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Blair
Contents
Francis Preston Blair and Eliza Violet Gist
Montgomery Blair and Minna Woodbury (still under construction)
Montgomery Blair II and Edith Draper
Introduction
The name Blair is rooted in the ancient Gaelic word, “Blar,” meaning, a plain, clear of woods, as an area the Celts would choose for battle. In Scotland, there are many place names, such as Blair Atholl, Blairgowrie, and Blairmore. Our first Scottish Blair ancestors would have taken the name of the place they had settled.
In the 17th century, after England took over Northern Ireland, Scottish Protestants were brought to settle in Ulster. The Blair family that came to Faggs Manor, in Londongrove, Pennsylvania came from Ulster.
The Blairs of Fagg’s Manor
About 1702, surveys were made to the west of Londongrove, Pennsylvania for Letitia Penn and her brother William Penn. There were 2 tracts, totaling almost 10,000 acres. Letitia's was called Fagg's Manor , in honor of Sir John Fagg. The Manor land was resurveyed in 1737, and divided into tracts. Much of this region was settled by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.Our branch of the Blair family is descended from John Blair, born 1720 in Ulster, Ireland. About 1725/6, he came to Cumberland County, Pennsylvania with his father ( William??), brother Samuel, and Dr. William Tennant, a Presbyterian evangelist pastor, who founded “Log College.” John and Samuel were both educated by Rev. Dr. Tennant.
Log CollegeJohn was also an evangelical preacher. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery in Newcastle, and was ordained pastor of three churches: Middle Spring, Rocky Spring and Big Spring, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania . He visited Virginia twice and organized several frontier congregations before 1746. Due to Native American incursions, he abandoned them. In 1757, his brother Samuel died, and John took over as the pastor and head of the seminary at Fagg’s Manor.
John was married to Susan Durbarrow and had four children:
- William Lawrence went to Kentucky;
- John Durbarrow was born October 15, 1759 and died in January 1823;
- James was born December 22, 1762, and died January 7, 1837. He married Elizabeth Smith on January 2, 1789; and
- Rebecca married 1 Rev. William Linn, and 2 Robert Smith of Pequea.
In 1767, Rev. Blair became a professor of divinity and vice-president of Princeton College. He also acted as president until the arrival from Scotland of Dr. Witherspoon, who was elected to that position. I n 1769, he resigned from Princeton and retired to Walkill, New York. John Blair died on December 8, 1771.
Blair Hall, Princeton UniversityJames Blair , born December 22, 1762, was educated in law at Princeton College. He moved to Virginia where he practiced law and was elected to the state legislative assembly. He married, on January 2, 1789, Elizabeth Smith, born in Virginia on October 16, 1762, daughter of Colonel Francis Smith and Anne Preston.
When Elizabeth’s parents moved to Kentucky, James and Elizabeth soon followed, with their eight children:
- John Smith , born November 12, 1789, died August 1790l;
- Francis Preston, born April 12, 1791, died October 18, 1876, married Eliza Violet Gist, July 21, 1812;
- Samuel Durbarrow , born January 6, 1794, died 1795;
- William Preston , born February 18, 1796, died August 3, 1828, married Hannah Craig, April 13, 1819;
- Susanna Trigg , born June 9, 1798, married 1 Abram Ward, 2 Hohn Hunnicut, 3 Jeb Stevenson;
- Louis Marshall, born July 28, 1801, died September 2, 1805; and
- Eliza Jane, born March 15, 1804, died August 9, 1859, married June 15, 1830, Nathan Speer.
In 1796, James became Attorney General of Kentucky. With his partner, Harry Toulmin, he revised and published a compilation of the laws of Kentucky. He was an elder in his church, and a trustee at the Transylvania Seminary of higher learning.
Although he amassed debts and was sued often to force payment, he kept his family well, and had a large circle of friends.
He was immensely proud of his son Francis Preston Blair, who had gone to Washington in 1830 and made a success of himself in Andrew Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet and as editor of the Globe.
