Many thanks to Esther Rancier for sharing her information on the McNair Family. Esther is researching in Richland and Mexico the Soul/Soule, Brace and Daniel P. Smith families, and would appreciate hearing from anyone researching these surnames. 
Esther Rancier at: <[email protected] >

        Matthew McNair from Paisley, Scotland came to Oswego, NY in 1802 when he found only two frame buildings in the town.  Some men who came so far north could only see opportunity in the soil, others in the grain crop, milk supply or the rushing white water to create free power.  Matthew, with his wife Linda, saw all that and much more.  He was a visionary, not afraid to take risks with money to put the know-how of the new industrial age to work.  He wanted a bigger and better Oswego.
 In limited circumstances he started small.  He put his growing family into a home in the First Ward near the port at 39 W. Second Street where they took in lodgers.  By the 1820 census he appeared to have 56 people residing in his home.  The records continually show outsiders in the home.
        He brought skills about ships and shipping with him.  He soon built a schooner of 50 tons called Linda, named after his wife.  Schooners were used in the early 19th century on Lake Ontario because they were fore-and-aft rigged.  They could work windward easier than other designs, allowing them to move off a lee shore. 
 He purchased the schooner Jane from Sharpe and Vaughn, renaming her Peggy and went into the freight forwarding business.  By 1804 McNair built the first Oswego shipyard on the river just south of Schuyler Street.  There he built a 50 ton schooner called Diane by 1809.  Henry Eagle worked as a carpenter on it.  It was soon purchased by Capt. Chauncey and added to the Naval Squadron at Sackett’s Harbor where her name was changed to Hamilton on 5 November 1812.  This schooner was then armed.  Ultimately the vessel went down in 300 feet of water.  The wreck was finally found in 1973.  Now it is a favorite of divers.
       By 1810 McNair also owned the schooner Julia, named for his daughter, and the Morning Star. The navy also took the Julia and armed her.  He owned part of the schooner Hunter with Alvin Bronson.  
        By 1826 his fleet had the Hunter, Betsey and Traveler which was 53 tons.  It was built in Liverpool, NY and used on Onondaga Lake in1813.
       With the ownership of so many vessels before 1812, it is likely he also engaged in some smuggling into Canadian ports, principally Kingston.  The troops were withdrawn from Fort Ontario in 1803 and reassigned to the new Louisiana Purchase area.  The navy was seriously undermanned.  There was  no stain on one’s character if a few clandestine runs north were made. It was the local habit.  The Canadians depended a good deal on the goods smuggled in to a struggling population mostly of loyalists who often were related to the smugglers.  
       Amid the growing tensions between England and the new United States Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1807.  No further trading was to be done with the English.  Prices in Canada soared.  Goods needed in England would be shipped from Canada.  One item in particular demand was potash.  The English needed it for soap and glass manufacture.  At the time lye was rarely produced in Europe.  Their forests were gone.  But the United States was one vast green carpet.  A ton of potash in Canada was worth $320.  Many smugglers flourished.  There is no written record about the McNair schooners, but like later times with Prohibition, everybody did it.
       During the War of 1812 Matthew who surely was a true patriot to his adopted country was appointed Commissionary of Subsistence for Oswego.  He also tried to organize a Navy for Lake Ontario.  Matthew stocked a warehouse with food in case of an emergency.  However, when the British stormed ashore, they plundered the stores.  They took 1200 barrels of hard bread and all sorts of other things including much whiskey.
       Things other than commerce also interested Matthew.  Maybe because of his growing family he wanted the development of an Oswego school.  He contributed liberally on behalf of the school which finally opened.
       The First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1816.  Matthew became a trustee on the first Board of Trustees.  A wooden church valued at $6,000 was erected and dedicated in 1826.  It was used until 24 October 1841 when an arsonist burned it down. 
       Matthew became director of the Oswego Bridge Company in 1817.  This group put a toll bridge over the Oswego River.  The enterprise prospered as a bridge to join both sides of the city was sorely needed.  To go from the east to west side or back required a boat ride.  Tolls were collected until 1855.  The bridge cost only $2,000 to erect.  It was considered a valuable forward step, although people were even happier when a free bridge was finally added much later.
       When the first Oswego Town Meeting was held in 1818, Matthew was made a Commissioner of Highways and Overseer of the Poor.  He was elected a Town Supervisor in 1825-39 and again in 1840.  In 1830 he was one of three who acted a Commissioners of Gospel Lots. Their task was to oversee land set aside for religious purposes.  In 1832 Matthew was elected President of the Village of Oswego.
       With partner T. S. Morgan, they built in 1818 an ashery, a store and a distillery.  The ashery stood on the west bank of the creek on the north side of the road.  The distillery was originally run by Simon Tuller.  The functions of an ashery were multiple, all useful to the local economy.
       When Oswego County was first settled around 1800, the area was thick forest, so deep that the sun didn’t always reach the ground.  People had to live in the gloom until enough trees were removed to allow the sunshine through.  Without steel tools the work was back breaking and slow.  The main tool was fire to burn down the trees.  Everywhere there were huge mounds of ash which blew into all things.  Oswego and all of northern New York needed to be rid of its ash.  Thus the asheries came about to buy ash at about 9 cents per pound.  
       The ashes were placed in large iron kettles.  Slowly water was poured in.  The water would leach out a brown ooze.  The ooze was potash or black salts or lye. Housewives used the lye to make soap.  The potash would be packed into 500 pound casks and exported to Canada.  By 1818 it was quite legal to export lye.  The ash brought in money for a despised byproduct of burning.  Many asheries operated in northern New York until the piles of ash were gone.  No new supply of ash could ever be expected.  The industry vanished.
       The economics of life along frontier towns like Oswego varied and were dependent for the most part of actions taken elsewhere like Washington, D.C.  What happened next is an example of the Washington influence.  Matthew like many others owned land which he was selling at a considerable profit.  He sold one 80 acre plot for $250 per acre in 1836 when prices were sky high.  Then paper money shrank to worthless.  Land could not be sold at any price.  Much of the McNair money vanished along with everyone’s cash. 
       Matthew continued serving on various town committees.  He was always willing to help govern.  On 13 April 1846 Matthew was elected Oswego Clerk of the Board of Trustees where he served for several years.  
       After the formation of the Oswego Fire Department  James McNair became a fire warden.  In 1859 John McNair lived at 80 W. Bridge when he advertised his services as a surveyor.  
       Because there always were lodgers living in the McNair residence, it has been impossible to identify all the children.  By the 1850 Oswego census the sons were out of the household.  John and William had their own households, but Matthew, Jr., who never married, was harder to locate.  James who became a fire warden dropped from sight.  Daughter Matilda died 7 August 1830.  Her sister Julia, who married on 24 October 1833 Edward D. Giffing, died before 1850.  Her child Julia Giffing lived with her grandparents, Matthew and Linda.  By 1880 no McNair remained in Oswego.
The 1850 Oswego census McNair enumerations:

