Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-01-25
JOHN 7. BLAIR.

selling their skins at ST. for To- Be
fore he was IL years old he was a clerk
in the general store of his brother, at
Hope, N. j. At II he owned store OF
his own. He became postmaster at
Butts Bridge. He started two of his
brothers in business and they, too,
prospered. AT one time he had five
general stores in as many towns. He
established the Belvidere Bank in 1881.
A cotton mill fell into his hands and
he operated it for several years. He
bought a cargo of cotton which was
supposed to be damaged, but which
was injured very little, and in one year
made Sis, 000-an enormous profit in
those days. He had also four Touring
mills in operation at one time in War
rem county. He accumulated real
estate in large quantities through
trade, and came to be a wholesale
merchant. Soon he was well on to be-
ing a millionaire Then he tried to
make iron with anthracite coal at
Slocum Hollow, now Scranton, Pa, in
1913, and became interested in the
Scranton Coal and Iron Company. 1t
was through his financial backing that
this company was enabled to supply
the Erie Railway, then building near
Port Jeryis, with rails. The company
was reorganiZed, with Mr.. Blair as
principal owner. 1t obtained a charter
for a railroad from Scranton to Great
Bend, called Leggett's Railroad, and
which was to connect with the Erie.
This was the real beginning of the
Delaware, Lackawanna 4 Western sys-
tenn. For some years the company had
to send out men to teach the people
to use anthracite coal. Many declared
that it would not burn. In all the sue
cessive stages of the building of the
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, Mr.
Blair was the master spirit, and his
mercantile genius caused him to profit
immensely by the development OF
Scranton.
Mr. B.air next built a railroad in
Iowa then joined Cakes Ames in or
ganizing the Union Pacific and con-
structed it's first hundred miles west
from Omaha. He built railroads by
the dozen in the west. The great I'M
dertakings of which he was the master
have never been duplicated by any 9TH
er American. Jay Gould at times had
to accept his terms. He held the mort
gage bonds of scores of railroad COM
panies, some of which were absolutely
IN hi In c,h al l.; l.
the Chicago & Northwestern road to
the extent of $2,00O,0O0 worth of stock,
because he did not approve of the ex-
tension policy of the company The
money which he received for this stock
he brought east in two satchels and de-
posted personally in the Park Bank in
New York city. In the building of ali
his western roads Mr.. Blair obtained
enormous land grants as premiums. In
connection with his work on the Union
Pacific he got 100000 acres of land in
Iowa. For completing the Iowa Falls
& Sioux City road he obtained 100000
acres. With all this land on his hands
Mr.. Blair formed land companies, and
these companies under his direction,
laid out the sites for what are now
more than 100 fiourishing cities and
towns in the West. At one time he
was the largest land owner in the
United States.
His home in Blairstown, which he
founded, was simple one for one
with such vast possessions. AS his
millions came to him he never thought
of leaving his two-story frame house,
with its green shutters and the cupola
in the center of the fiat roof That
was sufficient. So he lived to the end
Of his life. simple and homely, hating
ostentation and loving and being loved
in return by everyone who dwelt in his
town.