Bennett L. Blackman, farmer, was born near Saline River, in Gallatin (now Saline) County, in 1841, one of the two surviving children of John and Margaret (Empson) Blackman, for whose history see the biography of W.S. Blackman. Educated in the common schools of Saline County, our subject left home when seventeen and lived nearly two years with his uncle, Willis Russell. After raising a crop on the farm of G.W. Russell in 1861, he enlisted, in August, in Company B, Thirty-first Illinois Infantry, and served until May, 1862, when he was discharged on account of a relapse from the measles. He then returned to his mother's home and remained until 1863. He was married in the spring of that year, farming the old place, and finally, in October, moved to a sixty-acre tract given them by his wife's father. In 1880 he moved to an adjoining farm previously purchased in Section 25. His wife, Sarah A., daughter of James W. and Minerva J.(Arnold) Russell, was born in 1847 in the same section in which she was living. Their six children were William A., John M., James M., Mary, Dora and Sarah J. Our subject also bought eighty acres, twenty acres of which he gave to his eldest son, and now has one of the best farms in the county, and is an extensive stock dealer. He was a Democrat, casting his first vote for McClellan. He was a deacon in the United Baptist Church, of which his eldest son was a member.
Bennett L. Blackman, farmer, was born near Saline River, in Gallatin (now Saline) County, in 1841, one of the two surviving children of John and Margaret (Empson) Blackman, for whose history see the biography of W.S. Blackman. Educated in the common schools of Saline County, our subject left home when seventeen and lived nearly two years with his uncle, Willis Russell. After raising a crop on the farm of G.W. Russell in 1861, he enlisted, in August, in Company B, Thirty-first Illinois Infantry, and served until May, 1862, when he was discharged on account of a relapse from the measles. He then returned to his mother's home and remained until 1863. He was married in the spring of that year, farming the old place, and finally, in October, moved to a sixty-acre tract given them by his wife's father. In 1880 he moved to an adjoining farm previously purchased in Section 25. His wife, Sarah A., daughter of James W. and Minerva J.(Arnold) Russell, was born in 1847 in the same section in which she was living. Their six children were William A., John M., James M., Mary, Dora and Sarah J. Our subject also bought eighty acres, twenty acres of which he gave to his eldest son, and now has one of the best farms in the county, and is an extensive stock dealer. He was a Democrat, casting his first vote for McClellan. He was a deacon in the United Baptist Church, of which his eldest son was a member.
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