physician politician statesman
Luke Blackburn was born on June 16, 1816, in Fayette County, Kentucky, United States, the son of Edward M. and Lavina (Bell) Blackburn. His grandfather George Blackburn moved to Kentucky about 1780 from Culpeper County, Virginia, and settled in Woodford County, calling his estate "Blackburn's Post. " His father was prepared for the law but chose rather to engage in farming and breeding thoroughbred horses, for both of which he became well-known.
Luke P. Blackburn, determining on the study of medicine, took advantage of Transylvania University to prepare himself. He graduated in 1834 with the M. D. degree.
After graduation Blackburn immediately began his practise in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1835 cholera having broken out in Versailles, Kentucky, he offered his services free to a people almost completely deprived, by death or desertion, of medical attention. Here he developed characteristics and interests that were to constitute his chief claim to distinction: generosity with his medical skill and services, and a profound knowledge of epidemics and their control. So grateful were the people of Versailles that they prevailed upon him to settle in their town. Here Blackburn attempted to supplement his income by a venture into the manufacture of rope and bagging, but in 1839 he failed with considerable financial losses.
Though not greatly interested in politics at the time, he represented Woodford County in the legislature in 1843. Three years later flush times in Mississippi drew him to Natchez, where he soon began a work destined to tax his capacities and to make him known to the whole nation. He assumed general control of the yellow fever epidemics which broke out in the lower Mississippi Valley in 1848 and 1854, and became so much interested in the welfare of the rivermen that at his own expense he set up a marine hospital in Natchez. Later he induced Congress to take charge and to erect others. In his efforts to control yellow fever, he held that a quarantine station on the Mississippi below New Orleans would be of inestimable value. To aid him in carrying out this plan Mississippi commissioned him a representative to Louisiana to induce her to erect such a station, and while on this visit he addressed both the Louisiana House and Senate and secured favorable action. He later induced the federal government to assume control.
In 1856 while Blackburn was on a visit to New York, yellow fever broke out on Long Island and at the request of the mayor he assumed control, refusing to make any charges for his services. In 1857 he visited the principal hospitals of England, Scotland, Germany, and France. He made his home in New Orleans until the Civil War broke out. Being a strong secessionist, he offered his services to the Confederacy. He was attached as a surgeon to the staff of Gen. Sterling Price, with $50, 000 given by Mississippi to be used in caring for the sick troops of that state. To secure medical supplies for the Confederacy he visited Canada and was prevailed upon by the governor-general to go to the Bermuda Islands to relieve distress there. In 1867 he moved to Arkansas to live on a plantation but returned to Kentucky in 1873 and made his home in Louisville. Two years later he assumed control of the yellow fever situation around Memphis and in 1878 gave free his services to Hickman, Kentucky, suffering under a like epidemic. He died in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Luke Blackburn was a well-known expert on the treatment of the viral disease yellow fever, which was frequent in Mississippi River communities. Many times he combated epidemics, which brought him national fame. For his humanitarian medical efforts he was elected the 28th governor of Kentucky. During his administration he worked to improve Kentucky’s river navigation, balance the State’s budget, and reform the State’s judicial and penal system. His efforts to improve health in Kentucky’s prisons, combat overcrowding, and create a Warden authority system, gained him the moniker “The Father of Prison Reforms in Kentucky”.
Blackburn was a member of the Democratic Party.
In 1835 Blackburn was married to Ella Guest Boswell. His first wife died in 1855. Later he married Julia M. Churchill of Louisville, Kentucky.