In 1835, a leg was amputated, and his son Francis provided him with a high-quality cork leg.
James Blair died on January 7, 1837.
Sources:
- Futhey and Cope's THE HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY (1881)
- Appletons Encyclopedia , Copyright © 2001 Virtualology
- Francis Preston Blair , by Elbert B. Smith,The Free Press, a division of MacMillan Books, 1980
- Blair Geneology Charts, compiled by LDS researcher and Blair descendant, Elizabeth Blair Douglas
- Presbyterian Church in theUS, by Alfred Nevin
The Blairs of Silver Spring
Francis Preston Blair by Thomas SullyFrancis Preston Blair was born in Avington, Virginia on April 12, 1791. His family moved to Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky in the early 1790s. He had blue eyes and grew to average height, with a gangly frame. He appeared unhealthy, but enjoyed the outdoors, hunting and farming. Although he was unattractive physically, he had a warm, compassionate nature, and many friends. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat, strongly partisan in his opinions and judgments. He was well educated at home with a large library of history and classic literature. He went to Lexington, Kentucky to attend Transylvania University, where he studied moral philosophy, logic, criticism and law. In 1811, he graduated with honors, with plans to be a lawyer.
Eliza Violet Gist BlairHe courted both Eliza Violet Gist, 18, and her younger sister Maria, 15, stepdaughters of the governor of Kentucky. On July 21, 1812, he married Eliza Violet.
Shortly after his marriage in 1812, Francis Blair joined the military, but was sent home from Vincennes, Indiana, deathly ill with hemorrhaging lungs. Due to his health, he had to change his career plans, as law required oratory, and his lungs could not stand for that. He thus became a circuit court judge, and also engaged in real estate speculation, buying and selling property. He settled his family at a farm of 130 acres on Benson’s Creek.
Francis Preston Blair and Eliza Violet Gist had seven children:
- Montgomery, born May 10, 1813, died July 27, 1883, married 1Caroline Buckner, 2Elizabeth Woodbury;
- Juliet (1814-1816);
- Laura (1816-1819);
- Elizabeth, born June 20, 1818, died September 13, 1906, married Samuel Phillips Lee. She was frail but resilient, well educated in politics and music, and a dutiful daughter and active in worldly affairs. She was director of the Washington Orphanage Asylum, her father’s secretary. The Lee family of Silver Spring are her descendants
- James, born October 7, 1819. He married Mary Serena Eliza Jessup. He died in California of a ruptured aorta on December 15, 1853.
- Francis Preston Blair, Jr., born February 19, 1821, was a wild youth, who managed to graduate from Princeton after being kicked out of two other colleges. He served in both the Civil and Mexican Wars, was attorney General of New Mexico and then practiced law in Missouri. He later became a Representative and a Senator from his state of Missouri. He was married to Appoline Alexander and died July 9, 1875.
In 1824, Francis began writing editorials for the Argus, (a newspaper published in Frankfort, Kentucky by Amos Kendall) regarding perceived corruption of the Bank of the United States. The Argus got behind Andrew Jackson, who was for States’ rights, and against the Bank of the United States.
In November, 1830, Francis Blair came to Washington, DC to be editor of Andrew Jackson’s paper, the Globe. He brought with him his wife Eliza and daughter Elizabeth. His sons Montgomery, James and Francis Jr. stayed behind with Eliza’s sister Maria Gratz in Lexington, Kentucky.
For their first two years in Washington, the Blairs resided in boarding houses and hotels. On December 6, 1836, they purchased Blair House, the townhouse on Lafayette Square, across from the White House.
One sunny day in 1842, Franklin Blair was riding in the woods. According to legend, Blair was thrown from his horse Selim, who ran off. The bridle landed in a thicket of bushes, where nearby, was a bubbling spring that sparkled with mica glinting from the sun. He was so enchanted with this place that he bought up the property of several hundred acres, for his summer home, named Silver Spring, for the sparkling water.
