Gideon Blackburn

The Reverend Gideon Blackburn
3rd President of Centre College
In office November 5, 1827 – October 26, 1830
Preceded by	Jeremiah Chamberlain
Succeeded by	John C. Young
Personal details
Born	(1772-08-27)August 27, 1772 Augusta County, Virginia, U.S.
Died	August 23, 1838(1838-08-23) (aged 65) Carlinville, Illinois, U.S.
Spouse	Grizzel Blackburn ​ (m. 1793)​
Children	11
Education	Martin Academy Dickinson College
Signature

Gideon Blackburn (August 27, 1772 – August 23, 1838) was an American Presbyterian minister, missionary, educator, and academic administrator. He raised funds for new colleges and founded numerous congregations and churches in areas of new western settlement in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Early life and education

Gideon Blackburn was born in Augusta County, Virginia, on August 27, 1772.

• Became orphan at age 11
• studied under Robert Henderson (1788–1834) at Martin Academy in Washington County, Tennessee

Career

In the 1790s Blackburn began his ministerial career as pastor at the New Providence Church, which he founded in Maryville, Tennessee. He had established a farm and distillery near Fort Craig, Tennessee. For the next two decades he mostly worked with congregations in Maryville, including Eusebia Presbyterian Church. He was known as a powerful and evangelizing public speaker.

In the early 19th century, he raised funds to establish schools for Cherokee children. He became a cultural missionary (1803–1809) to the Cherokee. Receiving permission from them, he founded two schools for Cherokee boys in southeast Tennessee—one in 1804 on the Hiwassee River near Charleston, Bradley County, which future Cherokee Chief John Ross attended; and in 1806 one at the mouth of Sale Creek, Hamilton County. Blackburn had all classes in English, with material on culture and practices of Anglo-American society. Together the schools had an enrollment of about 100 students, mostly bicultural Cherokee-American boys, often sons of traders, who found the English lessons more useful.

Blackburn closed both schools in 1809 or 1810 after his reputation was severely damaged due to a scandal related to alcohol. Some Creeks accused Blackburn, his brother Samuel, and the Cherokee chiefs John McIntosh and Major Ridge of scheming to ship whiskey illegally through Creek territory. The Native American nations wanted to control the movement of whiskey and other liquor.

Moving to Middle Tennessee, a flourishing and fertile area being rapidly settled by migrants, Blackburn served as an itinerant preacher in Franklin, Tennessee, where he headed Harpeth Academy in 1811-13. He founded five congregations in the area, including First Presbyterian Church of Nashville, Tennessee and in 1818 the first Presbyterian church in the Alabama Territory, at Huntsville.

Blackburn was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in July 1815.

Kentucky and Indiana, 1823–1837

He then moved his family to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was pastor of the First Church of Louisville (1823–27). He was elected president of the young Centre College on August 1, 1827, and took office on November 5 of that year. He resigned in 1830. He then served again as a minister, at Versailles, Kentucky (1830–33). During these years he also was active with the Kentucky Temperance Society.

Because of his success as a fundraiser, in 1833 Blackburn was invited to Carlinville, Illinois, where he helped raise funds for the new Illinois College. He also started work on developing a non-denominational seminary in Macoupin County. In addition he founded two more congregations.

Four days short of his 66th birthday, he died there. The Panic of 1837 had delayed fundraising for the new school he was trying to establish in Carlinville. What was named Blackburn Seminary in his honor was opened in 1859.

Marriage and family

In 1793 Blackburn married his cousin, Grizzel Blackburn, with whom he had seven daughters and four sons.

Legacy and honors

Entrance to Blackburn College (pictured 2019)

Blackburn established numerous new congregations and churches in Tennessee and Kentucky. He was part of a movement to create community among new settlements of migrants from further East.

• In 1859 Blackburn Theological Seminary, now Blackburn College, in Carlinville, Illinois was named after him.
• Blackburn was a great-uncle to Kentucky Governor Luke P. Blackburn.

