M. Julius Walter Blackburn
My grandfather was born in 1886. I think he was about 12 in this photo, so that makes it about 1898. (The print is very dark, and I have tried to fix it a bit.) He was the only son of William Henry and Caroline Smith Blackburn. My grandfather went to Lenoir-Rhyne College and taught school before he married Lottie Mae Lael when he was 32. He then farmed in the Blackburn community in southwestern Catawba County. I remember him as a very solemn man who spent quite a bit of time walking in the fields around his house. He also liked to talk about geography.