The house was completed in 1845. There was a large two-story gray house, winding paths through woods and fields, and an acorn-shaped gazebo at the spring, which had a marble statue of a nymph. There was a concrete bathhouse, which was supplied with cold running spring water, as well as a water wheel to operate machinery for grinding grains, washing clothes and churning butter. The farm had pigs, cattle, horses, mules, corn, wheat, sugar cane and fruit trees. He also had several slaves, including one house servant. They were treated honorably and allowed some independence.
Silver SpringSilver Spring was a visiting place of the powerful political elite who Blair had cultivated in his years as editor of the Washington Globe.
Originally, the Globe was to be a political paper, expressing the views of Andrew Jackson, but expanded to be the voice of the Democratic Party, and continued after Jackson’s presidency. It included human interest stories and special features, some of which were written by his wife, Eliza. Besides a large subscribership, it took profit from advertisers. Due to differences within the Party, Blair retired from the Globe on April 14, 1845.
He partnered with his trusted friend John Rives, who had handled his family’s finances for years, to erect a three-story granite and brick building, Jackson Hall. The basement was fitted for a restaurant; the second story was for shops; and the third story was to be used for the Democratic Party. Behind Jackson Hall, they built a large three-story printing office, fitted with machinery. In 1855, the partnership was dissolved, when Rives bought out Blair (a friendly takeover) for $100,000. Blair also raised money and engaged the sculptor, Clark Mills, to build the equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson which stands at Lafayette Square between Blair House and the White House.
Blair remained active behind the scenes in politics as an advisor, and influenced the careers of his sons Montgomery and Frank. They favored the emancipation of slaves and their colonization on island territories (Today, this view would be considered horribly racist and segregationist).
In 1855, amongst northern industrialists, abolitionists and non-slave-holding southerners, he became disillusioned with the Democratic Party and joined the newly-formed Republican Party. Those who remained Democrats were either favored slavery sympathizers or were concerned that abolition of slavery would provoke a secession of the South from the Union.
At the Chicago convention, Abraham Lincoln was chosen as their Presidential candidate. Lincoln won the Presidency and selected Montgomery Blair to be Postmaster General, member of his cabinet, and personal advisor. On March 1, 1861, the new administration took office.
The Blairs gradually freed their slaves, most of them choosing to remain as servants. Slavery was abolished in Washington; many slave owners went south to sell them off.
In 1862, Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slavery abolished in the rebelling states that had seceded from the Union.
In July, 1864, the Blairs left town upon learning that General Jubal Early’s rebel troops were approaching Silver Spring. Railroads, businesses, and homes were vandalized, looted, pillaged and burned. The troops encamped upon Silver Spring Mansion, and looted the wine cellar. Drunken soldiers ransacked the house, strewing papers and women’s clothing in their wake. Montgomery’s home, Falkland, was burned down.
Falkland in RuinsThe next morning, they were unable to attack Washington, as was planned, due to their revelry the night before. Union Army reinforcements arrived and they battled it out at Fort Stevens. Jubal Early and his troops left the next day.
In January 1865, F.P. Blair went to Richmond to talk with Jefferson Davis about an end to the war. Blair felt much sympathy towards the South, having been born a Southerner, and and quickly established rapport with Davis on these grounds and was well received. Davis was convinced that he should accept the conditions. In return, Blair would do whatever he could to secure clemency for Southern prisoners of war that were being held in horrific conditions.
After Blair's return, Lincoln sent his Secretary of State, William Seward, to deliver his ultimatum: that peace would be restored when the South rejoined the United States; abolished slavery; and disbanded their rebel forces. The talks deadlocked on the condition that they should give up their sovereignty. It wasn't until April 9, when General Lee surrendered, that the war was officially over.
On the evening of April 15, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theater. Upon receipt of the news, F.P. Blair and his daughter Lizzie went to the White House to grieve with the widow, Mary Lincoln.
Although the country was in a state of mourning over the loss of the President, the war had ended and there was celebrating to do.
