He was educated at public schools in Madison until age 17, when he attended Hamilton College in Oneida County, New York.

[1] Three months prior to his graduation, he adventured with a friend by boat up the Allegheny River, onto the Ohio, and then down the Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee.

They took a stash of merchandise with them and visited several towns and camps along the banks of the rivers, trading their goods until they were all exhausted.

He arrived first at Shawneetown, Illinois, then resided for a time at Galena, Illinois, then moving, that winter, to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, then in the Michigan Territory, where he would remain for two years, working in the lead mining industry and practicing law.

In 1832, he volunteered for the Michigan Territory Militia in the Black Hawk War and was made a Lieutenant under Colonel Henry Dodge.

Their son John W. Blackstone Jr. served in the Wisconsin state legislature and was also a county judge.