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Note: Clover Cem. Collbran, Colorado Blackman 1876 A. Ellis 1965 1884 Emma G. 1971 *Back: Ellis Blackman I've crossed the great divide Into the happy hunting grounds Where I roam at will, always free Emma Blackman The voice is mute and stilled the heart Heart she loved as well and true
Ellis Blackman Golden Wedding Anniversary (Christmas Day 1956)
Fifty years ago in the Gunderson home located in the Heiberger District, Ellis Blackman and Emma Georgiana Gunderson exchanged marriage vows and the following spring moved to their home on Brush Creek where today they are enjoying a family reunion with their son, Raymond and his wife Betty, as hosts. Later this afternoon they will greet their friends at an open house in the Berger Anderson home in Collbran. Mr Blackman is one of the few living pioneers who came to the Plateau Valley in the early 1880's and he continues to live the rugged, self-sufficient life of a true pioneer. He was born in Hunlock's Creek, Penn. on November 5, 1876 and when he six years old moved with his parents, Daniel and Jane Blackman to Morristown, Colorado. With his mother he made two trips back to Pennsylvania while his father sought a location in the Colorado Rockies. In the fall of 1883 the family moved to delta where they spent the winter before following the old Hogback trail with a team and wagon into the Plateau Valley. They settled what is now known as the Pete Johnson ranch at the mouth of Salt creek the house which they built of hewn logs still stands in good condition. With his father young Ellis hunted lion and trapped other animals through the winter months. At one time they bagged 22 lions in two weeks. Ellis had many narrow escapes while hunting and many times was severely clawed and bitten. When seventeen years old he left the valley and went to work in the gold and silver mines. He spent one winter at Aspen and six at Ouray where he worked in the Old Camp Bird mine and served Ouray as sheriff. At the age of twenty-five he returned to the valley to make a home for himself in the fertile brush creek valley, then a primeval land of sage and cedar and pinion In the meantime, in far away Sweden, Emma Georgianna Gunderson was born on April 20, 1884. For eight happy childhood years she lived in Sweden with her parents, Jorgen and Carrie Gunderson and her older sister Carolyn, now Mrs Carolyn Linn of Grand Junction. In 1892 the family came to the United States landing in New York Harbor. They spent three years in fort Abercrombie, North Dakota and then moved to Colorado and the Plateau valley. They then settled in the Heiberger district on what is now the Arthur Linn ranch. It was their Emma and Ellis were married fifty years ago. To their union was born seven children. All are living except Jennie Mabel, who passed away January 28, 1928. Mrs Leo (Carrie Elizabeth ) Sullivan lives at Appleton: Mrs Leonard(Adeline Francis) Lawton, Craig; Daniel Alton Blackman, Rifle; Mrs Lowell(Doris Louise)Mitchell, Olympia, Washington; Mrs Walter(Elma Mae) Hyde, Willamina, Oregon; Ellis Raymond Blackman, Collbran. They have 30 living Grandchildren and 14 great grand children. One great great grandchild, died in infancy. Life for the Blackman's has been a fine companionship with mutual interests. They worked side by side to clear their virgin land of sage. Both used the old fashioned grubbing hoe. Mrs Blackman helped break horses and joined in his hunting and fishing expeditions. As the lion were thinned out Mr Blackman accepted the challenge of the grizzly bear and brown bear of this mountain area. Many times he has been called upon by the stockman to go on the trail of a killer bear. He has killed or trapped about 80 bear and many he has gone into their hole to get. As he hunted and roamed the mountains he has studied nature and the geology of the area as told by the growth of the trees and erosion of the soil. His stories of the hunt and of the land are prized at every Old Timer's picnic and all his many friends. Mrs Blackman in the later years has stayed home from the annual fall hunt to cook for the hunters, but she still enjoys a good fishing trip with her husband. She has fished in Canada around Lake Winnipeg and done some ocean fishing. She is an expert at trout fishing and the day is never long enough for her. It is a family joke that when Mr Blackman is ready tom quit and go home she will always beg him to wait until she gets the "last one".
Their farming has not suffered because of their love of sports. Their ranch is one of the best in the Valley and they raise first class vegetables, potatoes and hay and grain. They run both Cattle and sheep, but when October comes and his good friend Dr. Verl Z. Garster of Ohio, arrives, Mr Blackman turns over their responsibility to his son, Raymond and he answers the call of the hills. At 75 he is hale and hearty and just last year he and Mrs Blackman moved into a new log cabin home which he built by himself. The two daughters on the west coast were unable to attend the reunion dinner today, but for the other children and their parents it was a gala day with a huge wedding cake featuring the Christmas dinner and friends wishing them many more years of happy wedded life during open house.
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