Edith Pearl Allen and William Newton Blair

DR. WILLIAM NEWTON BLAIR, son of EMMA ANN MCCLURE and EDGAR WILSON BLAIR, was born July 11, 1876 in Salina, Saline, Kansas,⁶²⁹ and died May 2, 1970 in Duarte, Los Angeles, California.⁴⁵⁶ He is buried in Gypsum Hill Cemetery, Salina, Saline, Kansas.⁴⁵⁶

He married EDITH PEARL ALLEN on June 6, 1901 in First Methodist Episcopal Church, Solomon, Kansas.⁴⁷⁵⁶ She was born September 11, 1878 in Argyle, Sanilac, Michigan,^{456, 8443} and died April 9, 1942 in New Smyrna, Volusia, Florida.⁸⁴⁴³ She is buried in Gypsum Hill Cemetery, Salina, Saline, Kansas.⁴⁵⁶

• Descendant Reports
  • Samuel Houston Descendant Report (Ancestor of William N. Blair)

Children of EDITH PEARL ALLEN and DR. WILLIAM NEWTON BLAIR:

1. LOIS BLAIR, b. March 6, 1903, P'yongyang, Korea;⁶²⁹ d. April 3, 1991, Los Angeles County, California.²⁵⁰
2. KATHARINE BLAIR, b. August 3, 1904, Pyeng Yang, Korea;⁶²⁹ m. REV. BRUCE FINLEY HUNT on September 27, 1932⁹⁷⁷⁶; d. December 8, 1994.⁴⁵³²
3. EDGAR ALLEN BLAIR, b. March 24, 1912, P'yongyang, Korea;⁶²⁹ m. DOROTHY JUNGE on August 10, 1943 in Los Angeles County, California^{9773, 7540}; d. April 6, 2003.⁴⁵³²
4. EDITH EMMA BLAIR, b. December 30, 1913, P'yongyang, Korea;⁶²⁹ m. SHANNON BOYD BAILEY MCCUNE on June 30, 1936 in Berkeley, Alameda, California⁷⁵⁴⁰; d. January 1, 1997, Bridgeville, Allegheny, Pennsylvania.^{4532, 9771}



Personal Information

• William Newton Blair and Edith Pearl Allen were members of the Presbyterian Church. ⁸⁴⁴²

• William Newton Blair and Edith Pearl Allen were Presbyterian missionaries in Korea.⁸⁴⁴²

• William Newton Blair graduated from Kansas Wesleyan College.⁹⁷⁷⁷

• Edith Pearl Allen graduated from Kansas Wesleyan University, Salina, Saline, Kansas in 1900.⁹⁷⁷⁸

Marriage Announcements and News

Salina Daily Republican-Journal, May 22, 1901⁴⁷⁵⁶

Rev. and Mrs. E. W. Allen, of Solomon, have issued invitations to the marriage of their daughter Miss Edith Pearl Allen to William Newton Blair of this city, which is to take place on Thursday, June 6th, at 9 o'clock a. m., at the First M. E. Church of Solomon. They will be at home after Oct. 1st in Korea.

Newspaper Articles

Springfield Daily News, November 22, 1947⁸⁴⁴²

Missionary Discovers His Life Work Ruined

In the city of Pyengyang in northern Korea (he pronounced it P-Yong), Dr. William Newton Blair, Presbyterian missionary and brother of Judge David E. Blair of Springfield Court of Appeals, gazed last April at the plot of ground he had called home for 40 years.

"There had been a house there," Doctor Blair told the Kiwanis club yesterday, "but all I saw was an open basement, a hole in the ground. Of course all my belongings, everything I had owned was gone.

Trees and shrubbery we had planted were still in the yard.

"The Russian soldiers came up to me and spoke quickly. I don't know their language, but I was sure what they were saying was 'get out'."

The property had belonged to the Presbyterian foreign missions board, but it was the place where Doctor Blair had lived while performing a lifetime mission among the people of North Korea.

When war with Japan became imminent, he had to leave the place he had worked for 40 years, but he returned to Korea during the past year to see what had become of the country.

Russians were occupying North Korea, where he had spent most of his life, and Doctor Blair, along with other Americans, was limited to the southern zone which is patrolled by U. S. forces.

But Doctor Blair was not satisfied. Checking with an American liaison officer, he decided it was worth trying to enter the Russian zone.

"Don't apply to General Hodge, the American commander," he was advised. "That won't do any good. Write your letter in English, address it to the Russian commanding general, and send it through the channels of the American command."

