Blackman, David J.

Born: 1803-10-25 North Carolina

Died: 1879-06-30 Saline County, Illinois

Flourished: Saline County, Illinois

Blackman settled in Gallatin County, Illinois, before 1830. He became a prominent farmer, landowner, and politician first in Gallatin County and later in Saline County, Illinois. Between 1835 and 1853, Blackman acquired extensive sections of public land in southeastern and central Saline County, and in Johnson and Gallatin counties. He won election twice to the Illinois House of Representatives, representing Gallatin County in the Twelfth General Assembly (1840-42), and Saline County in the sixteenth (1848-50). By 1850, he was living with his family and farming on property in southeastern Saline County. He owned real estate valued at $2,000. By 1860, he had relocated to a farm near Mitchellsville in the south central portion of Saline County. He owned real estate valued at $10,930 and a personal estate of $1,799.

Gravestone, Blackman Cemetery, Mitchellsville, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Saline County, 105:6, 47; 110:63, 246; 112:89, 91, 97; 814:25, 29, 34, 35, 50; SWP: 11, 12, 26, 27; Johnson County, 105:107; Gallatin County, 814:40, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States (1830), Monroe, Gallatin, IL, 276; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Somerset, Saline, IL, 6; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Township 10, Range 6, Saline, IL, 271; History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed, 1887), 163, 187; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 209, 216.