John Blackburn Log House
Killeen, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John C.G. Blackburn, born in Tennessee in 1832, followed his father's earlier land claims to Bell County in 1854 and established a 30-acre farm near the Palo Alto community. When the Civil War came in 1861 he joined the Confederate militia, and family tradition holds he raised this oak-log house in 1863 just before enlisting in the cavalry and drawing frontier duty along the Rio Grande. The cabin outlasted its builders, surviving a Fort Hood expansion in 1954 and relocation before being rebuilt here in 1976 as an artifact of frontier life.
Why it matters
A hand-hewn log house preserved through military expansion and repeated moves, it embodies the everyday frontier settlement that underlay Texas's growth on the eve of the Civil War.
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Related people
- · John Churchill Gaines Blackburn
- · Mary Ann Chambers Blackburn
Themes & tags
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