The New International Encyclopædia/Blair, John Insley

BLAIR, John Insley (1802-99). An American capitalist and philanthropist. He was born in Warren County. N. J., and from 1811 to 1819 worked in a small store in Hope, N. J. Later he removed to Blairstown, became interested in the Oxford Iron Furnace in Warren County, and in 1846 was associated with the Scranton Brothers in the first attempt to manufacture iron with anthracite coal. To facilitate the transportation of the company's output, he and his associates constructed the road which subsequently became known as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western. In later life he was connected, either as builder or director, with twenty railroads, and at one time was said to own more miles of railroad than any other man in the world. He gave Blair Hall and about $70,000 to Princeton College, where he established a professorship; helped to rebuild Grinnell College, Iowa; gave nearly $90,000 to Lafayette College, and about $600,000 to the Presbyterian Academy at Blairstown, and contributed toward building over one hundred churches in the towns laid out along the lines of his railroads.