Hello, Guv
After I wrote about cousin John Wright earlier in the week, I decided to look again at his family.
Finding his Civil War questionnaire was accomplished early in my genealogical endeavors. In going back through his file, for example, I found that he’d been in Camp Douglas, the prisoner of war camp for Confederates. I knew I had other family members who died there but I’d forgotten that John W. had been there.
After the death of his mother, his father Thomas remarried, to Eveline Matlock, and had several more children. The first child of that second marriage was Louisa M. Osborne, with the M. probably standing for Matlock. Louisa married a physician, Dr. S. T. Blair. I believe her sister married Dr. S.T.’s brother, but there were lots of Blairs in that area, so maybe a cousin.
On a lark, I entered the good doctor’s name into Google and found one of those fabulous Goodspeed write-ups for him. (I actually think I was looking for information about the college John Wright refers to–Ewing and Jeff, which turns out to be a Cumberland Presbyterian college with the official title of Ewing and Jefferson College.) To my surprise, he’d moved to Missouri. I always say I’m one of the few people I know who doesn’t have family in Missouri or Kentucky. That just changed. 
So I started looking for records on this family in Missouri, and, again, surprise, surprise, I found that at least one of Samuel and Louisa’s sons and grandsons distinguished themselves by being the Supreme Court Justice, and in the case of the grandson, serving as first the lieutenant governor and then the governor of the state. The father served in the state legislature as well.
Part of what allowed me to get to this information was accessing Missouri’s online death certificates–I found one for both Dr. Samuel and wife Louisa. Each was signed by James T. Blair, I believe one by the father and one by the son. That lead me to searching for more information via the census records and newspapers.
I was sorry to read about the untimely death of James, Jr. and his wife Emilie. What a freak accident. So I get to add these to my other (2) relatives listed as “famous“at the Political Graveyard site. Now, of course, since that site notes that his burial site is unknown, one of the things I have to know is where James, Sr. is buried.
There’s a 1930 census entry for a James T. Blair, b. about 1868 in Tennessee that matches the James Sr. who was in Missouri, but is this the same man? He’s managing a hotel in Palo Pinto County, Texas. (I don’t know if he knows it or not, but he has other relatives in the area at that time.) Maybe it is him–who knows? Maybe he needed something completely different to do. Maybe he went to Mineral Wells for the “waters.” Places of birth and dates match, but more work will need to be done.
At any rate, this was an interesting find. I look forward to more like this–after you’ve done genealogy for so long, these sorts of finds are few and far between. I like it!