Show LUKE P BLACKBURN Most DlsUucnisliei of Kentuckys Lib One Sons U Special OBrrespondcncej FRJTKPOUT Ky March SO lfw Jive in deeds not years then th inpiisbed physician politician and phil H tbrapist esGovernor Luke P Blackburn I ol Ks awky whose benign features are re fleeted in the accompanying portrait cai I MiHagiy close his ayes to death now of necef wU ity wet far away The dread summons J + n1 him bare te Frankfort Ely where h IL hrfnMf h1i mrl1ltn f1 nJ has been drawn oe if with the elastic end of Jove from his cradle hackthroagh a bfe of wandering and adventure u Iris final rt nff 1 place within a few miles of the home of his birth His fatter Edward M Blackburn was a lawyer by profession and an owner and breeder of race horses The I I UH grass farm in 1 = = Woodford county wn r4e Oft wbtcit Luke was born June 161SK I L lJ is in the midst oS rr Cl the finest land ic li the country and beS I a short distance from the celebrated t I stockfarms of HarI S Har-I par and Alexander j 1 I He was graduated I I in medicine at the LCEE page 13UDltnt I p-age of 18 at the Transylvania university an I entered upon the practice of his profession in Lexington When he was but 19 he displayed that noble spirit of self sacritiiug heroism I hero-ism Tvhidi afterward won him the enviable en-viable appellation of the philanthrop ist Cholera appeared in Versailles the I county seat of Woodford county and the daily mortality was frightful A number I of resident physicians died and others fled I ssthen Dr Blackburn alone for days an > wt > red the call of distress for medical aid He afterward I after-ward removed to Versailles and in 1543 wa I elected to the state legislature Three year after ward he took up his residence in Katrbez Miss where he soon acquired a large sue lucrative practice and became well known I throughout that part of the south tributary I to the Mississippi river In ISiS wink Ue wa I health officer Jt latch be built at his OWl expense during the prevaence of yellow fevcj I at New OrI4IAllS a hospital for the benefit o the suffering boatmen for whom the genera government made no provision From tin institution arose the system of marine hoa iritals in the various i tarts of the wedter rivers which congress adopted by permi neatly establishing the Kitctiez baspiial 01 the recommendation and request of Dr Blackburn It was during the following years While he held the pajiuon of BurgtKMi iu the state and national hospitals that be advanced ad-vanced the theory of exemption from Asiatj < cholera by the me of pure soft water ami I nde Imown his belief in tOe intention 01 I yellow fever in contra version of the generally gener-ally accepted theory of contagion These raised a multitude of opponeiits who wrote a good deal of science and i idirute in their attacks I at-tacks on what they called The old Wonia j Doctor but few pkjvicians will be foun now who disagree with these theories I His wife who was XMS Ella Guest Bowrfl dauhter of Dr Joseph Bow ll of Lxins ton died in 1S53 and while tinting tl > principal hospitals of Europe in 1857 lie 11I1 in Paris Miss Julia M Churchill his proen wife whom he married on their return t < America At the breaking out of the civi war he was living in New Orleans and wit ibis i-bis frien I J A Quitnum afterward a dis tirU shed reijpj > i in the O > nfe < 1 > raw urn was among the first advocates of the > nor n-or the south He was attached as surgeon to thffstaff of Gen Sterhng Price and carried with him an appropriation of 50000 by the legislature of Miissippi for the benefit of sick and wounded soldiers of that state A commission to superintend the furnishing of supplies for blockade runners necessitated hi sojourn in Canada and thence in 1S61 he repaired I re-paired to the Bermuda Islands He was accused ac-cused while here of an attempt to spread a I scourge throughout the north by sending infected in-fected clothing of smallpox and yellow fever patients through the lines The aceu = ation I though pronounced nfl infamous calumny by Dr Blackburn excited bitter crimination and recrimination in the newspapers of the twi sections It was revived about five year ago when in support of his innocence and good will to the people of the north the I doctor referred to his gratuitous services rendered the afflicted at the request of th I mayor of New York in which city he was then aviator during the yellow fever plagu in 1S85 at Fort Washington on Long Island In 1B67 he went to Arkansas and engaged in planting but in ISTS again resumed tbe practice of medicine Louisville Ky When the terrible yellow fever scourge of ISiS destroyed the inhabitants of weston Kentucky and Memphis Tenn by the thousands thou-sands Dr Blackburn was the first physiciai to respond to the npp ° al for help His per s vices there called forth the hizbest praise from the press the pulpit and the people an in 18T9 brought him the Democratic nomination nomina-tion for governor on the first ballot withou opposition He WAR elected totbat high ofH by a vote of 1257W over the vote of SlS given Walter Evans tile Republican candidate candi-date an increase of 773C votes over tbe Democratic Dem-ocratic majority obtained by James B Me Creary in 1S75 over his opponent Judge Jo M Harlan now associate justice of tb > United States supreme court On his entrant into office Governor Blackburn found tin penitentiary at Frankfort crowded boon its capacity its sanitary condition bGii ill i and the treatment of the prisones cruel an without check or restraint on the Jessee T press heralded it over the country as Mf Black Hole of Kentucky Gvem vr Bin burn moved by his ditraed1 imnu at once determined to nmedy this great e He demanded of the legislature thut it ni some provision for the oxce of pri oi and institute an improved system of mam ment threatening m the evv t of faihr dispense such wholesale uc e of the jiaruoui power as would prnticaiiy empty the pee itentinrr Artwolauou vms tliurenpon ics recommending tile panlrm of niiiftjsix r the most deserving convicts and an act flowed II f-lowed it changing the system from the tett ship to the wanlenrtiip whirls has sin raised the prison to a rank among the best conducted and conliii Md > in the < vm > try His message also genwn ted tbs Eh s V nl now conijiMion It branch prison nearng covenmr and his excellmit wife who lifarul cooperated with him in all his pbi ant i o movemwits gave the prison tliir lll care visiting it inmost daily awl iustitUJ Sumlav school and other adjuncts pn of wholesome and effective menus of fbi in a reformation among the inmafces 0 During his administration In the etvinr 1SS2 he made IlL first pulhc roil 11 faith in salvation through Christ Th m111 ain evanceiist George O Barn was bill i b-ill a series of meetings in Frankfort ni amid the penitents who walked diwii t i aisle to the front row at the time of tbn f I of the religious fervor was ell the gmv b < bead of the governor of Kentuky in n while tears sprang to the eve of the N1 > < ion a great throng arose and niv1 e him That month he was tv i I I T Christ Episcopal church in LnvilK R Rev T U Dtidkv LL D bwliop of tb diocese admini rrins HIP esnPnt WILLIAM H NEWHALL JR |