1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Dr. Alonzo O. Blair, physician and surgeon at Pittsburg, Kansas, has enjoyed a satisfactory and increasing patronage since coming to this county over twenty years ago, and has long since been recognized as among the leading men in his profession in Crawford county. He has been zealously devoted to the science of medicine not only as a means of gaining a livelihood but for its own sake and for the good he can accomplish in the world by its judicious practice. He has also taken much interest in public affairs and in other matters of concern in the community in which he has resided.

Dr. Blair was born at Cutler, Perry county, Illinois, in 1852, a son of William R. and Martha (McQuiston) Blair. His parents were both of Scotch ancestry, and belonged to the somewhat numerous group of families of strong Presbyterian proclivities who settled in Perry and Randolph counties, Illinois, in the early part of the nineteenth century, resulting in the building up of towns such as Cutler, Coulterville and Sparta, communities where religious observances were very much adhered to, and which are today well known for having turned out more Presbyterian ministers and missionaries than any other section of like population. William Blair, who is still living in Cutler, where he is a prosperous farmer, was born in Tennessee, and came to Perry county with his father, James Blair, about 1830, being then ten years old. The Blairs have always been a prominent family in the western part of Perry county. Mrs. Martha Blair was born in South Carolina.

Dr. Blair received his education in the Coulterville Academy, from which he graduated in 1873. He later attended the St. Louis Medical College, where he was graduated in 1877. He then practiced about a year and a half at Coulterville, Illinois, and in 1878 came to Kansas, locating at Bavaria, Saline county, where he practiced medicine until 1882, which was the year of his coming to Crawford county. He practiced in Beulah, Crawford county, for about eight years, and in 1890 went to New York city and spent a year studying in the New York Polyclinic. He then returned, better equipped than ever for the continuance of a most successful practice, and located at Pittsburg, where he has had his office ever since.

Dr. Blair is at present city health officer, and for one term represented his ward, the second, in the city council. He is a stanch Republican in politics. He is one of the three owners, with Drs. George Williams and William Williams, of the Pittsburg City Hospital, which they founded in 1894, and which is a monument to their skill and energy, and an institution of which they are justly proud. Dr. Blair has considerable staff work to perform in the hospital, and in addition has a large private practice. He is secretary of the Crawford Medical Society and a member of the Kansas State Medical Society.

While engaged in practice in Coulterville, Illinois, Dr. Blair was married, in 1878, to Miss Elizabeth Hughes, of that city. They have three children: Florence, the wife of Robert Nesch, Jr.; and Olive and John.