When Christine Rosamond Presco married Garth Benton, the cousin of the famous artist, Thomas Hart Benton, the grandson of the Senator by the same name, the Prescos became kin to many famous Americans. One was Francis Preston Blair who owned Blair House where Queen Elizabeth stayed. My niece, Drew Benton is an accomplished artist like her mother and father – who looks like Senator Benton the Administrator of the Oregon Territory.

Jon Presco

Copyright 2011

196. Francis Preston BLAIR (Elizabeth3Smith, Ann2Preston, John1) was born on April 12, 1791 in Abingdon, VA. He married Eliza Violet Gist on July 21, 1813 in Franklin Co., KY. He died on October 18, 1876 in Silver Spring, MD, at age 85.

President Jackson asked Francis Blair to establish a newspaper in Washington in 1830 to explain the administration’s policies. The “Globe” was the result and was a power in Jackson’s and Van Buren’s presidencies…