Blackburn, Gideon, Dd

Blackburn, Gideon, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, born in Augusta Co., Va., Aug. 27, 1772, and instructed in theology by the Rev. Robert Henderson, was licensed to preach in 1792, and labored actively in -various parts of the West until 1827, when he became president of Centre College, Ky. He left this post in 1830, however, and employed himself in collecting funds, with which, after his death, the Blackburn Theological Seminary in Carlinville, Ill., was established. In the division of the Presbyterian Church Dr. Blackburn went with the New School. He died Aug. 23, 1838, at Carlinville. As an educator and disciplinarian he stood in the first rank, and few excelled him in power of extemporaneous preaching.-Sprague, Annals, 4:43.