Son of Joseph Embree Brockman and Mary Jane Culbertson of Clark Co, Kentucky. The family came to Ray Co, Missouri in 1828. Joseph and Mary followed Israel to California, arriving about 1849. They both died in Glen Ellen, Sonoma Co, California.
He traveled to California, about 1846, with the Craig and Stanley Wagon Party according to Rick Russell
On 18 Jan 1848, Israel Brockman married Sarah Jane Carriger in Sonoma Co, California, who "... at the age of 16, accompanied her brothers on the overland trail to California. Friend of Ann Smith and Eliza Donner, she resided at Sonoma the rest of her life."
Israel Emory Brockman became Sonoma's first sheriff
Sarah and her brothers Nicholas Carriger, Solomon Carriger and Caleb Carriger had arrived in Sonoma from Round Prairie, Missouri. On 26 Sep 1846, their father Christian Carriger died, and on the same day, Nicholas' daughter Catherine was born (she died at Sonoma two months later).
"One of the first Sonomans to go prospecting [due to the Gold Rush] was Nicholas Carriger, who together with his brother-in-law Joseph Wardlow and friends Elias Graham and Henry Thornton, set out in the Spring of 1848" ("Pioneer Sonoma" Robert Parmalee)
"[Again in 1849] Nick Carriger...[went] to the gold mins at Auburn, where he made enough money to permit him to return and purchase from Vallejo a large ranch on the west side of Sonoma Valley, adjacent to the road which today bears his name." (Robert Parmalee, "Pioneer Sonoma")
1850 Census Sonoma Co, California
page 15A, Dwelling 91, Family 92
Brockman Israel 26 M Laborer Kentucky
Brockman Sarah J. 19 F Tennessee
Brockman M.A.M 8 mo. F California
[Sarah Jane was born in Carter Co, TN and died Mar 1864 in Sonoma]
1850 Census Sonoma Co, California
page 15B, Dwelling 106, Family 107
Carriger Luvica 61 F 500 Tennessee
[Christian Carriger b 1779 Reading, Lancaster Co, PA married 3 Aug 1811 Carter Co, TN to Lavicy Ward b 1789, they are enumerated in 1840 in Carter Co, Tennessee p 93. He was the son of Godfrey Carriger and Margaret Anspaugh]
1850 Census Sonoma Co, California
page 16A, Dwelling 118, Family 119
Carriger Nicholas M 4,660 Unknown
From an anoymous article in the Alta California 4 Oct 1859 (as reported by Robert Parmalee "Pioneer Sonoma") "[Of the pioneers who came to Sonoma in 1846] Nick Carriger is almost the only thriving man [still] in the valley who crossed the continent in 1846."
Israel Brockman was also once a Grand Master of the Order of Masons in Sonoma.