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- Dr. Alexander Blair1789 - 1830
Facts and Events
References
- Crumrine, Boyd; Franklin Ellis; and Austin N Hungerford. History of Washington County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Apollo, Pennsylvania: L. H. Everts & Co.; Closson Press, 1882; 1984)
Page 544.
Dr. Alexander Blair, a son of Dr. Isaiah Blair, was born in Carlisle, Pa., May 22, 1789. He moved with his father to this town, and entered Washington College, where he graduated in the first class in 1808. On receiving his diploma, Alexander returned to Carlisle, and entered upon the study of medicine with Dr. Samuel Allan McCoskey, who had been his father’s medical preceptor. After a preliminary course of reading he went to Philadelphia and attended lectures in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania for one term and part of a second. After this course of study he returned to Washington, and his advertisement in the Reporter of date March 9, 1812, says he had then opened an office and drug-store on the northeast corner of Market and Maiden Streets. Soon after this, upon the breaking out of the War of 1812, he applied for a military position and received a commission as surgeon’s mate in the regular army, dated July 6, 1812. He remained until the close of the war, having been promoted to surgeon in March, 1814. On the 21st of August, 1815, “Dr. Blair (late of the United States army) tenders his professional services to his friends and the public and has just opened a neat assortment of Drugs and Medicines opposite the Branch Bank on Main Street, Washington.”
At a meeting of the alumni of Washington College in 1856, one of the speakers said of him, “That distinguished anatomical teacher and operating surgeon, the late Prof. William E. Horner, who was associated with him in the army, never failed, when speaking of his youthful companion, to eulogize his professional character in the strongest terms. And if proof to the truthfulness of that eulogy be needed, it is found in the fact that Dr. Blair was one of twenty medical officers retained on ‘the military peace establishment’ of the United States in 1815. This offer, however, he declined, and settled in this place. Here he continued the practice of his profession until his death, May 26, 1830. Careless of reputation, he has left no written record of his surgical operations or medical experience; and now, twenty-six years afterwards, the slab in the old graveyard which tables his age and death tells all that is known of his history to the younger generations in this the scene of his life; but a few older citizens, while they faintly recall a defect of his character, vividly remember Alexander Blair, the kindly gentleman and skillful physician.”
- Alexander Blair, in Find A Grave.
Removed from Washington, PA, October 21, 1915.
Note: From Allegheny Cemetery Records
- Biographical Annals of Cumberland Page 205
William Blair, the grandfather of Andrew, was a trustee of the Carlisle Academy as early as 1781. He was also a trustee of the Associated Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, and with two others, in 1796, purchased from the Penns the ground upon which to erect that church, a stone structure which is still standing on South West street, for L6. Afterward this was long known as the “Seceder church.” This William Blair died at Carlisle on Dec. 7, 1802, at the age of seventy-three years, and is buried in the family plot in the “Old Graveyard,” sacred ground, given by the Penns to Carlisle for a place of burial. It is not known when his wife, Mary Cowen died. She may be buried by the side of her husband, but there is no tombstone indicating that she is. William Blair’s son, Dr. Issac Blair [ie. Dr. Isaiah Blair], was a member of the first class that graduated from Dickinson College. He located in Washington, Pa., where he practiced his profession until his death. His son, Dr. Alexander Blair, succeeded him.
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