• Introduction
• Biographical Sketches and Family Tree
• Collection Description
• Series Descriptions
• Box/Volume Listing

Introduction

Range of Collection Dates: 1863-1961
Range of Collection Bulk Dates: 1891-1910

Size: 12.5 linear feet (5 archival boxes, 3 record center cartons, and 5 oversize boxes)

Provenance: This collection was made a gift to the department by a relative of the Blair family.

Photocopying, literary rights, and citation: Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Associate University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright. Citations should be as follows: Blair Family Papers, Box #, Folder #, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Biographical Sketch

Only nine years after opening his first general store, JIB owned a chain of five stores and four flour mills in northern New Jersey. On 20 September 1828, JIB married Nancy Ann Locke, and together they had four children: Emma Elizabeth (later married to Charles Scribner, founder of the publishing house Charles Scribner's Sons), Marcus Laurence, DeWitt Clinton, and Aurelia Ann.
 

John Insley Blair

DeWitt Clinton Blair, late in life

C. Ledyard Blair, in his 30s

In 1833 JIB developed an interest in the mines of Oxford Furnace, and in 1846 helped found Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company. Soon after his interests turned to the enterprise that would eventually make his fortune: railroads. His first railroad was built in 1849 and ran from Owego to Ithaca, New York. The following year he built a line from Scranton to the Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. In 1852 JIB organized--and named--the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. He was its principal stockholder and maintained the position of director until his death.

In 1860 JIB was inspired by railroad development in the western United States, and within two years he founded, in collaboration with Oakes Ames, the Union Pacific Railroad beginning in Omaha, Nebraska. Eventually JIB's railroads were located throughout the west in Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Missouri, and Texas. He was concurrently the president of 16 railroads, as well as the largest private owner in the world of rail miles. JIB also owned vast quantities of western land abutting the railroad lines, along which he planted trees that both acted as a windbreak and provided lumber for ties. After his 85^th birthday, he cut back his travel to only 20,000 miles a year; previously he would annually traverse 40,000 miles.

JIB was a generous philanthropist who supported various institutions throughout his lifetime, principally the Presbyterian Church, of which he was a devout member. In 1848 he constructed a building for Blair Presbyterian Academy in Blairstown, since renamed Blair Academy. Later he continued donating land and buildings to the school, and endowed 15 free scholarships. JIB combined his religious beliefs with his western railroad development by building over 100 Presbyterian churches in the towns through which his rail lines passed. Other beneficiaries included Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania), Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa), and Princeton University (at the time know as Princeton College). In 1864 he endowed a geology professorship at Princeton, and served as a trustee for 13 years (1886-1899). He later gave funds to Princeton to construct the Blair Hall dormitory (1897). In his hometown of Blairstown, JIB built many buildings as well as its central infrastructure. It is estimated that in total he gave away $5,000,000.

On 2 December 1899, JIB died at home at the age of 97, owning assets worth $70,000,000.

JIB's younger son DeWitt Clinton continued his father's varied business interests and philanthropy. These included serving as a Princeton trustee (1900-1909, Princeton Class of 1856), expanding Blair Hall to its current proportions (1907), and expanding the campus and buildings of Blair Presbyterian Academy. On 21 April 1864, DCB married Mary Ann Kimball, with whom he had two sons, Clinton Ledyard and James Insley. DCB died on 12 February 1914; he was 80 years old.

JIB's grandson, DCB's son Clinton Ledyard, continued the family legacy by following his father to Princeton, graduating in 1890. But unlike his father and grandfather, CIB would later be denied election to Princeton's Board of Trustees as a result of a dispute over reforms proposed by Woodrow Wilson (1910). With his brother James Insley, CIB founded the investment banking firm Blair & Company (1 Wall St., New York, New York). CLB was also the governor of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the director of Lackawanna Steel, the Green Bay & Western Railroad, and other corporations. He married Florence Osborne Jennings, and together they had four daughters: Marjory Bruce, Florence Ledyard, Edith Dodd, and Marie Louise. In 1898, workers began construction on CLB's opulent 38-room, Louis XIII style mansion in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey. Blairsden, as he named the home, was finally finished in 1903 at a cost of $2 million. In February 1949, CLB died at the age of 82. The following year Blairsden and 50 acres of property were sold for $60,000 to the Sisters of St. John the Baptist. Recently, the estate was purchased by the non-profit organization Blairsden Association which is working to preserve the buildings and ground and eventually open them to the public.⁽¹⁾

