Samuel T. Blair, M. D., a well-known physician of Osborne, was born in what is now Loudon County, Tenn., on May 3, 1838. He is the son of Rev. James and Jane G. (Blair) Blair, both of Scotch descent, and natives of what was afterward Washington County, Tenn. After their marriage in Monroe County they located on a farm on the Tennessee River, where they resided till their deaths. The father died in March, 1871, in his fifty-eighth year, and the mother in the spring of 1859, in her fifty-third year. The father was a minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for nearly forty years, and served as pastor of different charged in Monroe and adjoining counties. Samuel T. is the third of seven children. He grew to manhood on his father's farm, and his education, begun in the country schools, was finished at Ewing and Jefferson College, in which college he afterward served as professor for a short time. In the fall of 1861 he entered the Confederate States army, enlisting in the First East Tennessee Artillery. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga and numerous lesser engagements. After the battle of Shiloh he was transferred from artillery to cavalry, and served subsequently in the Second Tennessee Cavalry, under Co. H. M. Ashby. He received a serious wound on the Dalton and Atlanta retreat, and was never able to re-enter the service. After his return home in 1865 he began the study of medicine under Dr. Benjamin Franklin, now of Cameron, Mo. He graduated from the medical department of the Nashville University in March, 1867, and the next May began to practice at Lenoir's Station, Loudon County. The following fall he entered the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, and graduated the next March. In the spring of 1870 he removed to Loudon, Tenn., where he continued the practice of his profession until May, 1881, when he immigrated to Missouri and located at Osborne. After coming to Osborne, Dr. Blair filled the chair of obstetrics for four consecutive years in the Northwestern Medical College of St. Joseph, Mo. He is now a member of the Northwestern Medical Society of St. Joseph. On October 11, 1870, he wedded Miss Louisa M. Osborne, a native of Loudon County. They have had eight children—two sons and six daughters—of whom one son and three daughters are dead. Dr. Blair is a Democrat. Himself, wife, son and daughter are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Source: History of Andrew and DeKalb Counties, Missouri (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1888), pp. 548-549.