Samuel Chapman

CHAPMAN, SMEED, WHITMORE, HILLMAN, MICKLESON, CRAWFORD, HABERMAN, DAVIS, SEYMOUR, ROBINSON, ZIGLAR

Posted By: Paul French (email)
Date: 5/14/2005 at 16:37:07

OBITUARY

SAMUEL CHAPMAN was born at Teynham near Feversham, in the county of Kent England, December 15,1797. He was an only child of Daniel and Sarah Chapman of the same county in England. His father was in early life a builder and afterward, a miller, and later on in life a stock dealer of no little note, and in Samuel's life he was his father's superintendent and clerk, doing all the writing and keeping of accounts of the business and the [time] he (Samuel) was ten or twelve years of age. He was engaged for some time prior to the battle of Waterloo (which was fought June 18,1815) between the French, commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte on one side, and the English army and allies on the other, commanded by the Duke of Wellington,-at which battle he was present, having in charge horses for the officers, in company with his father in dealing with stock, buying and selling and handling negotiable notes, etc., and had ammassed considerable fortune, but owing to reverse action in business soon after this battle, they were entirely broken up. He being of an energetic and business turn, soon entered into and carried on for some time a considerable traffic with Holland, Belgium and Wales, which [gave] him occassion to travel to those countries and visit their cities when just entering upon manhood.

He was married to Sarah Smead of Feversham, of county of Kent, July 21, 1821. He lived in England one year after marriage when he moved to Scotland and engaged to Captain Barclay of the Estate of Ury, the distinguished pedestrain and marksman, as a Game Keeper and afterward to Lord Brody, and later to two other gentlemen,in all about eight years in the same business. When about six years in Scotland, he received an accidental shot while reaching for his gun to shoot some bird of prey which was bothering the game under his care. The shot passed through his breast, tearing away part of the lobe of that lung, and out the lining around the heart, from which wound he lay at the point of death for many weeks, given up by the physician. But as a last and only means of saving life (urged strenously by himself upon the attending physicians, as they every after acknowledged) it was at his own urgent request by bleeding. This misfortune having unfitted him for the great responsibility of his work here, he at the end of eight years, returned to England and engaged in the butcher business at Sheerness for a year or so.

Feeling rather unsettled and of some inclination to see America, he left his family here and sailed for America in 1831. Landing at New York City, where he carried on a bakery for a time and also engaged in the Microscopic and Telescopic business for about 18 months, but in the meantime he returned to England for his family, who arrived in New York City in 1832. In the early part of 1833, he engaged to a Mr. Jackson of New York, to take on foot, a drove of fine Durham cattle from New York to Congressman Chambers of Washington, Mason County, Kentucky, and right here it was that he had a tussle with the cholera, but survived it, and liking the country, brought his family here, where he was engaged in the fine stock and butcher business for about ten years, at the end of which time and through the influence of his friend, ex-Congressman of Kentucky, now Governor Chambers of the territory of Iowa, he again came west and bought land in Des Moines County, about ten miles west of Burlington, near the present site of Middleton, what is now known as the Wm. Carden (now deceased) Farm, after which he returned to Kentucky for his family, landing them at Burlington, September 1, 1843.

Here for two and one-half years he engaged in farming for the first time in his life of forty-five years. The tide of emigration had become so strong and land had advanced so in price, that he sold his quarter section at a hight figure, as it then seemed, and moved with his family in the spring of 1845, into Van Buren County, where he had purchased his late home near Bonaparte, Iowa. He and his son, at or near the same time, entered 320 acres in Lee County near Big Mound. He died at this late home, Monday, February 20th, at ten P.M. at the great age of 95 years, 2 months and 5 days, and was buried Wednesday February 22nd, at 2 P.M. at the old home on a spot selected by himself many years ago, by the side of his wife who preceded him in death by four years, 3 months and 10 days, she having died Nov. 10, 1888, at the age of ninety or ninety one years. At her death they had travelled life together for over 67 years.

Of the family of thirteen children, eleven are still living:

Alfred Chapman and Mrs. B.F. Whitmore of Bonaparte; Mrs. Wm D. Crawford of Middletown; Mrs. Samuel Hillman of Beloit, Kansas; Samuel Chapman of Medford, Oregon; Daniel and Henry H. Chapman and Mrs. M.M. Mickleson, of Ashland, Oregon. Two children are deceased, Mrs. Washington Crawford, Big Mound, Iowa, and the eldest child, a daughter who died in infancy in England. Of the eleven (11) living children, Alfred Chapman, the eldest will be 70 years old in april,1893, and Mrs. Julia Haberman, the youngest will be 49 the same month.

Of their 78 grandchildren, fifty are living, 19 are not. Of great-grandchildren there has been one hundred. Of these 84 are still living, 16 are not, and of great-great-grandchildren, six are living and one is not. (note error in copy,which I am not correcting-FS)

And THUS IT IS, although he had lived more than a quarter of a century over the allotted time to man, HE WAS MORE VIGOROUS AND ACTIVE IN MIND AND BODY, than many persons who have not yet attained their three score and ten years. He could read without glasses, knew all the family present and seemed to be conscious of all about his up to the time of his death. He was a self-educated, active, energetic man of a wonderful business turn of mind, wide awake to all around him, strictly accurate, exact and precise in all of his undertakings. Well versed in all of the sciences, a good physician and surgeon, being at almost all times his own family physician with the best of success.

He was one of the most efficient school and township officers that the county afforded, of which one or both places he successfully filled. He was in conversation a source of interest and instruction for grown people and of interest and delight to all children.

A few weeks before his death, paralysis seemed to set in his lower limbs and gradually worked upward, until calmly and peacefully a noble life was gone, to return no more forever.

F.P.Crawford

Boneparte, Iowa
Feb. 28th,1893

Mount Pleasant, (Iowa)Paper

This History of the Chapman Family is being copied by material supplied by Hazel Crawford Davis and Mrs. Etta Robinson, by Florence Crawford Seymour, Jacksonville, Florida.

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Dora Ziglar made a note beside the first paragraph that says: "This is the reason that Hazel Crawford Davis, has the old Swiss watch picked up on the battlefield of Waterloo by Samuel Chapman -- He was taking care of the extra good horses his father raised in England and sold to government -- a profession that has always interested the Chapman family, -- Farming in both countries -- England + U.S. - I did not know until recently why Samuel Chapman was there." There is a second note beside the paragraph that starts with "Alfred Chapman..." that says: "Hazel C. met Alfred - Amy Whitmore Margaret C - Mrs. Hillman Daniel (Mrs Mickelson Aunt Vicky) Dan - Henry had just passed away - 1905 Aunt Vicky took care of him left everything chair - ??in - etc - just where he left it. I wonder why more was not said about her care of him - "

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Transcribed from a typewritten carbon copy on legal sized onionskin-like paper by Paul French, August 2003. This was one document in a packet of material collected by Dora Schuster Ziglar, probably in the 1960's, and appears to have come from information provided by Hazel Crawford Davis and appears to have been typed by Florence Crawford Seymour, Jacksonville, Florida.