The Blair Family of Puslinch August 23rd 1957. One of the most appealing of pioneer homes in Puslinch Township is that of the late James Blair, on the Hamilton Highway, just north of Aberfoyle. James Blair and his wife, the former Elizabeth Galloway, settled on the 100-acre farm there 80 years ago.
Eldest of their family is Mary, 89, wife of John Patterson, living in Flint, Michigan. Eldest son is John, 87, whose 100-acre farm is just across the highway. He purchased that farm and built the house there fifty years ago. He and his wife, the former Mina Hunt, 80, daughter of the late Jeremiah Hunt, of East Flamborough, now live there in practical retirement. Next, in age, of the Blair family is Helen, 85, who is Mrs. R. V. Bingham, of Toronto. Fourth is Frederick, 83, a former federal minister of agriculture, who has been living in retirement in Ottawa for the past 23 years. Fifth is William George Blair, 80, living on the old homestead. His son William Junior now has the chief operation of the farm. Sixth in line is Clarence, who will be 78 next month. He lives in Preston. Youngest is George, 71, who lives at Glen Orchard, near Port Carling, Muskoka. The original owner of the farm now occupied by William G. Blair was Kidd McFarlane, who acquired lot 14, concession 8, in 1830, the same year that James Kidd took up lot 14, concession 7, the farm that John Kidd purchased 50 years ago. Mr. and Mrs. John Blair were married 65 years ago at the Hunt family home in East Flamborough. It was from that township that the pioneer James Blair came to the farm in Puslinch 80 years ago. The wife of William Blair, now on the homestead, is the former Lucy Harper, daughter of Charles Harper, of East Flamborough. John Blair ran a threshing outfit for about 40 years, covering extensive portions of Puslinch and Guelph Townships. For years, this was with a steam engine driven by horses, later replaced with a tractor. As a boy, John Blair recalls attending school at Section No. 4; his first teacher was named Jamieson. Mr. and Mrs. John Blair have an ideal farm garden and an interesting orchard. Mr. Blair has been famed for his grafting of trees, some of which have several varieties of apples, one having a graft of pears as well. There are grapes in the garden and a patch of strawberries from which this year’s yield lasted five weeks, made all the more palatable with Jersey cream, a Jersey cow being the only one of the animals still kept in the barn stable. Mrs. Blair’s garden speciality is her crop of staked tomatoes, the quantity being especially large this year. Other vegetables are plentiful and in great variety, as are flowers in the garden and all about the property. A guest of Mr. and Mrs. John Blair at the present time is Mrs. Blair’s brother, the Reverend Herbert Hunt, minister of a Baptist Church in San Diego, California. In earlier days the Blairs were Methodists but now are adherents of the Baptist denomination.
	from the Guelph Mercury newspaper