Judge John Pringle Blair and Elizabeth Sutton

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Husband Judge John Pringle Blair ^{1 2 3}

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           Born: 28 Mar 1833 or 1835 - Indiana, Indiana Co, PA 1 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 19 Jan 1913 2 4
         Buried: 

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         Father: Rev. David Blair (1786-1882) 1 2 3 5
         Mother: Margaret Steel (Abt 1801-1865) 5 6

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       Marriage: 14 Feb 1866 2 4

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Wife Elizabeth Sutton ^{2 3 4}

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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         Father: James Sutton (      -Bef 1880) 2 4 7 8
         Mother: Sarah C. Stansberry (      -      ) 7

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Children

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1 F Margaret Steele Blair ^{2 4 8}

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           Born: 28 Mar 1868 8
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Samuel Robert Shumaker (1859-1914) 8
           Marr: 18 Mar 1890 8

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2 M James Sutton Blair ^{2 3 4}

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           Born: 6 Mar 1870 - Indiana, Indiana Co, PA 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Caroline Rowland "Carrie" Hall (      -      ) 8 9
           Marr: 27 Oct 1897 - Indiana, Indiana Co, PA 8

         Spouse: Lena Custis Watkins (      -      ) 10
           Marr: 8 Nov 1930 - Washington, D. C. 10

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3 M David Blair ^{2 4 8}

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           Born: 25 Apr 1872 - Indiana Co, PA 2 8
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Helen Torrance (      -      ) 8
           Marr: 18 Sep 1901 8 11

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General Notes: Husband - Judge John Pringle Blair

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He was reared at Indiana, Pennsylvania, and after completing his academic studies entered Washington College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1852. In 1853 he entered the law office of his eldest brother, Hon. Samuel S. Blair, of Hollidaysburg, and after the required course of reading was admitted to the bar in 1856. During the ensuing year he located at New Castle, Lawrence County, where he practiced until 1859. when he was elected district attorney of that county. He resigned when the Civil war broke out and enlisted in Company F, 12th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. At the end of his three months' term of service he reenlisted, and was elected first lieutenant of Company I, 100th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. He held this position until after the battles of second Bull Run, Chantilly and Antietam, when the company, whose ranks had been greatly thinned by the battles through which it had passed, was consolidated with Company G, and he was commissioned captain of the new-formed company, which was designated as Company G. When Hilton Head and Beaufort were captured, in the autumn of 1861, he was detailed from his company to act as provost marshal and judge advocate general of the Port Royal district, which position he held until his brigade was sent north to join McClellan on the Peninsula. He was twice wounded. At the first assault of the enemy's earthworks in the rear of Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, a grape-shot struck his sword and inflicted a wound in his side, and at the second Bull Run battle, where his company suffered severe loss, he received a painful gun-shot wound. After passing through the campaign against Vicksburg, under Grant, and the campaign in east Tennessee, under Burnside, he suffered from a fever, the seeds of which were sown at Vicksburg, and which clung to him so tenaciously as to eventually disable him for further service, and he was honorably discharged May 31, 1864. Soon afterward and before his own recovery his mother died, leaving his father alone-the other children being married and residing elsewhere, and at the request of his father he left New Castle and commenced the practice of his profession at Indiana, when his health was sufficiently restored, in the autumn of 1865. He was soon employed in important cases and in a short time attained a high standing at the bar. He tried his cases upon their merits, became an impressive, earnest and successful jury pleader and developed those qualities so essential to a calm, unbiased and unimpassioned consideration of legal matters. His ability, learning and thorough knowledge of the law recommended him to the public as capable of filling the highest judicial position within the gift of the people of Indiana County, and in 1874 he was elected president judge of the Fortieth Judicial district of Pennsylvania, composed of the county of Indiana. When Judge Blair took his seat on the bench he found the business of the district many years behind, owing to the fact that the county had previous to his election been included, with Armstrong and Westmoreland counties, in the Tenth Judicial district of Pennsylvania, and its judge had found it impossible to keep up the business of three counties. Judge Blair entered upon the ditties of his office with the purpose and ambition of disposing of this accumulated mass of business, still further increased by the financial disturbances commencing in the autumn of 1873, with such rapidity as would be consistent with care and accuracy, and would leave the dockets entirely clear at the end of his term. It was no ordinary task, but a labor of gigantic proportions, yet he succeeded in its accomplishment and left a clean docket to his successor in office at the end of his ten-year term. He decided causes upon their merits alone after such careful and thorough examination of every authority bearing upon them as the circumstances would allow, and by his entire impartiality and able decisions won the esteem of the public and attained high standing as a judge before the Supreme court. The records of his district will show that, notwithstanding the number of jury cases tried by him, he had the rare distinction of never being reversed in any of them. At the end of his term, in 1885, he resumed the practice of law in Indiana, which he continued successfully, his work extending into various other counties and before the Supreme court of Pennsylvania. Judge Blair was a regular attendant of the Presbyterian Church and a member of the Union Veteran Legion. He was a stockholder, and director and solicitor and president, of the First National Bank of Indiana. He had one of the finest residences and most beautiful homes in Indiana County.
In politics Judge Blair ever steadfastly held to the principles of the Republican party. Before public bodies or in large assemblages and important gatherings he was a strong and impressive speaker, clothing logical arguments in appropriate and eloquent language. [HIC 1913, 679]

1 J. T. Stewart, Indiana County, Pennsylvania - Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1913), Pg 679.

2 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (NW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 143.

3 Lewis Clark Walkinshaw, A.M, Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. IV (New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1939), Pg 420.

4 J. T. Stewart, Indiana County, Pennsylvania - Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1913), Pg 680.

5 J. Simpson Africa, The History of Blair County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1883), Pg 82.

6 J. Simpson Africa, The History of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1883), Pg 439.

7 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 344.

8 Lewis Clark Walkinshaw, A.M, Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. IV (New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1939), Pg 421.

9 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 199.

10 Lewis Clark Walkinshaw, A.M, Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. IV (New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1939), Pg 422.

11 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (NW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 144.