Luke P. Blackburn - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

Luke Blackburn was born June 16, 1816, in Woodford County, Kentucky. He was the fourth of thirteen children born to Edward M. ("Ned") and Lavinia (Bell) Blackburn. Blackburn's great-uncle, Gideon Blackburn, was a well-known Presbyterian missionary and served as president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Many of Blackburn's relatives were involved in politics. His maternal grandfather was a delegate to the 1799 Kentucky Constitutional Convention and his uncle, William Blackburn, was President Pro Tempore of the Kentucky Senate and acting lieutenant governor in the administration of Governor James Turner Morehead. Noted statesman Henry Clay was also a distant cousin, and occasionally visited the Blackburn home.

Blackburn obtained his early education in the local public schools. At age sixteen, he began a medical apprenticeship under his uncle, physician Churchill Blackburn. During his apprenticeship, he aided his uncle in treating victims of cholera outbreaks in Lexington and Paris. He later matriculated to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he earned a medical degree in March 1835. After graduation, he opened a medical practice in Lexington and was instrumental in combating a cholera epidemic in nearby Versailles. He accepted no payment for his services during the epidemic.

On November 24, 1835, Blackburn married his distant cousin, Ella Gist Boswell. Boswell's father, Dr. Joseph Boswell, had died in the Lexington cholera epidemic a year earlier. The couple's only child, son Cary Bell Blackburn, was born in 1837. Just before Cary's birth, Blackburn invested heavily in the hemp rope and bagging industry and suffered a significant financial loss when the business venture subsequently failed. In 1843, Blackburn was elected as a Whig to the Kentucky House of Representatives and served a single, undistinguished term. He did not seek re-election, and in 1844, he and his younger brother opened a medical practice in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Drawn by the city's prosperous economy, the Blackburns relocated to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1847. Luke Blackburn quickly became an active member of the community, helping found a temperance society, joining a militia group, and becoming the administrator of a local hospital. He became a close associate of Jefferson Davis and William Johnson. In 1848, Blackburn served as the city's health officer and implemented the first successful quarantine against a yellow fever outbreak in the Mississippi River valley. Using his own personal funds, he established a hospital for boatmen who navigated the Mississippi River. He also successfully lobbied the Congress to establish a hospital in Natchez; upon its completion in 1852, he was appointed surgeon there. In 1854, he implemented another successful quarantine against yellow fever. The Mississippi Legislature commissioned Blackburn to lobby the Louisiana State Legislature to establish a quarantine at New Orleans to protect cities along the Mississippi River; Louisiana authorized him to organize such a system.

Blackburn and his son Cary traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September 1854 to secure an apprenticeship for Cary under noted physician Samuel D. Gross. While they were there, a yellow fever outbreak hit Fort Washington near Long Island, New York. The mayor of New York City asked Blackburn to help treat victims of the outbreak; Blackburn accepted the invitation and refused compensation for his services. When he returned home in November 1856, he found his wife Ella, who suffered from dropsy and a nervous condition, ailing with a fever. Despite Blackburn's efforts to save her, Ella Blackburn's condition worsened and she died before the end of the month. Blackburn was stricken with grief, and friends encouraged him to tour Europe, as he had often spoken of doing, to ease his sorrow. He did so in early 1857, visiting hospitals in England, Scotland, France, and Germany. While in Paris, Blackburn met fellow Kentuckian Julia M. Churchill, who was traveling with her sister and niece. Blackburn and Churchill cut their journeys short, returned home, and were married in November 1857. After their honeymoon, the couple took up residence in New Orleans in January 1858, and Blackburn resumed his medical practice. A brief poem written by Blackburn indicates that the couple had a daughter named Abby, but the child apparently died as an infant, and her birth and death dates are unknown.