldiers who were stationed at nearby Donaldson Air Base. Donaldson Air Base dissolved shortly after the war and became a defunct facility for many, many years. In the late 1970s, manufacturing companies started to build plants near and around the old air base. Michelin Tire was one of those companies and it was the company that I left Atlanta to go to work for in 1979. Then in the 1980s, Lockheed started a maintenance facility at the old air base. It was a strange thing for me because Lockheed in Marietta Georgia was the company that I left when I moved to Greenville to work for Michelin.
After the war, my mother moved to Atlanta where she lived in a boarding house on Ponce de Leon Avenue in east Atlanta. She lived close to her younger cousin Josephine Blair. At one point Martha worked at the old Sears Roebuck building on Ponce de Leon (now City of Atlanta government offices). The boarding house was where she met my father who had returned to live and work in Atlanta following his 3 years service in WWII. My parents dated a short period and were married in Atlanta. They lived in Atlanta for a brief period but my father took jobs that took them to Birmingham, AL and Greenville, SC for a few years. They moved back to Atlanta in the early 1950s and settled in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur. They bought a house on Mimosa Drive where they raised 4 children. The children all attended Winnona Park Elementary School and Decatur High School. My mother was a long time member of the First United Methodist Church of Decatur. For many, many years, my mother worked at the Court of Ordinary (now called the Probate Court) of DeKalb County in the 1960s where she worked for several different judges. After my father died, she went back to school and earned a college degree (English) from Georgia State University and then furthered her education by getting a law degree from Woodrow Wilson College of Law. She never practiced law but instead taught school in the Dekalb County School System. She joined the Daughters of the American Revolution using
Captain Moses Guest as her Revolutionary War ancestor and she was active in the Baron DeKalb section of the DAR (DeKalb County, GA). She attended at least one DAR National Convention. She was a member of the Decatur First Methodist Church for many years and attended almost every Sunday.
My mother was always active in local politics and the community. After her retirement, she volunteered at the DeKalb County women's shelter and Fernbank Museum. She was a member of Elder Hostel and she traveled to Europe and Asia. She also took numerous cruises.
Happy times 1946 - WWII was over and times were good in Atlanta. Photo taken at Piedmont Park. My parents are the two in the middle "cutting up". They did not marry until the next year. My mother's cousin Josephine Blair is on the far right. The other two ladies are Louise Martin and Ruth Crawley.
Blair sisters: Mary Blair, Martha Blair Hollis and Sarah Blair
Photo taken in late 1950s on front stoop of our family home on Mimosa Drive in Decatur, GA
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[1] It is not known if J.W. Harrison is related.
[2] General James Johnston Pettigrew is my 2md cousin, 5 times removed.
[3] Mary Blair's mother was a Morgan and Mary Blair's grand aunt (Sarah Morgan Boone) was the mother of Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone is my 1st cousin, 7 times removed. Daniel Boone's mother, Sarah Morgan Boone, is my 6th great-grandaunt. Daniel Boone's parents, Squire Boone and Sarah Morgan, are buried in Mocksville, NC. My family has been well-aware of our relationship to Daniel Boone for many, many years.
(This page was published on 5/9/2023; Updated on 8/10/2023)
