Benton Co., AR - Biographies - J. A. C. Blackburn
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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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J. A. C. Blackburn who is the recognized "lumber king" of Northwestern 
Arkansas, was born in War Eagle Township, Benton Co., Ark., in 1841, 
and is a son of Rev. Sylvanns and Catherine Blackburn, both of whom 
were born in 1809, in Georgia and North Carolina, respectively. They 
became residents of Arkansas in 1832, and are still living. J. A. C. 
Blackburn is their sixth child, and his boyhood days were spent in 
assisting his father in the grist-mill. In 1861 he joined the 
Confederate army, and was a faithful soldier for four years, and in 
1865 returned to Arkansas: here he engaged in the peaceful pursuit of 
farming, succeeded in accumulating some money, which, in partnership 
with his father, he invested in a general mercantile store, and at the 
end of six months bought his father's interest. Here he remained from 
1867 till 1873, and then moved his stock of goods to War Eagle and 
erected the mills at that place. and also continued to carry on 
merchandising. He continued in the saw and grist milling business at 
War Eagle until 1884, when he succeeded Peter Van Winkle as proprietor 
of the Van Winkle Saw and Planing Mills. He has been so successful in 
the management of these mills that he has often been called the 
"lumber king" of North western Arkansas. His principal mill is 
situated nine miles east of Rogers. The engine is 150-horse power, the 
cylinder 22×30 inches and the balance wheel is twenty feet in diameter 
and weighs 20,000 pounds. He has three large boilers, each twenty-four 
feet long and forty-two inches in diameter, with four 12-inch flues, 
and has one circular saw, two rip saws, three cut-off saws, one gang 
lath machine, one shingle machine, two planers, two moulding machines, 
one scroll saw, one mortising machine and one automatic emery wheel. 
He has another mill in Madison County, which is twenty-five horse 
power, with a capacity of 20,000 feet of lumber per day. Besides this 
he has two other mills cutting lumber for him by the thousand. He 
handles 3,000,000 feet of lumber per annum, and owns in connection 
with his mills 15,000 acres of fine timber lands. There has not been 
an enterprise started in Benton County in which he has not taken a 
deep interest, and in the majority of cases become a heavy 
stockholder, the Stock Bank, Fair Association, Roller Mills and Water 
Works being some of the enterprises in which he has been interested. 
He was first married to Miss Ellen Van Winkle, who died November 10, 
1884, having borne three children: Carrie, Lucy M. and Laura May. Mrs. 
Belle Harris, widow of Mack Harris and daughter of C. Petross, became 
his second wife. Mr. Blackburn is a Democrat and an A. F. & A. M. of 
the highest order, and belongs to the Knights of Honor.