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David Edwards Blaine was born in 1824 in New York. He studied at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City to become a Methodist Episcopalian minister. In 1853, he married Catharine Paine. In the fall of 1853, the Blaines traveled as missionaries to Puget Sound by ship. In December 1853 David Blaine established a Methodist Episcopal congregation under his ministry. In January 1854 the settlers in the area pooled resources to employ Catharine as a school teacher.

In January 1856, Catharine gave birth to their son John just days before the Battle of Seattle took place in the Yakima War. Following the battle, the couple moved to Portland, Oregon for further missionary work. He served there"and in several other western Oregon locations until assigned in mid-1861 as presiding elder for the Upper Willamette District. (Since the Willamette River flows north into the Columbia, upper meant the central and southern portions of the valley.) From his home base in Lebanon, Oregon he rode a circuit of eleven scattered charges, preaching, administering communion, and conducting the quarterly conferences and meetings. In the later 1860s, the Blaines moved back to New York and aided David's brother in taking care of a farm. The Blaines returned to Seattle in 1882. David Blaine died in 1900.