BLACKBURN, Gideon, clergyman, born in Angusta County, Virginia, 27 August 1772 ; died in Carlinville, 111., 23 August 1838. He was educated at Martin academy, Washington County, Tennessee, licensed to preach by Abingdon presbytery in 1795, and settled many years at Marysville, Tennessee He was minister of Franklin. Tennessee, in 1811-'3, and of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1823-'7. He passed the last forty years of his life in the western states, in preaching, organizing Churches, and, from 1803 to 1809, during a part of each year, in his mission to the Cherokees, establishing a school at Hywassee. He established a school in Tennessee in 1806, and from 1827 till 1830 was president of Center College, Kentucky.