The 1856 IA State census has his age as 15 years, and living in the statefor 1 year. Census record is on Page 10, Boone Township.
[Thomas_Devericks.FTW]
From Marjorie Tuttle Cosper, Blackman Family (1978), p. 11:
"One of the worries of [Eliza Ann Brown Devericks Blackman, third wife ofHenry Alpheus Blackman, and stepmother of Edward Othello Blackman] wasthat her children [by J. Allan Devericks, her first husband] would fallin love with his children, and that very thing happened.
"Two of her daughters, MELISSA and Ortential DEVERICKS, married two ofhis sons, EDWARD OTHELLO BLACKMAN and William Rankin Blackman. Edwardwent to Iowa with his uncle, Edward Prindell Blackman, in 1854. Fromthere he went to the Gold Rush in California, came back to Indiana, andmarried MELISSA DEVERICKS. Before his stepmother would give her consentto the marriage, they promised to stay in Indiana. They married, and thenext day they left for Iowa. The mother made a trip to Iowa to see herdaughter Melissa some time a few years before she died. She took theplank road to Lagro, then by canal to Wabash and then the train toIowa."[John_Blakeman.FTW]