Kentucky: A History of the State, Perrin, Battle, Kniffin, 8th ed., 1888,
Jefferson Co.

HON. LUKE P. BLACKBURN, deceased, was born in Woodford County, Ky., June
16, 1816, and was a son of Edward M. Blackburn, a prominent farmer and
stock-raiser.  The subject of this sketch was well educated, and graduated
in medicine from Transylvania University, at Lexington, where he located
and commenced the practice of his profession.  In 1835, when the cholera
broke out in this country, it raged at Versailles, carrying death to many
homes.  Dr. Blackburn, after the death of some of the physicians of the
place, and the flight of others, went there, and alone fought the disease
until health was restored to the stricken town.  This dangerous service was
rendered without pecuniary reward.  He finally removed to Versailles, where
he established a large and lucrative practice.  He became considerably
involved in manufacturing enterprises through the financial depression of
1837-39, and in 1846 removed to Natchez, Miss., where he soon built up an
extensive practice.  When the yellow fever made its appearance in New
Orleans in 1848, the city authorities directed him, as health officer of
Natchez, to establish quarantine, which he did effectually.  He became so
interested in the sufferings of the marines, for whom the general
government did not provide, as well as hundreds of others, that he built
a hospital, at his own expense, in which he again established a reputation
for personal professional daring, skill, and genuine philanthropy.  Mainly
through his efforts and influence, a bill was passed by the Congress of
the United States, providing for the erection of the Natchez hospital, of
which, when completed, Dr. Blackburn was appointed surgeon, holding the
position for many years, both of the State and Marine Hospital.  He early
advanced the theory of exemption from Asiatic cholera, by the use of pure
soft water; has long been a believer in the transmissibility and infection
of yellow fever; and in 1854, protected Natchez from that disease, by a
rigid quarantine, when it prevailed in the surrounding country.  The
legislature of Mississippi commissioned him to visit the legislature of
Louisiana, and urge that body to establish a quarantine below New Orleans.
This he did so intelligently before both branches of the legislature that
he was authorized to establish, below New Orleans, the present quarantine
system.  In 1857 he visited the hospitals of England, Scotland, France and
Germany, and returning to America located in New Orleans, where he resumed
the practice of his profession with his usual success and popularity.  The
year previous to his visit to Europe, the yellow fever broke out from an
infected ship, in the vicinity of Fort Washington on Long Island, N. Y.,
and Dr. Blackburn, being in New York City, was invited by the mayor to give
his aid to the afflicted district, which he did, refusing the proffered
compensation for his services.  When the civil war broke out in 1861, he
was an ardent friend and sympathizer of the South; he was the political
friend and physician of Gen. John A. Quitman.  As surgeon, he was attached
to the staff of Gen. Sterling Price, and the legislature of Mississippi put
$50,000 in his hands to be applied to the benefit of the suffering soldiers
of that State.  In 1864, by the request of the Governor-General of Canada,
whither his duties had called him, he repaired to the Bermuda Islands, to
look after the suffering citizens and soldiers.  In 1867 he returned to the
United States, and engaged in planting in Arkansas, where his wife owned a
plantation.  When the yellow fever last visited Memphis, true to the
benevolence of his disposition, he volunteered his aid, and rendered great
service to the suffering city.  It was one of the great pleasures of his
life to aid those in extreme danger, and he never refused to respond to the
call of the sick and distressed, and he combated more epidemics of cholera
and yellow fever than almost any other physician.  Dr. Blackburn was first
married to Ella Guest Boswell, a daughter of Dr. Joseph Boswell, of
Lexington, Ky.  She died in 1855, and in November, 1857, he married Julia
M. Church, of Kentucky, who, with his only child, Dr. Cary B. Blackburn,
survives him.  Dr. Blackburn was elected to the Kentucky legislature in
1843, and in 1879 was elected governor of Commonwealth, serving four years.
He died September 14, 1887, in the seventy-first year of his age.

Blackburn Boswell Churchill Quitman
=
Woodford-KY Lexington-Fayette-KY New_Orleans-Orleans-LA TN NY AR MS
Bermuda_Islands England Scotland Germany France Canada

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/blackburn.lp.txt