On May 10, his son, General Frank Blair, Jr. came to visit bringing gifts for his family. A dinner party was arranged for him, attended by other generals and politicians.
On June 1, Francis P. and Eliza held a a large outdoor celebration for all the neighbors at Silver Spring. There was food, games, merriment and dancing in celebration of the end of war.
Francis P. & Eliza Blair at the end of the Civil War.
Photo taken in their home at Silver SpringOn July 9, 1875, his son Frank died from a fall, not long after suffering a series of strokes. The parents were both devastated by the loss. Franklin P. Blair's health declined gradually and he died on October 19, 1876. Eliza followed him on July 5, 1877.
Salvaged piece of Silver Spring house mantlepiece before restoration
Montgomery Blair was born in Franklin County, Kentucky on May 10, 1813, the eldest son of Francis Preston Blair and Eliza Violet Gist.
In 1830, his parents and sister Elizabeth went to Washington, DC. He stayed behind with his two brothers James and Frank in the Lexington, Kentucky home of Benjamin Gratz and Maria Gist Gratz (his mother’s sister). Montgomery began college at Transylvania University in Lexington, which he enjoyed, but in 1831, he was impelled by his father to transfer to West Point Academy, which he hated, not being suited for a military career. He graduated West Point in 1836, with honors. Before he had a chance to resign his military commission, the Seminole Indian War broke out and he went, honor bound, to fight in the Everglades of Florida.
Montgomery was by disposition, a self-righteous puritan, and his outspokenness often rubbed people the wrong way. He was compassionate and dutiful with those he cared for, and looked after his siblings.
He was first married to Caroline Buckner, the daughter of a wealthy planter. She bore him three daughters:
- Lucy, born April 16, 1839, died the next year on August 12, 1840.
- Elizabeth (“ Betty”), born April 25, 1841, who married General Comstock.
- Caroline died the day she was born on January 11, 1844.
The mother died in childbirth.
Montgomery began his law career under Thomas Hart Benton in St. Louis, Missouri. After the death of his wife and baby, he took on an appointment in St. Louis as judge in the court of common pleas.
In 1846, on a visit to his parents, he met the daughter of the former Treasury Secretary, Levi Woodbury, Elizabeth. Montgomery and Elizabeth (“Minna”) were married at her home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on July 6, 1846.
Montgomery’s only surviving child by his first wife, Betty, was adopted by the grandparents, Francis Preston and Eliza Gist Blair.
Montgomery and Minna Blair had five children:
- Minna, was born May 28, 1850 and died September 12, 1919. She married Stephen O. Richey. Minna was considered quite a beauty and a noteworthy belle of Washington, D.C. society.
- Woodbury* was born September 1, 1852. He married Emily Neville Wallach.
- Montgomery II was born March 14, 1855. He married Edith Draper.
- Maria was born May 12, 1854 and died September 11, 1862, age eight.
- Gist was born September 10, 1860. He married Laura Lawson Ellis.
*The Blair-Montgomery Clift connection
Frank, after graduating from Princeton, studied law at Transylvania University and went to St. Louis to set up a practice, as did Montgomery. When the Mexican War erupted, Frank went to New Mexico and was appointed attorney general. He prosecuted several Mexican resistance leaders. At this time, he was engaged to Appoline “ Apo” Alexander of Kentucky. They married in 1847, lived in St. Louis, and eight children:
- Andrew Alexander, born September 20, 1848, died 1932, married Anna S. Biddle.
- Christine Biddle, born April 5, 1852 married B.B. Graham.
- James Lawrence, born April 2, 1854, died January 16, 1904.
- Francis Preston, born October 18, 1856, married Florence Price.
- George Madison, born April 18, 1860.
- Cary Montgomery, born March 3, 1868.
- Caroline Martin born August 22, 1870, died 1876.
- William Alexander, born June 8, 1872.
In 1856, Frank Blair was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat. His first act of Congress was to request that a committee be appointed to examine the feasibility of colonizing acquired territory in Central and South America with freed slaves.
