The story told about Miss Emma is that she was a very young lady living in Philadelphia, Penn. Her father was living out west in a place called Colorado. Her mother was afraid that Emma was headed for marriage to a young man and she did not approve. Mother sent young Emma out to Colorado to live with her father. After she had been in Colorado for a short time this particular day, she and her father and a hired hand were driving a wagon along over a pass. They had a large dresser with a mirror in the wagon. There was a thunderstorm coming up and a lightning bolt hit the mirror. It killed Emma's father and the team of horses. Emma was sitting beside her father and was knocked unconscious. The hired hand was riding his own horse along side of the wagon and was knocked off his horse. He helped Emma to the wagon and took her to Gomer's Mill. Emma lost her eye by the lightning strike. She stayed at Gomer's mill and became life long friends with his daughter Ida. Mr. Alexander Brazelton worked at Mr. Gomer's sawmill. He met Emma and they fell in love. They married in 1874. Later her mother and brothers and sisters moved to Colorado.
Alex and Emma lived on the Brazelton ranch south of the town of Elbert. They enjoyed the hard life on the ranch doing all the chores to keep the place running smooth. They did have to contend with Indians in the area. One day Alex had been out in the fields. When he came in for dinner he found Emma knocked out on the kitchen floor. When she could talk she told him that Indians had paid her a visit. They wanted the bread she had cooking in the oven and hit her, knocking her out. This makes a good story about life on the plains. She probably would have given them the bread if they asked for it.
Thelma remembers her as a nice, kind, warm grandma. She always had cookies in the cookie jar and Thelma was always asking her grandma for them.
She was a short lady Hair light brown, eyes brown. Her hair was long and was always braided and kept wrapped up into a bun on top of her head.
Emma was a member of the Elbert Grange.

Emma Charman came to Colorado when she was 20 years old to be with her father at the Gomer Sawmill. She did not know anyone and was a lonely young woman. One day she sat on a rock near the mill between Elbert and Eastonville and wrote this poem:

I am weary and lonely Forlorn and alone
With no one to love me
No dear ones at home.
I am weary and lonely
Oppressed with life's cares.
The world and its vanity
Are filled with vile snares.
I am weary and lonely
My spirits depressed
Waiting and longing for sweet heavenly rest.
I am weary and lonely
Still looking for rest
In those bountiful mansions
Where angels are blest.