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Doniphan County Courthouse, Troy Joel Blair lived in Burr Oak and was the founder of Troy. |
Joel P. Blair was a 47-year-old farmer, born in Tennessee, who moved to the Burr Oak bottom in Doniphan County in late 1854. He soon met W.P. Richardson and visited several times at Richardson's cabin in Doniphan. Undoubtedly, Richardson found him "sound of the goose" and tapped him for the House. Blair told the Howard Committee that he was nominated by a "primary meeting" in the precinct and campaigned for three days. [Howard Report, 339]
After the legislative session, Blair was the first Probate Judge, presiding commissioner, of the Doniphan County Commission. In 1856, he was a founder of the town of Troy, Kansas. He went out on the prairie with three friends one day, drove some stakes in the ground, raised an American flag, and declared the spot to be "Troy, the county seat of Doniphan County." [KHC 11: xix]
Blair stayed in Kansas after the free-state victory. In 1858, he bought school land in Doniphan County from the state. [KHC 5: 459] He stayed active in civic affairs and was elected chairman of the Center Township supervisors in the July 1858 Doniphan County elections. [KHC 5:505]