On November 24, 1851, Montgomery, Minna Blair, and their baby, Minna came to Washington DC to live at Blair House. Silver Spring became the year-round home of Montgomery’s parents. Montgomery wanted to explore career opportunities and be closer to his aging parents.
Meanwhile, his sister “ Lizzie” was carrying on a romance with Samuel Phillips Lee, against the consent of her father and himself. The couple was married on April 27, 1843. Soon after, they had an adjoining house built next door to the Blair House. She and Lee had one child:
- Francis Preston Blair Lee, born August 7, 1857.
His brother James, who returned in 1841 from a three-year South Seas expedition as a Navy midshipman, which included an exploration of Antarctica. His career led him on many travels and romances. He was married in 1846 to Mary Jessup, a match approved by the family. His parents had a cottage built on the Silver Spring estate for them called, “The Moorings.” James and Mary had four children:
- Ann Jessup, born December 10, 1846, died March 18, 1847.
- Violet, born August 1848, married Albert Janin. (Violet owned 1/3 of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the most extensive cave system in the world. She named passages after family members).
- Jessup, born February 1852, died April 1, 1902.
- Lucy, born December 26, 1853, died February 4, 1902, married Captain George M. Wheeler.
In 1849, James left the Navy and went to San Francisco where he established a shipping business with his father’s money. He made a large profit, but it was difficult being away from his wife and family. In 1853, he died of a ruptured aorta.
Montgomery sailed to California to settle his brother’s estate, and returned with his body and possessions. Mary Jessup spent the remainder of her life at “The Moorings.”
In 1856, Montgomery Blair served pro bono as defending attorney for Dred Scott, a Missouri slave whose suit for freedom had gotten tied up in the Missouri Supreme Court. The case was brought before the U.S. Supreme court. There was much controversy surrounding the case, which Montgomery addressed skillfully. The high court voted against him, however, citing that Scott was not a citizen and therefore could not sue. This became an issue that tore apart the Democratic Party, causing many non-slaveholders and abolitionists to join the mostly-northern industrialist Republicans. Montgomery Blair was also urged to defend John Brown, who had attempted to raise a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Montgomery sent another attorney, Samuel Clinton, in his stead.
Montgomery became a Republican, which was, at the time, the Party of industrialists, abolitionists and non-slave-holding southerners. In 1860, he was president of the Republican state convention, held in Baltimore, where emancipation and colonization resolutions were raised. They went on to the Chicago convention, where Abraham Lincoln was chosen as their Presidential candidate. Lincoln won the Presidency and selected Montgomery Blair to be Postmaster General, member of his cabinet, and personal advisor. On March 1, 1861, the new administration took office.
On May 31, 1861, Montgomery suspended the mail system to states that seceded from the Union and closed accounts of seceded postmasters. All remaining postmasters had to take an oath of loyalty to the Union. Montgomery had also made many wise economic changes to the mail, such as closing inefficient post offices, reviewing contracts to ensure that they were given to the lowest bidder, and putting postmasters on fixed salaries. By 1863, he had reduced the deficit from $5,656,705 to $120,000. In 1865, he was working with a surplus of $161.000. He expanded services, as well. For example, the money order system was established to ensure safe means for payments by mail; the registered mail system was improved; and international mail exchange was established with 15 other countries.
In July, 1864, the Blair families left town upon learning that General Jubal Early’s rebel troops were approaching Silver Spring. The troops encamped upon Silver Spring Mansion, got into the wine cellar and had a drunken party, ransacked the women’s clothes, important papers and other valuables. Montgomery’s home, Falkland, then valued at $20,000, was burnt to the ground.
Montgomery Blair, by his nature being self righteous and intolerant of opposition, made himself increasingly disliked in the Lincoln administration. Lincoln was concerned about his chances in the upcoming elections, as well, and had been advised that Montgomery Blair’s unpopularity could lose him the election.
