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