Almon Wesley Blackman was born on March 10, 1842, in Eddington, Maine, to John Wesley Blackman and Sylvia Campbell. Her father was a farmer who owned $1,500 of real estate and $550 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Eddington.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 21, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company D of the 18^th Maine Infantry later that day. The army re-designated the regiment the 1^st Maine Heavy Artillery on December 19, 1862. The regiment took part in the Overland Campaign and the siege of Petersburg. He was promoted to corporal on July 1, 1864, and he mustered out on June 6, 1865.

 

Blackman returned to Maine after the war, and he married Marcia Rowe on October 20, 1867. They had at least two children: Lillian, born around 1869; and Annie, born around 1871. They settled in Holden, Maine, and Blackman worked as a laborer. They moved to Milford, Maine, in the 1870s, and by 1880, he was earning a living as a “manufacturer of shingles.” He owned 20 acres of land worth $1,500.

 

They moved to Snohomish, Washington, in the late 1800s, and then to Langley, Washington, in the early 1900s. He applied for a federal pension in December 1890 and eventually secured one. His wife died in 1919, and by 1920, he was living with his sister-in-law in Everett, Washington. He died there on October 4, 1920.

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