After the Republican convention, Blair, in a letter to the President, offered to resign, but Lincoln turned him down, despite pressure from the anti-Blair faction.
The last straw was when Blair made a reference to the “poltroons and cowards” in the War Department, to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and General Henry Halleck. They went to the President angrily urging Montgomery Blair’s dismissal.
President Lincoln was hesitant to take such drastic action against such a loyal friend, but having been assured by Blair that if such a time came that his resignation “could be a relief” to him, decided to accept his offer. On September 23, 1864, Montgomery resigned from his office.
During the Civil War, Montgomery’s wife Minna and spent much time in Philadelphia and New Hampshire with the children. In 1862, they were in Philadelphia to avoid General Lee’s Maryland invasion. Their daughter Maria died there in September, that year.
(to be continued)
Montgomery Blair I died July 27, 1883
Mausoleum at Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, DCSources:
Francis Preston Blair, Elbert Smith, 1980, Free Press, MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc.
Montgomery Blair II and Edith Draper
Montgomery Blair IIMontgomery Blair II was a lawyer and a host of reknown. He was also a gentleman farmer, who kept horses, cows, pigs and turkeys on his farm at Falkland (which had been burned down in the Civil War, and rebuilt) in Silver Spring.
He was charming and witty, and liked to cook and entertain guests. A favorite recipe was duck with red currant sauce. He collected toasts for dinner parties, including our old family favorite:
The host should then stand up and say:"Here's to us, few like us, none better, and many a damned sight worse. Here's to our gracious host - we praise his many virtues.""You do me but simple justice."
Edith DraperHis wife, Edith was the daughter of the Ambassador to Italy, General William Franklin Draper. The property was previously owned by Montgomery's father, Montgomery Blair I, Postmaster General for Abraham Lincoln.
Edith founded the Potomac School in 1904 "for boys and girls between the ages of four and twelve" (kindergarten through sixth grade). The School opened on Dupont Circle with 48 students in kindergarten through third grade. It was intended to be co-ed throughout, but, in practice, boys left after third or fourth grade. Tuition was $80 for kindergarten and $150 for the other grades. Lunch was an additional $6.00 a year.
Source:
The Potomac School
1301 Potomac School Road, McLean, VA 22101
http://www.potomacschool.org/about_potomac/hist_1904.asp
Edith Draper and Montgomery Blair II had seven children: Edith, Minna, Montgomery (“ Monty”), Virginia, William, Ellen, and Woodbury (“Woody”).
Montgomery Blair II with daughters Edith, Virginia and Minna
Montgomery III, Violet, Edith, and MinnaThe Blairs later moved to an apartment in Washington, D.C. on 16th Street, downtown. The building had a courtyard, so the apartment had windows on both sides.
Falkland became a run-down boarding house for women.
The fire department eventually burned it down, and Edith Draper Blair oversaw the creation of Falkland Garden Apartments.
Later in life, Montgomery became an invalid from high blood pressure and strokes.
They moved to a large rented home in Bedford, New York and had a summer house in East Hampton where all of their children and grandchildren visited them there. Their grandaughter, Edith Draper Hollyday remembers her summers there and getting to know her cousins, aunts and uncles. With no TV, they had music, games and play-acting. Her grandmother Edith served them Lapsang Souchong tea, played piano and sang with them. She also read 19th century popular novels to them, such as "Oliver Twist" and "David Copperfield."
Edith D. Blair developed heart problems. She died of a stroke. Her husband survived her for many years, completely bed-ridden and comatose. Their daughter Minna Blair and her husband Richard Carmichael Hollyday purchased the Bedford house after Edith D. Blair's death, and lived there for many years.
Minna Blair and Richard Carmichael Hollyday
According to her passport, Minna was born November 23, 1898.
