Biographies

Sergeant Israel L. Blackburn was born into slavery and for the first 48 years of his life he was the property of plantation owner John Bowman of Mercer County Kentucky. Israel Larry Blackburn was born into slavery in Mercer County, Kentucky on May 3, 1818, on a plantation owned by John Bowman. There he would live until 1864 when he was sold by Bowman to the Union Army. At that time Israel was assigned regiment garrison duties at Camp Nelson in Company C of the 124th U.S. “Colored Infantry” in Kentucky, just one of the 175 colored regiments formed during the Civil War. His service there earned him the rank of sergeant before he was discharged on June 23, 1865. In 1866, Blackburn and his six children made their way north.  The 1870 Downers Grove census reveals that Israel was living in Downers Grove with his youngest five children ranging