Judge William Blackburn Judge William Blackburn is my great-great granduncle on my maternal grandmother’s side. He was the younger brother of my great-great grandmother, Mary Ann Blackburn. William was born to Joseph Blackburn and Margaret Drew on February 14th, 1814 in Harpers Ferry in Jefferson County, Virginia. He was the oldest brother of Daniel Drew Blackburn, Maria A. Blackburn, James Hanson Blackburn, and Jacob A. Blackburn. Of my ancestors, Judge William Blackburn has much written about him as he was truly a remarkable man.

William Blackburn was 6’4″ and was described as “gentle and good humored.” Some called him, a “peppery judge.” He was able to rise in stature with limited education and terse common sense. In the book Pioneer Times In California, Judge Blackburn was described as a person who looked dignified, but had a sense of humor. 
“He was very tall in person, and very dignified in his aspect. To look at him you could hardly fancy that he ever laughed, yet beneath this appearance of austere diginity lurked the most uncontrollable desire to create merriment and fun. He was a sharp, and naturally witty, and had a keen sense of the ridiculous. His opponents always feared him, for in controversy he was sure to give them some cut, when it was least expected, that would put them in the most ridiculous point of view, and, while doing this, not a smile would disturb his own absurd dignity.”

As a young man, he spent some time as a cabinetmaker in New Orleans before arriving in Branciforte, California in 1845 with the Swasey-Todd Party. According to James Gregson, William Blackburn met up with the Greenwood Party at Fort Hall in 1845 travelling with pack horses. The cost of joining the Greenwood party was $2.50 per person. 

He settled briefly in Zayante, California (Rancho Zayante which is in the present Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park). He went to work in Santa Cruz as a lumberman, and was a witness at a trial of Williams for killing Naile in April 1946.
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