Son of Jacob and Jane McClanahan Blair. Brother of David, Mary Jane, George, Margaret, Elihugh, Andy, John, Issac, Sindusta, Elijah and Alexander.
Wife of Sally Johnson Blair and father of LaFayette, German, Jacob, LeMarchant, Dakota and Hannah Victoria.
Farmer, Gunsmith and Cooper
---
Confederate Soldier
U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963
Name: Jacob Blair
Death Date: 6 Dec 1916
Cemetery: Blair Cemetery
Cemetery Location: Virginia
---
From a newspaper entitled "The West Virginia Hillbilly" printed in Richwood, West Virginia, dated March 10, 1962, Author Unknown.
The Last Indian to Die in Our Hills
Jake Blair
If you will harken back to the time of the convening of the state legislature and about the conversation that Hillbilly's editor had with Fred Counts, member of the House of Delegates from McDowell, you will recall that mention was made of possibly the last Indian to disappear from our mountains.
Since then, we have worked with Mr. Counts, who worked with his dad Ezra V. Counts, of Counts, Virginia, which is just over the line. Father Counts wrote some facts about the Indian, Jake Blair, as follows: Jake Blair was the son of Jacob and Jenny Blair. He [this sentence is missing] County (Virginia) and I would say that he was three-fourths Cherokee Indian, and possessed all of their characteristics.
He could track a man through the forest in the summer season as easy as I could through the snow.
His vision was so keen that Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson used him as personal field glasses. He could see farther than any man and could tell a Yankee from anything.
He told me that he fought in Pickett's Charge and that two men fell dead against him simultaneously and that one of them was his own brother. But that didn't stop him. He went on shooting his Lancaster rifle until he had fired 60 rounds of ammunition.
He said if Lee had made his assault at Gettysburg on the evening of his arrival instead of waiting for Longstreet, who didn't arrive till about ten the next morning, he would have won the battle. Tens of thousands of Yankee reinforcements poured in all night and the next day they were so strong for them.
He would never eat at the table with the rest of his family, but would eat off a wooden box near the kitchen door. He never called on a doctor. He compounded his own medical preparations and treated himself and family. He was an expert moonshiner. He was an expert cooper and made his own moonshine stills. He plowed his own farm land with a bull and used the bull to carry his corn to and from the grist mill. He wore his hair long. It hung on his shoulders and below his hat band. He seldomly [sic] took off his hat, and when he grew old the part the hat covered was jet black. The rest was rather gray. He was 90 and more at his death. He could play the fiddle and his favorite tune was "That Old Sledge." He never slept on a bed. He slept on a pallet by the door.
Grandfather of:
Noble Eugene Blair
Father of:
Hannah Blair Ramsey
Son of Jacob and Jane McClanahan Blair. Brother of David, Mary Jane, George, Margaret, Elihugh, Andy, John, Issac, Sindusta, Elijah and Alexander.
Wife of Sally Johnson Blair and father of LaFayette, German, Jacob, LeMarchant, Dakota and Hannah Victoria.
Farmer, Gunsmith and Cooper
---
Confederate Soldier
U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963
Name: Jacob Blair
Death Date: 6 Dec 1916
Cemetery: Blair Cemetery
Cemetery Location: Virginia
---
From a newspaper entitled "The West Virginia Hillbilly" printed in Richwood, West Virginia, dated March 10, 1962, Author Unknown.
The Last Indian to Die in Our Hills
Jake Blair
If you will harken back to the time of the convening of the state legislature and about the conversation that Hillbilly's editor had with Fred Counts, member of the House of Delegates from McDowell, you will recall that mention was made of possibly the last Indian to disappear from our mountains.
Since then, we have worked with Mr. Counts, who worked with his dad Ezra V. Counts, of Counts, Virginia, which is just over the line. Father Counts wrote some facts about the Indian, Jake Blair, as follows: Jake Blair was the son of Jacob and Jenny Blair. He [this sentence is missing] County (Virginia) and I would say that he was three-fourths Cherokee Indian, and possessed all of their characteristics.
He could track a man through the forest in the summer season as easy as I could through the snow.
His vision was so keen that Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson used him as personal field glasses. He could see farther than any man and could tell a Yankee from anything.
He told me that he fought in Pickett's Charge and that two men fell dead against him simultaneously and that one of them was his own brother. But that didn't stop him. He went on shooting his Lancaster rifle until he had fired 60 rounds of ammunition.
He said if Lee had made his assault at Gettysburg on the evening of his arrival instead of waiting for Longstreet, who didn't arrive till about ten the next morning, he would have won the battle. Tens of thousands of Yankee reinforcements poured in all night and the next day they were so strong for them.
He would never eat at the table with the rest of his family, but would eat off a wooden box near the kitchen door. He never called on a doctor. He compounded his own medical preparations and treated himself and family. He was an expert moonshiner. He was an expert cooper and made his own moonshine stills. He plowed his own farm land with a bull and used the bull to carry his corn to and from the grist mill. He wore his hair long. It hung on his shoulders and below his hat band. He seldomly [sic] took off his hat, and when he grew old the part the hat covered was jet black. The rest was rather gray. He was 90 and more at his death. He could play the fiddle and his favorite tune was "That Old Sledge." He never slept on a bed. He slept on a pallet by the door.
Grandfather of:
Noble Eugene Blair
Father of:
Hannah Blair Ramsey
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
