DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words and at my own pace. John Churchill Gaines Blackburn was born in Tennessee in 1832, and by 1853 he had made his way to Texas. He didn't arrive alone.
He and others in the family first put down temporary roots in Williamson County, then pushed on to Bell County in 1854. His father, John Porter Blackburn, born in 1786, had already been ahead of him, staking claims in Texas, including land right here in Bell County near a place called the Palo Alto Community, about four miles northeast of where we're standing. The son followed that trail and carved out a thirty-acre farm on that land.
Now, John C.G. Blackburn was a family man and a farmer, and that might have been the whole story. But 1861 arrived with the Civil War, and he enlisted in the Confederate State Militia.
Then he built this oak-log structure in 1863, according to family tradition, just before enlisting in the Confederate Cavalry. Just before. A man builds a house, then rides off to war.
He was assigned to frontier duty along the Rio Grande for the duration of the war. His wife Mary Ann Chambers Blackburn, born in 1831, was holding on back home. By 1883 the Blackburns had built a larger house at Palo Alto.
Life had expanded. But this cabin, this original oak-log structure, it kept standing at its original site all the way until 1954, when a Fort Hood expansion prompted its removal to Westcliff Road in Killeen, about two miles northeast. It sat there until 1976, when it was moved again and rebuilt right here as an artifact of frontier life in Bell County.
John C.G. Blackburn died in 1912. Mary Ann had passed in 1908.
They are buried together at the Blackburn Cemetery near their homestead on Old Schwald Road, about four miles northeast, on Fort Hood property now. The farm is gone. The larger house is gone.
But this cabin, hauled twice across Bell County and put back together by hand, is still here. Some things just refuse to quit.
What the marker says
John Churchill Gaines Blackburn (1832-1912) was born in Tennessee and came to Texas in 1853. He and his wife Mary Ann Chambers Blackburn (1831-1908) first stopped with other family members in Williamson County, then moved to Bell County in 1854. Blackburn's father, John Porter Blackburn (1786-1855), had previously established claims in Texas, including land in this county near the Palo Alto Community (then about 4 mi.ne). There John C.G. Blackburn established a 30-acre farm. He enlisted in the Confederate State Militia in 1861 when the Civil War began. Blackburn built this oak-log structure in 1863, according to family tradition, just before enlisting in the Confederate Cavalry. He was then assigned to frontier duty along the Rio Grande for the duration of the war. The Blackburns built a larger house at Palo Alto in 1883. This structure survived at its original site until 1954, when a Fort Hood expansion prompted its removal to Westcliff Road in Killeen (2 mi.NE). It remained there until 1976, when the cabin was moved here and rebuilt as an artifact of frontier life in Bell County. John C.G. and Mary Ann Blackburn are buried at the Blackburn Cemetery near their homestead on Old Schwald Road (about 4 mi. NE on Fort Hood property). Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986