Family Tree
                                                      James            +            Rachel
                                  I              Blair                            Insley
                                                  [1769-1816]                [1777-1857]
 

      Samuel         Mary        William       Robert        James      Catherine      David       Elizabeth    Jacob
II     Blair           Blair           Blair           Blair           Blair           Blair         Barclay         Blair       Miller
      [1797-       [1798-       [1800-       [1804-       [1807-       [1809-         Blair         [1814-      Blair
       1882]         1840]         1866]         1887]         1897]         1895         [1811-          (?)]       [1816-(?)]
                                                                                                                       1839]

                                                 John              +            Nancy
                                                 Insley                             Ann
                                                 Blair                            Locke
                                           [1802-1899]                [1804-1888]
 
 
 

 III         Charles           +            Emma        Marcus       Aurelia            +          Clarence
              Scribner                       Elizabeth    Lawrence        Ann                            Green
           [1821-1871]                       Blair           Blair           Blair                           Mitchell
                                                   [1827-       [1830-       [1838-                   [(1836)-1893]
                                                    1869]         1873]         1866]

                                                                          DeWitt            +             Mary
                                                                          Clinton                            Ann
                                                                            Blair                           Kimball
                                                                      [1833-1914]              [(1832)-(1911)]
 

                                             Florence          +            Clinton        James
                     IV                 Osborne                       Ledyard       Insley
                                             Jennings                          Blair           Blair
                                             [(?)-(?)]                      [1867-(?)]    [(?)-(?)]
 

                                  Marjory     Florence        Edith          Marie
           V                   Bruce       Ledyard       Dodd         Louise
                                     Blair           Blair           Blair           Blair
                                  [(1887)-      [1893-       [1896-      [(1887)-
                                      (?)]           1882]         1988]           (?)]
 

^{1.  This biographical sketch was written by consulting the following sources: Johnson, Allen, ed. Dictionary of American Biography, vol. II. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929; Leitch, Alexander. A Princeton Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978; Metzler, Jim. Burr and Metzler Family Genealogy. Online. Internet. December 2002. <http://www.gendex.com/users/metzler/index.html>; Stefano, Tom and Joe Stefano. The Lost Playground. December 2002. Online. Internet. January 2003. <http://www.lostplayground.com/blairsden_history.htm>; Warren County, New Jersey, students of. The Many Names of Blairstown. Online. Internet. January 2003. <http://www.nwr.k12.nj.us/wctechproject/Names_for_Blairstown.htm>.}

^{2.  This family tree was compiled in part with information from the following resource: Metzler, Jim. Burr and Metzler Family Genealogy. Online. Internet. December 2002. <http://www.gendex.com/users/metzler/index.html>.}

Collection Description

    Consists of travel diaries, scrapbooks, and photograph albums compiled by various members of the John Insley Blair family, as well as a small selection of correspondence of Clinton Ledyard Blair.

Arrangement

    The collection has been arranged in the following series:  I. Correspondence, II. Diaries, III. Scrapbooks, IV. Photograph Albums, V. Miscellaneous.

Added Entries

 The following added entries have been assigned to this collection to highlight significant sources (other than the main entry), subjects, and forms of the collection's materials. Where possible Library of Congress Subjects Headings have been used, and the forms of names reflect international cataloging standards. As a result, all of these entries may be searched in the Library's online catalog, the Department's database (MASC), and other bibliographic catalogs, to find related material.

    Person:

    Blair, Clinton Ledyard, 1867-1949
    Blair, DeWitt Clinton, 1833-1914

   Subject Headings (in uppercase) / Form Headings (in upper and lower case):

     Account books—New Jersey—19th century
     BLAIR FAMILY
     Diaries, American—19th century
     Diaries, American—20th century
     Photograph albums—19th century
     Photograph albums—20th century
     Princeton University—Alumni (Class of 1890)—Correspondence
     Princeton University—Students (Class of 1890)—Photographs
     Princeton University—Students (Class of 1890)—Scrapbooks
     Scrapbooks, American—19th century
     Scrapbooks, American—20th century
     WILSON, WOODROW, 1856-1924—VIEWS ON EDUCATION

Series Descriptions

Box/Volume Listing