Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1866-12-13
10 UESA BLACKNIAN.
Her Remarkable History as Related
by Herself.

H1ef ReMarkaDAe History as Related
by Herself.
From the Pittsburgh Gazette
On Saturday there arrived in our city,
from Indianapolis, person possessing a
history so remarkable in its way that but
few individuals in any region or any time
have furnished parallel to it, Indeed,
we doubt if any record is known of ex-
| periences, similar in their cause, progress
and results tothe experiences of the person
of whom we speak. She is a young girl,
not yet seventeen years of age, rather deli
cate than robust in physique, possessing a
high degree of intelligence, having MAN.
ners at once modest and winning, anu before
the terrible ordeal through which, far from
/ scathless, She has come, was gifted with
more beauty Of form and feature than
usually falls TO the lot of womanhood, even
| at seventeen.
Yet this beautiful girl has gone through
terrible and sharp experience, the mere
contemplation of which would make the
bravest and hardest pioneer tremble ap-
Fpalled,Eand which might safelyebe promised
Ito kill the toughest hunter Il the Rocky
Mountains or the African jungles.
Our readers certainly remember the ex-
! traordinary case of Louisa Blackrnan Cor
Blackburn, as the name was enormously
spelled in the papers at the time of the &C.
currence, } who last winter was found horri--
bly, frozen near baystack. in Lawrence
county, in this State, and whose account
of her sutferings for months previous to
her being found, was published throughout
| the country, and excited universal COM
ment. This girl, on Saturday afternoon,
arrived in the city, and is stopping at the
IN. u. - II -,
Ross streets. We have received the story
OF her remarkable sufferiugs from her own
lips since she arrived in the city, and the
facts, as related by her, are substantially as
follows:
In the year 1860, Thomas Blackman, the
father of Louisa, was living with his family
at Jefferson City, Missouri, whittier he had
removed from Joliet, Illinois. Blackman
was strongly pre0ispesed to Mormonism,
his faith er shaving lived in that faith for the
last few years of bis life. and died in it at
last, Z AT length, yielding to IFS inclinations
and the persuasions of others, Blackman
determined 10 become ssSaint," and in
the autumn of 1860 took his family and
started with several other families for Salt
Lake City. They reached the chief city
of Mormondom at length, and eventually
,
church of Brigham Young. Sorely against
the wishes and expostulations Of his wife
and three daughters, the new convert
adopted the social customs of his new belief
and added another wife to his household.
This new state of things was endured by
the first wife and his children as long as
possible, but at length. the indignities pEac-
ticed upon them, and the outrageous OBJ
servances surrounding them on every hand,
became intolerable, and they determined to
escape from this empire of corruption to
the bounds Of civilization. Accordingly, in
the month of April, 1862, having brayed
the denominations of Mormondom for year
and a half, they prepared to brave the hor-
rors of the wilderness as an escape. -.
One night, in the month mentioned, when
circumstances favored, they passed the SEN
tinels surrounding the city and entered the
wilderness. They were aecomp MED at the
start by a Mrs. Ward, who proposed to es-
cape with them. This unfortunate woman.
however, was soon recaptured and suffered
the penalty affixed by Mormon law to the
crime of attempting 10 escape-was hung.
Mrs. Blackman and her three daughters
kept on rapidly for that night and 8 por-
ton Of the next day, until they reached q
rocky save, known as the "Lion's Mouth, -
some thirty miles from the city. There
they lay hid for several days until they
judged the heatof the pursuit was over and
they started out again. Louise states that
while they remained concealed in the cave,
| they more than once heard the bayiag of
the bloodhounds of the pursuers. They
struck out now across the plains, proposing
to reaeh some point of civilization on the
other side of the mighty desert. Think of
woman and three helpless girls with only
such food as they could carry in a bundle,
with no sufficient knowledge Of the country
before them, with no guide to direct or
counsel them, and with only the strength of
feeble womanhood to defend them from the
multiplied horrorsef their fearful journey,
undertaking passage that men accomplish
only in strong and thoroughly equipped
parties!
These women undertook this Journey.
OF their progress and the unimaginable
suferings they endured there is only ore
one who knows any thing, and that is Louisa,
the single survivor Of the feeble party. She
states that when they had been three months
out on their journey, her youngest sister, a
girl of some thirteen years, died of starva-
ton and exhaustion. A week later the
elder sister, aged about fourteen, also died
9+-starved to death. Louisa was stronger,
healthier and more robust than the others,
and the hardshipsof the journey made less
impression on her. be- Is .ia' - -
Leaving the corpses of the dead girls up
on the plain, the mother and her one ehild
continued their weary way Of increasing
terrors. The little stock Of food had been
exhausted in the first few days, and they
could get nothing but such precarious sub
sistence as the prairie afforded. They had
brought a bow and arrow with them, and
with these they killed an occasional bird or
gopher which they. d6youred raw & Now
and then, also, they encountered some edi-
BILE roots. These were their feasts, with in
.tervalss Of fasting, days in length, between.
AT length, some two months after the death
of children, Mrs: Bfackman also laid down
and died, first making Louisa promise that
she would continue her journey, and en-
deayor to,reach u the States" d 2
/ Louisa, alone now, continued to ofollow
the Indian trail, living as heretofore, till at
last she fell in with party Of Fox Indians,
who took charge Of and clothed and fed
her, treating her with the greatest kindness
and conducting her to white settlement
about $50 miles this side of the Rocky
Mountains. This post was reached by Lou
lisa some nine months from the time Of the
commencement of her horrible journey.
She tarried here, and when she became
strong went to Jefferson City. and last
winterleft with her friends there and trav-
eled--this time with no horrible accompa-
Riments to Mount Jackson, Lawrence
county, in this State, where a family she
formar1v knaw h N raSiffad aud with VI horn