According to correspondence from my uncle Richard C. Hollyday IV (Minna’s son), Minna was a shy child, but well loved. As a young girl, she had typhoid fever. As a teen, she attended Westover School in Middlebury Connecticut, where she excelled at basketball and tennis. At 5’6 ½,” with dark brown hair and hazel eyes, she was attractive and lively and had many beaux. She was popular and enjoyed parties. During World War I, she was a nurse who saved lives during the great flu epidemic of 1918.
She married Richard “Dick” Carmichael Hollyday III on October 16, 1920. He was from a well established Maryland family from Easton, a civil engineer who served in the Navy during World Wars I and II. He joined a real estate firm and became chairman of Culver, Hollyday (aka Hollyday & Ives) in New York City. Soon after their marriage, they moved into an apartment in the city.
Minna Blair HollydayMinna and Dick Hollyday had four children: Edith Draper (1924), Blair (1925) Richard C. Hollyday IV (1927), and James (1929).
Minna Blair Hollyday with daughters Edith and BlairWhen their children were small, Minna and Dick rented houses in East Hampton, Long Island during the summer to escape the heat in New York City. Eventually they moved their family to Bedford Hills, New York, a year round residence. Dick commuted by train into the city. They had servants to mind the house and children, so Minna became active in town affairs. She became president of the Bedford Hills Community Center and volunteered at the Bedford women’s prison, teaching gardening to the inmates.
Bedford HouseMy sisters and I fondly remember visiting our grandparents in their huge Bedford house. Minna had lovely gifts waiting in our guest rooms. I loved to explore there, especially in the attic where they kept boxes and boxes of dusty treasures. There was an extensive garden that smelled of petunias, a small wooded area, and a swimming pool with frogs that sang at night.
RCH IV remembers his mother had a strong sense of morals and personal responsibility, and was devoted to her family. She was charming and funny, and could laugh at her own expense. She enjoyed books, poetry and classical music. She loved to read aloud to the children. She had many friends and still loved to attend parties.
After their children were grown, Minna and Dick Hollyday vacationed for several years in March in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, before buying their house in Sarasota, Florida. They visited friends in Baddeck, Nova Scotia each summer and after a few years purchased property there and built a summer house and a cabin which was enjoyed by their family for many years thereafter.
RC Hollyday III & Minna in BaddeckIn the evening before dinner time, we would all meet for cocktails. The children were served ginger ale. Dinner was very proper with such rules as no elbows on the table, break your bread and use the butter knife. After dinner, there would be parlor games from which we had no escape, such as Charades and Animal, Vegetable or Mineral.
Frequently my grandparents entertained their friends with cocktail or dinner parties. The young people were expected to pass the hors d'euves.
In her later years, Minna's health deteriorated, due to a bad heart. She bore it bravely, but could no longer manage living in the huge Bedford house, so they moved to a ranch house with a private beach in Sarasota, Florida. She died of a stroke on April 30, 1976.
Richard Carmichael Hollyday III died on January 28, 1986 of colon cancer.
Edith Blair Staton, a famous centenarian of Massachusetts, was born September 6, 1896 at the Blair House in Washington, DC, across from the White House. She was the eldest daughter of Edith Draper and Montgomery Blair II’s seven children. She was among the first to graduate from Potomac School of which her mother was a co-founder.
In 1917, she married Adolphus “Dolf” Staton, a Navy rear admiral and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross. After his service, he was vice president of Falkland Real Estate.
They lived in a large brown house on Bradley Boulevard, Chevy Chase. In 1928, they had a daughter, Lucy, who married Bernard McCabe.
Mrs. Staton was always very involved in worthy causes. In World War I, she was a hospital volunteer. In the 1920s, she was chairwoman of the Girl Scout committee that created the official Brownies, which had began as a grass-roots program in the 1910s. She became national director of the Girl Scouts of America and had met several U.S. Presidents and First Ladies in that capacity. Among her other charitable works was the generous donation of Thomas Sully portraits to government agencies; and counseling pregnant teens in the 1950s to 1960s.
