| 726 and Sophia Ann. We are not informed how many of these there are now living. Mrs. Marks died October 18, 1863, aged sixty-eight years. He was married the second time in 1866, espousing Mrs. Julia A. Muir, daughter of Jabez Durfee, who survived him twenty years, and died at Lamoni, Iowa, May 4,1892.
WILLIAM WALLACE BLAIR.
The late W. W. Blair, First Counselor to President Joseph Smith, was one of the best known characters of the prominent men of the Reorganization. He was the son of James Blair and Fanny Hamilton Blair. He was born in the village of Holly, Orleans County, New York, October 11, 1828. In 1831 his parents moved to Chautauqua County, New York, and the family resided in the same county until 1839, when they went west, going by raft to Cincinnati, Ohio, and thence by steamer to St. Louis, Missouri, from whence they proceeded by steamer to Peru, La Salle County, Illinois. Here they were met by Mr. Blair, William's father, who had preceded them the year before, and located a claim and erected a log house thereon, in Lee County, near where Amboy now stands. To this residence in the western wilds the family were conveyed. Here William remained under the parental roof, sharing in the toils and hardships incident to making a home on the frontier, until the year 1845, when he was placed in the family of Mr. George W. Gilson, of Peru, Illinois, to attend school. Circumstances prevented, so that he was unable to attend school much while there.
In the spring of 1846 he entered the employ of Messrs. Frink, Walker, and Co., stage proprietors, and remained in their employ until the autumn of 1848.
On leaving the employ of the above-named gentlemen he entered the service of Messrs. Russell P. and George C. Thorp, of Mt. Carroll, Illinois, as a salesman in a mercantile house. It was while at Mt. Carroll that he became acquainted with and finally married Miss Elizabeth J. Doty, the marriage being celebrated December 25, 1849, at Dixon, Illinois. In the late years of his life, in recording this
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