He did so, and was somewhat startled last February to learn from the Russian general that he could make the trip. Illness prevented his going before April 23.

Through Iron Curtain

"I was sent on a train, he told Kiwanians. "The U. S. provided one engine, one coach, a conductor was a lieutenant; and there was one passenger, myself.

"We went through the iron curtain. The Russian soldiers examined my credentials. They said 'O.K." That seems to be an expression known around the world."

And thus Doctor Blair became the first American missionary to go behind the "iron curtain" in the northern zone of Korea.

"I must say," he declared, "that the Russians treated me with signal courtesy. As long as the general had let me come in, they probably wanted the right sort of publicity.

Doctor Blair was allowed to contact the native Presbyterian pastor when he arrived in Pyengyang, and his greatest interest was in the churches, hospitals, and educational institutions with which he had worked during his lifetime career.

He found they were occupied by the Russians. A Soviet general was living in the ladies' home the missions had provided. In many places where missionaries had lived before, Red army men were now quartered.

Quite a number of places, such as his own, had been leveled.

"There was not a stone left," Doctor Blair said. "Just a cellar a hole in the ground."

A meeting of Protestant Christians was being held in the city in commemoration of a great early Christian meeting there in 1907.

"It so happened," he narrated, " that I was the only missionary present at the meeting who had been there in 1907. I was accorded the privilege of speaking to 15,000 people there over the amplifier.

"I told the people there was no solution to their problems other than God Himself visiting the people and giving them new leadership.

"Afterwards I was surrounded by thousands of people, many of the crying out in Korean, "You know me! You know me!" I realized I did know many of them."

The missionary said they insisted on saying that both young and old "want you and all the other missionaries to come back as soon as possible."

Political Impasse

That brought Doctor Blair to what he called the "political impasse." He had previously explained that before the war the northern section, now Red-occupied was the part of Korea where Christianity had made the greatest headway.

Doctor Blair said the facts were apparently that Roosevelt and Stalin had agreed at Yalta on a five-year trusteeship of Korea.

Most Koreans were opposed to any form of trusteeship, but there was the agreement, anyway. Doctor Blair believed the Russians would probably have occupied all of Korea if the U. S. Army hadn't arrived about the right time from the south.

"For two years General Hodge and the AMG have tried time and again to find some way to join with the Russians in carrying out the agreement," he continued.

"It has been utterly impossible for one reason. The Russians have insisted that nobody opposed to the trusteeship be entrusted with any authority whatever."

Russia's proposal that U. S. and Red soldiers withdraw is a sham, in view of the puppet Korean army trained by the Reds. The U. S. has trained no army.

United Nations is considering a commission in for an an election, but that isn't satisfactory to Doctor Blair.

"What election?" he exclaimed rather scornfully.

"There'll be no real election in North Korea until the U.N. can come in with military strength.

"I am sure that if we stand behind the U.N. squarely and honorably, God Himself will undertake to do things for us and the Koreans that now seem utterly impossible, perhaps things even within Russia itself."

Obituaries

Wisconsin State Journal, April 15, 1942⁸⁴⁴³

Mrs. Blair

Mrs. Edith Allen Blair, 64, missionary of the Presbyterian church in Corea for 40 years and native of Argyle, Wis., died Thursday at New Smyrna, Fla., it was announced today by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian church, New York City.

Mrs. Blair returned from Corea in 1940 with her husband William N. Blair.

Survivors include the widower; a son, Edgar, and three daughters, Lois Blair, a missionary in Colombia; Mrs. Katherine Hunt, a missionary in Manchuria, and Mrs. Edith McCune.

Salina Journal, May 5, 1970⁴⁷⁵⁷

DR. WILLIAM N. BLAIR

The funeral for Dr. William Newton Blair, 93, a former Salinian, was at 10 am Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Donald Schroeder officiating.

Survivors are a son, Edgar, South Amboy, N.J., and 3 daughters, Lois, Duarte, Calif.; Mrs. Edith McCune, Gainesville, Fla., and Mrs. Katherine Hunt, Pusan, Korea.

The Rush Smith funeral home was in charge of arrangements.

Census Records

Date	Location	Enumerated Names
June 8, 18804752	WaKeeney, Trego, Kansas	Edgar Wilson Blair Emma Ann McClure David Ellmore Blair William Newton Blair Herbert Edgar Blair
January 10, 19204480	Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas	William Newton Blair Edith Pearl Allen Lois Blair Katharine Blair Edgar Allen Blair Edith Emma Blair