Thomas Shoenberger Blair was born on November 26, 1825, in Kittaning, Pennsylvania, to Thomas Blair. His father earned a living as a lawyer. His father died when he was a child, and the family moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard University in the mid-1840s, and he married Virginia Dike on December 21, 1847. They had at least four children: John, born around 1849; George, born around 1851; Anna, born around 1858; and Thomas, born around 1860.

 

He worked as an iron manufacturer in Pittsburgh. By 1870, the family owned $200,000 of real estate and $100,000 of personal property. According to one writer, he was an “acknowledged authority on the scientific treatment of iron and steel and made frequent contributions to scientific publications…He devoted a large part of his later years to the study of political economy.” His wife died on August 9, 1878, and he passed away in Pittsburgh on October 22, 1898.

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