Blackford, Isaac Newton
BLACKFORD, ISAAC NEWTON
Isaac Newton Blackford achieved prominence as a jurist. He was born November 6, 1786, in Bound Brook, New Jersey. A graduate of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), Blackford served as clerk and recorder of Washington County, Indiana, in 1813. The following year he became a territorial court judge.
Blackford served as a member of the Indiana state house of representatives from 1816–1817. He was also a candidate for Presidential Elector for Indiana in 1824. The following year he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate seat for Indiana.
Blackford participated in state politics as a county delegate to the Indiana legislature, serving as speaker of the state's house of representatives in 1816.
In 1817 Blackford returned to the judiciary and sat as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court until 1853. He subsequently served as a U.S. Court of Claims judge from 1855 to 1859.
Blackford died on December 31, 1859, in Washington, D.C., and was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.