Sims Edward & Charlotte (Waterman) Blackman

Transcribed by Janet

                         Mr. & Mrs. Robert Howard

                        Mr. & Mrs. Sims E. Blackman

Sims Edward Blackman, an early settler of Grant Township, now passed away, but who, during his career of over thirty years in this county was a man held in high esteem, was born in the county of Kent, England, Mar. 27, 1848. His parents were Sims and Charlotte (Waterman) Blackman, also natives of England, who were married in Kent and passed their lives there as farmers. They had eleven children-Ann, Charlotte, Fannie. Hattie, Mary, Carrie, Jane, Sims E., Edward, James and John. Sims E. Blackman attended school in England and there learned the mason's trade. At the age of 22 years he came to the United States, and a year later located in Clark County, Wis., being the only son of the family to settle in the West. Here he worked at his trade of a mason, building the court house and jail at Neillsville, the Neillsville Bank, the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, and various brick and stone residences or business blocks.

In 1875 or about forty-three years ago, he bought a tract of land in section 24, Grant Township. Some clearing had been done on the land and there was a log house on the place. Mr. Blackman continued to work at his trade, paying others to make the. improvements of his farm until it was all cleared. He, himself, however, not only made the brick, but built the handsome solid brick residence now standing on the farm. He also erected a basement barn, 38 by 54 feet in size, and by a purchase of sixty more acres of land he increased the size of his farm to 100 acres. He also became a stockholder in the Pleasant Ridge Creamery. For sixteen years he served- as a member of the school board. An earnest member of the, Methodist -Church, he served, as its steward and as Sunday school superintendent, and in, early days, before the erection of the church edifice, services were often held in his log house.

His death, which occurred July 8, 1900, when he was 54 years old, was an event regretted throughout the township and vicinity, as his sterling character had made him many friends. Sims E. Blackman was married, Dec. 3, 1878, at the home of his bride's father, to Mary Howard, who was born April 21, 1856, in the one room log house of her parents, Robert and Rachel (Pope) Howard, of Grant Township. Her father was a native of Cambridge, England, his father, also named Robert, being a farmer. Robert Howard, second, came to the United States at an early age, and was later married in Chicago, Ill. In 1855 he and his wife Rachel, drove with an ox team from Elgin, Ill., to Clark County, Wis., and after arriving in the county had to cut a road from Neillsville to their land in Grant Township, which was covered with timber. He and his wife often rode to church on a "jumper."

They had five children: Mary, John, George, Leonard and Rachel. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Blackman, all of whom are living, are as follows: Ralph, who lives on the family homestead; Charlotte, wife of Albert Duge, of Bunker Hill, Indiana; Evelyn, who married Milo Woodford, of Stewart, Wyo.; Elgie R., residing on the homestead; Sadie, wife of Gus Rudeen, of Pine Bluff, Wyo., and Clifford, who, like his brothers' lives on the homestead.