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The Madisonian,' Virginia City, MT
5 June 1914, page 8:
Mrs. Laura Augusta Stewart Blackman, pioneer of three states, whose life covered almost three-quarters of a century of western history, died early Sunday morning at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. R. Cochran in Bozeman, says a Bozeman despatch. She had been seriously ill only for a couple of weeks, but failing since the first of the year. The funeral was held Tuesday at her old home in Silver Star, Madison county, where she had lived for nearly 45 years.
Laura Augusta Stewart was born in Genessee, Mich., August 8, 1839. She was educated in the schools of Detroit. In 1856 when the free soil agitation was at its height her family moved to Kansas, to help hold the territory against slavery. John Brown visited in her home and it is part of family record that with her own hands she cooked the last meal that John Brown ate in Kansas. She was married in 1859 to Jacob E. Chase, at El Dorado, Kan., but he died soon after, leaving no issue of the marriage. In the spring of 1863 she moved to Denver, then a frontier mining camp, and on April 28, 1864, was married a second time to George W. Blackman, with whom she immediately set out for Alder gulch, Mont., where she arrived, via Fort Bridger and the Lander cut-off, June 14, 1864. Mr. and Mrs. Blackman lived at Alder gulch until about 1869, when they moved to Silver Star, in Madison county where she made her home until about a year ago, when she went to Bozeman to make her home with her daughter.
Of the four children born of her second marriage, three survive, Chas. S. Blackman of Butte, and Mrs. J. R. Cochran and George C. Blackman of Bozeman. One sister, Mrs. Addie Graton, is still living in Lawrence, Kan.
Mrs. Blackman made the trip from eastern Kansas to Colorado with an ox team. She had vivid remembrances of Indian scares, and danger from prairie fires. She could tell stirring stories, also of the early days of Alder gulch. For many years of her life she kept a journal of interesting matters, for she was always fond of writing. From these she had compiled some historical sketches, parts of which, no doubt, will receive publication at a future date. She was a member of the Montana Society of Pioneers, and until within the last few years had been a regular attendant at the meetings which she much enjoyed. In recent years she had attempted some writing for them, which had not, however, been finished (findagrave)