Transcription contributed by Arne H Trelvik 19 September 2005

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966

THOMAS J. BLACKBURN, farmer and harness-maker; P. O. Foster's Crossing. The above gentleman is one of the well-known citizens of Warren County; he was born in Monroe, Butler Co., Ohio, in 1828; his parents were Benjamin and Elizabeth (Biggs) Blackburn ; he was born in Cincinnati in 1790; she in Monongahela Co., Penn., in 1792. James, father of Benjamin, was born near Blackburn's Ford, in Virginia, and was a Captain in the colonial forces during the Revolutionary war. He came to Ohio in either 1788 or 1789; came down the Ohio River in a canoe, and was one of the first settlers in Cincinnati, where he purchased a tract of land, living thereon for a few years, after which he came to Warren County and settled in Turtle Creek Township about 1791, in which he lived till his death, which occurred in 1825; he was a farmer and gunsmith by occupation, and, in an early day, a renowned hunter. Benjamin was married, in Lebanon, in 1813, to Elizabeth Biggs. After the sale of his father's property, in 1826, he went to Butler Co., and, in 1829, returned to Warren, in which he lived till his decease, which occurred in 1852; his wife departed this life in 1871. They were parents of eleven children, seven living, viz., Wiiliam [sic], James, Thomas, Sarah, Dorothy, Lucinda and Elizabeth. The deceased are Permelia, Mary J., Hannah and Phineas. He served as Justice of the Peace for twenty-one years, this official life ending in 1851; he was a Commissioner for about the same length of time, Mayor of Lebanon for a number of years, and also served as Trustee in his township for a long period of time. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, under Gen. Hull. Our subject was reared in Lebanon, receiving his education in the village schools