Dolf died in 1964. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Then, when her daughter, Lucy became ill with cancer, Edith moved to Cambridge, Boston to help care for her nine grandchildren. Lucy died in 1973. Edith stayed in Boston, remaining active in her church and volunteer work. At age 97, she was named as a consultant to a new church committee for curing racial bias.
At a celebration of her 100th birthday, she told a local paper, “A lot of us at 90-odd moan and groan about all the things we can't do but the answer is to stop thinking about ourselves and think what we can do for other people.”
She told schoolchildren that she attributed her longevity to taking plenty of exercise and not eating candy between meals.
Mrs. Staton died of a kidney ailment on June 30, 2001 at the age of 104. She was buried beside her husband at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sources:
- Prominent Civilians Buried In Arlington National Cemetery: www.arlingtoncemetery.net/civilia.htm
- Boston Medical Center : The New Centenarian Study: www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/Content. aspx?DepartmentID=361&PageID=5905
- “Fighting Racism at 100,” by Michael Henderson, For a Change magazine, December/January 1997: http://www.michaelhenderson.org.uk/articles/dec96.htm
- Obituary, The Washington Post, July 4, 2001.
Montgomery Blair III, born November 9, 1898, was a pediatrician. A wing of Children’s Hospital, The Montgomery Blair, Jr Research Center, in Washington, DC was dedicated to him. He was married to Virginia Mason (1905-1986) on February 9, 1929. They had four daughters: Virginia Beatrice (1929), Judith Cary (1931) Elizabeth Woodbury (1937) and Edith Draper (1940). Dr. Blair died on November 28, 1974.
Virginia Lafayette Woodbury Blair was born December 21, 1899. She married Robert Clymer Brooke (1898-1992) on December 12, 1925. They had two children: Virginia Blair (1927) and Robert Edward (1929). Mrs. Brooke died on August 27, 1986.
William Draper Blair was born December 13, 1902. A Princeton graduate, he worked in his family’s real estate business in the 1930s, directing the development of the Falkland Garden Apartments in Silver Spring, MD. He and his wife Mary-Eula Mason had a son, William Draper Blair, Jr.
He attained the rank of major in the Army Air Forces, serving in the Pacific in World War II. In 1946, he was a founder of the Bank of Silver Spring, acting as vice president and cashier before becoming president in 1954. In 1958, he stepped down and served as a chairman of the executive committee before retiring. He was a member of the Chevy Chase Club and the Metropolitan Club. Mr. Blair died on October 26, 1994.
Source:
photocopied obituary - probable source, The Washington Post, date unknownEllen de Quincy Blair, born May 23, 1905, married Benjamin Lowndes Jackson (1900-1984) on December 12, 1925. They had two children: Benjamin Lowndes III (1927) and Ellen (1928). Mrs. Jackson died on August 27, 1966.
Charles Woodbury Blair, was born on May 14, 1913. He married Rosalind Mellor (1913-1988) on May 14, 1934. They had one child: Charles Woodbury, Jr (1935). Woodbury died on July 3, 1954.
Geneological source:
charts prepared by Elizabeth Woodbury Blair Tveter, LDS genealogist and Blair descendant (daughter of Montgomery Blair III).Blair Family Papers at the Library of Congress
Silver Spring Historical Society
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Rikki Condon, my sister, who works with the Blair Papers at the Library of Congress. Thanks to our dear Uncle Dick (rest in peace) for generously sharing his Blair papers and photos. Thanks also to Jane Hollyday and cousin Tom, for allowing continued access to photos, letters and papers in their possession, and Cousin Dicker and wife Janet for their hospitality. Thanks to Uncle Jim and wife Carol for the shots of "Old Hickory's cane." Thanks to Elizabeth Blair Tveter for sharing her geneological research. Thanks to my recently departed mother, Edith Draper Hollyday for her memories. Special thanks to Lizzie Horton for inspiring me to finish this long-procrastinated web page. It is still under construction.To hear of updates or to offer constructive comments and fan mail, e-mail me at katharinemoore@opexonline.com
© research and graphic design by Katharine Moore, 2006