JOSEPH BLACKBURN & RIPPON LODGE BLACKBURNS

The progenitor of the Blackburns came from England in colonial times according to the History of San Luis Obispo (1883). Joseph Blackburn was born at Charleston, Kenawa County, Virginia in 1788. Joseph married Margaret Drew in 1807 in Maryland. Margaret Drew was born on February 06, 1782 in Washington Co., Maryland, and was the daughter of Michael Drew and Elizabeth Woolfe. They moved to Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, Virginia. Biographies of his sons list him being born in Virginia, but may have been West Virginia at the time of his birth. Joseph served in the War of 1812 (the year his eldest daughter and my great-great-great grandmother, Mary Ann was born) and was wounded at the battle of Fort McHenry, in the desperate defense of the city of Baltimore in 1814 (the year his son, Judge William Blackburn, was born), when the British were repulsed and their invasion thwarted. Joseph was a butcher by trade. In 1822, Joseph and his family moved to Springfield, Clark County, Ohio. The Alt family story is that he drowned in St. Mary’s River, Michigan abt. 1825. Margaret Drew Blackburn Bell’s obituary says that he died in 1824. Per Patricia Boswell, there is a will on file in Clark County for a Joseph Blackburn.

Family lore has us related to the RIppon Lodge family, but we have no proof as we have no information about Joseph Blackburn's parents.