Further reading

Books and journals

• McLoughlin, William G. (1984). Cherokees and Missionaries, 1789–1839. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
• Posey, Walter Brownlow (1952). The Presbyterian Church in the Old Southwest, 1778–1838. Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press.
• Queener, V. M. (1934). Hamer, Philip M. (ed.). "Gideon Blackburn" (PDF). The East Tennessee Historical Society's Publications. 6: 12–28.
• Bass, Dorothy C. (1974). "Gideon Blackburn's mission to the Cherokees: Christianization and civilization". Journal of Presbyterian History. 52 (3): 203–226. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Lamon, Lester (1984). "Gideon Blackburn: a contemporary's perspective". Journal of Presbyterian History. 62 (4): 354–367. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Rinaker, Thomas (October 1924). "Gideon Blackburn, the founder of Blackburn University, Carlinville, Illinois". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 17 (3): 398–410. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• McLoughlin, William G. (1979). "Parson Blackburn's whiskey and the Cherokee Indian schools, 1809–1810". Journal of Presbyterian History. 57 (4): 427–445. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Cross, Jasper W. (1969). "John Miller's missionary journal—1816–1817: religious conditions in the south and midwest". Journal of Presbyterian History. 47 (3): 226–261. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Herndon, John R. (December 1906). "A sketch of Abingdon Presbytery". Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society. 3 (8): 390–397. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Bryant, James A. Jr. (2017). "Educating for activism: the Gadugi Program". Journal of American Indian Education. 56 (3): 59–78. doi:10.5749/jamerindieduc.56.3.0059. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Shearer, Ernest C. (March 1961). "Sam Houston and religion". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 20 (1): 38–50. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Johnson, Michael P. (January 2017). "Telemaque's pilgrimage? A tale of two Charleston churches, three missionaries, and four ministers, 1783–1817". South Carolina Historical Magazine. 118 (1): 4–36. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Birdwell, Tracey A. (2012). Cherokee reckonings: native preachers, Protestant missionaries, and the shaping of American Indian religious culture, 1801–1838 (Ph.D. thesis). University of Delaware. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
• Railey, William Edward (1975). History of Woodford County, Kentucky. Baltimore, Maryland: Regional Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8063-7999-5.
• McLoughlin, William G.; Conser, Walter H. Jr.; McLoughlin, Virginia Duffy (1984). The Cherokee Ghost Dance: Essays on the Southeastern Indians, 1789–1861. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. ISBN 0-86554-128-0.
• Sprague, William B. (1858). Annals of the American Pulpit; or, commemorative notices of distinguished American clergymen of various denominations. Vol. IV. New York, New York: Robert Carter and Brothers.
• Armstrong, Zella (1993). "Chapter XV: Education". The History of Hamilton County and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Vol. II. Johnson City, Tennessee: The Overmountain Press. ISBN 0-932807-99-2.
• Alexander, John Edminston (1890). A Brief History of the Synod of Tennessee, from 1817 to 1887. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: MacCalla and Company.
• McLane, William W. (January 1895). Nelson, Henry A. (ed.). "Gideon Blackburn, D.D." The Church at Home and Abroad. Vol. XVII. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work. pp. 381–385.
• Gallaher, James (1850). The Western Sketch-Book. Boston, Massachusetts: Crocker & Brewster.
• Wallace, Benjamin J., ed. (1853). "Gideon Blackburn". The Presbyterian Quarterly Review. 1. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Willis P. Hazard.
• Cook, John Williston (1912). Educational History of Illinois: Growth and Progress in Educational Affairs of the State from the Earliest Day to the Present. Chicago, Illinois: The Henry O. Shepard Company.
• Elmore, Edgar A. (1904). "Chapter III: A Pioneer of the Old 'Southwest', Gideon Blackburn, D.D., 1772–1838". Home Mission Heroes: A Series of Sketches. New York, New York: Presbyterian Church in the United States of America Board of Home Missions.

Newspapers

• Challacombe, W. A.; Rule, Lucien V. (August 1, 1941). "Gideon Blackburn's exodus to Illinois in 1833". The Oldham Era. La Grange, Kentucky. p. 2. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• Rule, Lucien V. (May 19, 1912). "Apostle of Presbyterianism about Louisville". Courier Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. p. 46. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• "Rev. Gideon Blackburn D. D." The Dandridge Banner. Jefferson City, Tennessee. November 27, 1930. p. 4. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• Armstrong, Zella (September 20, 1931). "Gideon Blackburn, pastor, teacher among Indians, real pioneer hero". Chattanooga Daily Times. Chattanooga, Tennessee. p. 20. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• "Ceremony honors pioneer preacher". Chattanooga Daily Times. Chattanooga, Tennessee. September 21, 1931. p. 6. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• Bartlett (July 13, 1892). "Gideon Blackburn". The Maryville Times. Maryville, Tennessee. p. 8. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• Lyle, W. A. (December 30, 1934). "More interesting data on Hopewell church". The Knoxville News-Sentinel. Knoxville, Tennessee. p. 26. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• Hill, Howard L. (May 17, 1959). "Powerful religious influence of Gideon Blackburn". Morristown Gazette Mail. Morristown, Tennessee. p. 12. Retrieved July 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• "Gideon Blackburn's log college and teacher". The Oldham Era. La Grange, Kentucky. December 5, 1924. p. 3. Retrieved July 19, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• "Gideon Blackburn leads exodus to Illinois". The Oldham Era. La Grange, Kentucky. March 24, 1939. p. 6. Retrieved July 19, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• Dickson, W. G. Sr. (June 28, 1925). "First Presbyterian Church is older than the state". The Huntsville Times. Huntsville, Alabama. p. 71. Retrieved July 19, 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Story continued here (p. 72).
• Rule, Lucien V. (November 20, 1942). "Presbyterian pioneers and the frontier culture forces at Salem, Charlestown and Goshen". The Oldham Era. La Grange, Kentucky. p. 2. Retrieved July 20, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• "First missionary to the Cherokee Indians". Falls City Daily News. Falls City, Nebraska. May 21, 1927. p. 3. Retrieved July 20, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• "Instruction". Maryland Gazette. Annapolis, Maryland. February 7, 1810. p. 3. Retrieved July 20, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• Smith, W. (May 4, 1819). "Harpeth Academy". The Clarion and Tennessee State Gazette. Nashville, Tennessee. p. 1. Retrieved 20 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• "Untitled". Alabama State Intelligencer. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. January 26, 1831. p. 3. Retrieved 20 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• Burke, James (May 9, 1834). "Mississippi State Temperance Society". The Weekly Mississippian. Jackson, Mississippi. p. 3. Retrieved 20 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
• "Untitled". Vermont Chronicle. Bellows Falls, Vermont. January 22, 1835. p. 3. Retrieved 20 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.

Contemporary obituaries

• "Rev. Gideon Blackburn, D. D." Vermont Chronicle. Bellows Falls, Vermont. October 3, 1838. p. 2. Retrieved 20 July 2026 – via Newspapers.com.