City Directories and History: This appears as a domestic dwelling on the 1910 Sanborn Map. Note that originally, John Blair must have lived on North Congress Street. The Yorkville Enquirer reported on June 20, 1888 – “The serious fire last Sunday originated in the store of T. M. Dobson & Son. This building is used as both a store and a dwelling. The original dwelling was two stories high and was built in 1820 by Capt. John Blair. After Dobson purchased the building, he built a store room on the south side of the dwelling. During the fire, the Dobson family, including three young children, managed to escape with their lives. Mrs. Dobson escaped by climbing down a tree in front of the balcony.”
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This appears to be a portion of the historic John Blair property described by author – historian Wm. B. White, Jr.
Capt. JOHN BLAIR
One of the most interesting people in the history of Yorkville was Capt. John Blair, who was much given to philanthropic acts. He was a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, having been born there on November 12,1776. When he was twenty years of age, he immigrated to the United States, ultimately coming to settle in Yorkville, S.C., where he died on October 3, 1848. It appears that John Blair was engaged in both planting and merchandising in York District. By the time he was forty years old he had begun to accumulate an unusually large estate for that period, being worth more than a hundred thousand dollars. During his latter years he liberally dispensed his money in numberless acts of charity. His major interests were the education of poor children and the care of widows and orphans. In his last will and testament he provided funds for two parish schools in Ireland, for several schools in York District, for Erskine Seminary (in Due West,S.C.) and Columbia Theological Seminary (in Columbia, S.C.), for the American Bible Society, and the Hibernian Society of Charleston, S.C. His bequests to his numerous relations were generous and all-inclusive.His properties in York District were well-chosen and yielded a princely income for their owner. He first lived on Congress Street (in the present business district). Later he bought a house, two lots, and a tract of four acres from Thomas B. Hoover, York’s master-builder. He and his wife occupied this site until their deaths. The land was located to the west of the present site of the First Presbyterian Church of York (down the hill from the Church). He also purchased several large, attractive lots from Sheriff James Brian, Jr., from the holdings of Dr. Edmund Jennings, on North Congress Street. His farm lands in the District aggregated some two thousand acres.
He induced a score of Irish families to come to America. He was a member of the Hibernian Society of Charleston (organized to aid the Irish poor in America). He bequeathed a portion of his estate to this charitable group. After the Civil War when all the funds of the Society had been made worthless by the Confederate defeat, the last assets of the Hibernian Society were the shares of stock left them by Capt. John Blair. Within a few years the Society sold the stocks in order to raise funds for the repair and restoration of the elegant headquarters building of the Society in Charleston.
Information from: The Genesis of York, by Wm. B. White, Jr., Yorkville Historical Society, 2015 – Jostens Publishing Company
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