Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 287
JOHN CHAPMAN, JR.

John CHAPMAN, JR., a resident farmer of section 6, in Washington Township, has been a resident of the county for twenty-one years, coming as he did in the autumn of 1870, and settling on the Pigeon, in Union Township (section 4), where he bought forty acres of wild land, which he improved and lived upon until the spring of 1877. He sold this place in the fall of 1877, and the following spring moved to Harrison County, Mo., where he purchased a farm and remained until July, 1880, when he sold and came back to this county, and purchased a farm on section 4, the same being but partly improved, there being about thirty acres of breaking, but no house upon it. To this he added forty acres more, upon which he built a small house, and remained there one winter, and the following spring bought the Fry farm in the same section, which was an improved forty-acre tract. The buildings he had erected upon his other place, he moved, and tore down those that were on the Fry farm and built new ones. Here he remained until the spring of 1891, when he moved to his present place, which he bought in the autumn of 1890, it belonging to two different parties. One of his farms contains one hundred and thirty-six acres, and the other eighty acres, both of which are well improved. The one on section 4, he rents.

Our subject was born in Wilkshire, England, at the town of Westlavington, September 20, 1845, where he remained until 1861, and then emigrated to America, coming direct to Florence, Neb., at which point he remained a few days, and then went to Rockport, Neb. His parents and the family went to Salt Lake, Utah.

He enlisted in the United States service, at Omaha, Neb., October 20, 1863, as a member of Company D, First Nebraska Cavalry, and was on the frontier, fighting Indians, and guarding emigrant trains. He was honorably discharged at Omaha, August 18, 1864, then returned to Florence, where he remained until winter and then hired out to drive ox-teams in a freight train across the plains, his older brother, James, being with him in the same train. They got as far as Cotton Wood Springs, but there were snowbound, and had to return to Florence, where our subject spent the remainder of the winter. After which he went to Rockport, Washington County, Neb., and there remained until 1868, and then came back to Douglas County, Neb., where he farmed for the first time. He rented in that vicinity until the fall of 1870 and then came to Harrison County, Iowa.

He was married in Washington County, Neb., March 5, 1868, to Miss Martha I. WILSON and they are the parents of eight children: Millie J., born August 4, 1869; Alfred W., March 12, 1872; Richard F., June 22, 1874; Alice E., October 6, 1876; Harriet I., April 1, 1879; John G., April 15, 1881; Katie L., January 15, 1884 and Gertie M., June 21, 1887. John G. died September 16, 1881.

Martha (WILSON) CHAPMAN, wife of our subject, was born in Taylor County, Iowa, March 12, 1851, and in the spring of 1865, moved with her parents to Pottawattamie County, where they remained until fall and then moved to Florence, Neb., remained there until the spring of 1866, when they moved to a farm in the same county, remained one season and then moved to Washington County, Neb., where our subject's wife remained until the date of her marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. CHAPMAN are both members of the Latter Day Saints Church; they united July, 1874. Of their family, Millie J., Alfred W., Alice E. and Harriet I. are also members of the same church. Mr. CHAPMAN has held and still retains the office of township trustee.

The father of Mrs. CHAPMAN, William A. WILSON, was born in Kentucky, March 24, 1821, and in 1835, with his parents moved to Indiana, where he remained until 1845 and then came to Taylor County, Iowa, and from there to Pottawattamie County in 1865. The same fall, he moved to Florence, Neb., and in the spring of 1867, to Washington County, Neb., where he remained until 1869, then removed to Douglas County, where he died March 4, 1891. Sarah J. (GUILL) WILSON, the mother of our subject's wife, was born in Kentucky and died in Douglas County, Neb., November 14, 1866. They were the parents of ten children; five sons and five daughters, Mrs. CHAPMAN being the third child.

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