1st Ward:
McNair, Matthew 76 Scotland (blank)
 Linda  62 Mass.
 Sarah  20 NY
 Mary   18   “
 Helen  16   “
Giffing, Julia  14   “
 1 lodger
Next door:
McNair, John  40 NY engineer net worth $2,000
 Elvira  35?   “
 Julia    9   “
 Sidney   8   “
 Ellis    4   “
 Adaline   1   “
 3rd Ward:
McNair, William 40 NY cartman
 Elizabeth 28   “
 Geo.    7   “
 The 1860 Oswego census McNair enumeration:
 1st Ward:
McNair, Matthew 86 NY??? Retired merchant net worth $1,000
 Sarah  40?   “
 Mary  38?   “
 Hellen [sic] 36?   “
Giffing, Julia  18?   “
     3 lodgers and 1 servant
McNair, John  54 NY surveyor
Wright, Julia  20   “
 William 28 VT teacher
 Janey   9 NY 
 Albert   6   “
McNair, John S.  18 NY (probably is Sidney)
 Alice  15   “ Living in home of William Smith, age 25 from Canada

        The remaining family were living in Oakland, California by 1880. Matthew died in California 19 October 1880.  Matthew, Jr. headed a household with his two unmarried sisters Mary, age 50, and Helen, age 45.  Both women worked in a bakery.  Matthew, Jr., age 70, like his father, said he was a retired merchant.  All of them said their father had been born in Scotland and their mother in Massachusetts. 

SOURCES:
Churchill, John C.  Landmarks of Oswego County, New York.  Syracuse: Mason, 1895.
 Family Group Record. Available [online] http://familysearch.org [16 May 2003]
 Finn, J. Leo.  Old Shipping Days in Oswego.  Oswego: Oswego County Board of Supervisors, 1972.
 French, J.H.  Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York State. Syracuse: Smith, 1860.
 The Hamilton and Scourge Before the War of 1812. Available [online] http://www.hamilton-scourge.city.hamilton.on.ca [18 May 2003]
 Hancock, William.  Oswego City Residences and Advertising Directory, 1859.  (LDS microfilm #6044303).  
 Johnson, Crisfield.  The History of Oswego County, New York.    Philadelphia, Everts, 1877.
 McNair, James Blair.  McNair, McNear, and McNeir Genealogies – Supplement 1955.  Los Angeles: Western Lore, 1955.
 McNair Family Genealogy Forum.  Available [online] http://genforum.genealogy.com/mcnair/ [16 May 2003]
 NY. Oswego.  Records of the Village of Oswego, Oswego, N.Y.  [CD-ROM] Abode Systems, 2002.
 Oswego County, New York.  Available. [online] https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nyoswego [16 May 2003]
 Slosek, Anthony M.  Oswego; Its People and Events.  Interlaken: Heart of the Lakes, 1985.
 U.S. Census Oakland 2nd Ward, Alameda Co., CA 1880.
 U.S. Census Oswego 1st Ward, Oswego Co., NY 1820, 1840, 1850, 1860.