Blair, Hannah Millikan

1756–14 Jan. 1852

Hannah Millikan Blair, Quaker revolutionary patriot, was the daughter of William Millikan, first register of deeds of Randolph County, and his wife Jane Roan (or White?). She was born in Chester City, Pa., shortly before the family moved to Deep River in North Carolina. Married to Enos Blair, she became the mother of a new baby every year during the American Revolution yet managed to help soldiers with food, supplies, and other assistance that was in keeping with her Quaker religious beliefs. She was given certificates of appreciation and a small government pension for her service. She carried food and medicines regularly to patriots hiding in the woods from Tory raiders; she mended their clothes, carried messages for them, and occasionally hid them in the house when Col. David Fanning and his raiders appeared.

She was credited with saving the lives of two men when she hid them in a corn crib and continued shucking corn while the Tories searched. On another occasion she ripped the corner of a feather bed tick and pushed a visiting patriot inside with the feathers. She threw the covers back so Fanning could see clearly under the bed, sat down, and began mending the torn ticking, saying "Thee may search as thee pleases." After a skirmish at Dixon's Mill in 1779 she learned that several soldiers were hiding in the countryside and took provisions to them. As she was returning, she was taken by Tories who demanded to know where the men were hiding. Insisting that she had only taken food to a sick neighbor ten or so miles away, she was released without revealing the hiding place. Tories, however, eventually burned the Blairs' house and barn and the family was forced to watch as all their possessions were consumed in the flames.

Between 1776 and 1800 the Blairs had thirteen children, twelve of whom lived to adulthood. Hannah is buried at Springfield Friends Meeting in High Point.