For this month’s episode of Archive Dive, we dip into a true crime as we discuss the unsolved 1897 murder of Joseph Blackburn.
An eccentric and a recluse, Blackburn became wealthy providing supplies to lumbermen in the timber-rich area near Gordon. Not one to trust in banks, he was rumored to keep a chest of gold. When he was killed by a blow from behind, robbery was the suspected reason. Searches for the fabled treasure went on for years and even led a judge to exhume the body of Blackburn’s wife Mary, who had been buried in a glass-lidded coffin. But gold was never found.
Telegram reporter Maria Lockwood is joined by Doug MacDonald as well as Brian Finstad, both of the Gordon-Wascott Historical Society, as they explore Blackburn’s life, death and possible suspects, including one who was acquitted and another who gained infamy out west.
The murder happened 126 years ago, in October 1897.
MacDonald, who is the great-great grandson of Antoine and Sarah Gordon, the founders of Gordon, is also related to Blackburn, a great-great-great uncle, as Blackburn was Antoine Gordon’s brother-in-law.
Blackburn, who was in his mid-60s when he died, has been the subject of a lot of fascination and speculation over the years, including why he wasn’t a fan of banks.
“I am fortunate being related through my grandfather and his dad, William Gordon, that we got a lot of first-hand information,” says MacDonald. “Not just rumor, but facts. He didn’t believe in paper money, he only believed in hard (money), which backs itself, gold and silver. Anybody can print, but you can’t make gold or silver.”
Other members of MacDonald's family, at one point, owned Blackburn's home, after it was moved about 10 miles near Wascott.
“We would go around as kids, knocking on the walls, looking for his (Joseph’s) money,” says MacDonald. “I can remember as a kid, saying to my dad, ‘Dad, maybe it’s up in the crawl space where the rafters are at?’ Dad goes, ‘No, I have already checked it.’”
“It is interesting when you read the articles about the murder, you can tell that people were sort of following day-by-day of this whole drama because the articles get longer and more elaborate,” says Finstad. “It is also the name Blackburn and buried gold and the wife in the glass coffin and murdered with a pole axe, it all is just such a dramatic story and it is kind of ironic for someone who just kind of wanted to be left alone in the wilderness and was known for being reclusive that he ends up having the most dramatic story ever that over 100 years later that we are still talking about.”
New episodes of Archive Dive are published monthly. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune digital producers Wyatt Buckner and Dan Williamson. If you have an idea for a topic you’d like to see covered, email Maria Lockwood at mlockwood@superiortelegram.com.