Son of Thomas Blackburn and Elizabeth Bowen

Married Julia Ann Jameson, abt 1846, Winter Quarters, Douglas, Nebraska

Children - Julia Ann Blackburn, Jehu Blackburn, Ephraim Blackburn

Married Mary Ann Hirons, abt 1846, Winter Quarters, Douglas, Nebraska

Children - Amasa Lyman Blackburn, Mary Elizabeth Blackburn, Hyrum Blackburn, William Blackburn, Jonathon Blackburn, Sarah Blackburn, Benjamin Lewis Blackburn,David Lawrence Blackburn

Married Susannah Jameson, 3 Apr 1852, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children - Malissa Blackburn, Mannaseh Blackburn, Thomas Clifton Blackburn, Anthony Wayne Blackburn, Alonzo Blackburn, Madora Blackburn, Harriet Blackburn, Charles Thadeus Blackburn, Byron Blackburn, Walter Scott Blackburn

Married Lydia Pilch, 2 Jul 1864

Obituary - Minersville, Beaver Co., March 31, 1879

Editors Deseret News:

John Blackburn died at Nephi, Juab County, at one o'clock a.m., on Wednesday, 19th inst., of lung fever, after an illness of nine days. Was born December 25, 1824, in Bedford County, Pennsylania; was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Blackburn; moved to the State of Ohio in 1835, and to the State of Illinois in 1841; was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842, by Bishop David Evans, shared the expulsion of the Saints at Nauvoo in 1846; arrived in Salt Lake Valley in 1848; helped to build the Old Fort in Salt Lake Valley in 1849; pioneered and helped to build the fort in Provo, and in 1853 was called by President G.A. Smith to strengthen the southern settlements; helped to build up Fillmore City, and in 1856 built a mill in Pine Valley, and in 1859 helped to found and build up Minersville, Beaver County, and in the spring of 1876, pioneered and founded the settlement in Fremont or Rabbit Valley, Piute County, and at the time of his death was building a mill at that place.

He was the husband of four wives and the father of 21 children, 15 boys and six girls and nine grandchildren. He leaves a large family and a large number of friends to mourn his loss. Died in full faith of a glorious resurrection. Respectfully, etc., E.H. Blackburn.

(Deseret News, 16 April 1879)

History - Pinto, Washington, Utah, with its lush meadows and clear stream of good water, was a natural stopping place on the Old Spanish Trail. The chief products carried over this trail, before the coming of the Mormons, were Indian slaves and peltries. When the Mormons first arrived in southern Utah they found a well-beaten trail through the streets of Pinto.

At the April conference in 1854, President Young called a group of missionaries to the Indians of Southern Utah. Under the leadership of Rufus C. Allen, they commenced operations at Harmony, Utah. About the end of May, the same year, President Young, Heber C. Kimball, Parley P. Pratt and others of the General Authorities, visited there, President Young gave much instruction regarding conducting the mission and building up the settlements in southern Utah.

In December 1854, Jacob Hamblin with Ira Hatch, Samuel Knight, Thales Haskell and A. P. Hardy went down the Rio Virgin and settled Santa Clara. In the summer of 1855, Isaac Riddle, Jehu Blackburn and Robert Richey left Harmony and settled Pine Valley.

In the fall of 1856, six or eight Indian missionaries camped on Pinto Creek by a hay stack owned by Brother Gould, who, however, was not a permanent settler on the creek, but had come out from Parowan to cut hay. The missionaries, who were in charge of Rufus C. Allen, were on their way from New Harmony to Santa Clara. Benjamin Knell, one of the missionaries writes: "Rufus C. Allen was our president, or captain, and was with us most of the time, trying to get the Indians to come to our camps that we might let them know we were their friends. A few of the older men would come in, but were very shy. From our visit to the Santa Clara we went to Pinto and camped at Gould's hay stack in the summer of 1856. Brothers Dixon, Richard S. Robinson, Amos G. Thornton, Prime T. Coleman and David Wilson Tullis were a part of the company. That year we made our homes on the Pinto Creek hauling hay from the Mountain Meadows for our stock. The winter of 1856-57 was quite mild. Jehu Blackburn and I went on horseback up Pinto Creek to ascertain if we could get a team up the Canyon as he wanted to get into Pine Valley from New Harmony. We found the pass impossible. We drove two yoke of oxen and a heavy wagon on the trail to the head of the middle fork of Pinto creek and then climbed the ridge, getting into Pine Valley that night. Heavy freight teams enroute from Los Angeles, California to Salt Lake City would frequently camp on the Pinto Creek. The mountains were covered with grass. Jacob Hamblin was appointed our captain in a short time and he frequently came to Pinto to give us council.

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Abraham O. Smoot - George B. Wallace Company (1847)