John Insley Blair ( Eng. John Insley Blair ; August 22, 1802 , Foul Rift, near Belvidir, New Jersey - December 2, 1899 , Blairstown , New Jersey ) - American businessman and philanthropist.
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Biography
Born in a poor and large family of immigrants from Scotland; used the mother's last name, Insley, as the middle name. He was the fourth child in the family (out of eleven). From the age of ten he began to earn money himself, catching rabbits and muskrats and selling their skins. At the age of 11, he went to work as a seller at a store owned by his relative, and from the age of 17 he became a co-owner. Since 1825, he served as postmaster in the town of Graywell Hill in New Jersey. By 1830, there were five large stores in the possession of Blair, each of them was run by his brothers, four mills, and several horse harnesses to carry goods to New York .
Blair's further entrepreneurial career was associated with steel and coal mining, but above all with the construction and management of railways. At one time he headed at once 16 railway companies and was the world's largest owner of railways by their length. He spent much of his life in a private car, which, it was claimed, made his way up to 40 thousand miles (about 64,000 kilometers) per year. Blair's fortune was approaching $ 70 million.
Blair never received any formal education, although several of his ancestors taught at Princeton University ; according to the legend, in childhood he told his mother: “In our family are already quite educated, I will be rich”. In 1864 , Blair established a nominal professorship in geology at Princeton University ( Arnold Guyot became the first professor), and in 1866 he headed the board of trustees and held this position until the end of his life, and after Blair’s death, his son Devitt Clinton Blair became the head of the board of trustees. 1833-1915). When he took the post, Blair said that as an entrepreneur he studied additionally all his life, and now he finally came to the university to master the subtraction. The name of Blair at the university is the building built at his expense in 1897 - Blair Hall; however, the famous Blair Arch, topped with two towers, was built at the expense of DeWitt Clinton Blair when expanding Blair Hall ten years later.
In honor of Blair, in 1839, the town of Graywell Hill, in which he lived (now - Blairstown) , was renamed.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 SNAC - 2010.
- 2 1 2 The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa - University of Iowa Press , 2008. - ISBN 978-1-58729-685-7
Links
- Obituary in the New York Times (Eng.)
- John Blair and Blair Hall : A page on Princeton University (Eng.)