APRIL 24, 1814

200 years ago today, Isaac Newton Blackford was serving under his commission from Governor Thomas Posey as the first Clerk and Recorder of Washington County, Indiana. He was a 28 year old attorney who came west 6 years after graduating from Princeton College in New Jersey. Before 1814 was over, his abilities led to his appointment as the Clerk of the Territorial Council. In 1817 he was appointed as the first Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court by Governor Jonathan Jennings. He served on the Indiana Supreme Court for 38 years and became known as the “Indiana Blackstone”. Blackford County, Indiana is named for him. There is no known record of his observations of the array of frontier personalities that he encountered in his brief sojourn here. Will there ever be another local bar member who is a Princeton Tiger?