In 1875, Lewis Chaplin enlisted in the U.S. Army at Seneca County, Ohio at the age of 21 years with the rank of "Private." He reenlisted several times before his retirement in 1903 with the rank of "Color Sergeant." Upon his retirement, Chaplin settled in the fishing town of Saratoga, Wyoming. The town of about 500 residents straddles the North Platte River, with a bridge connecting the east side of town to the west side. It features a natural hot spring, the iconic Wolf Hotel, and spectacular views of the Sierra Madre Range. Chaplins's retirement years were a time for visiting with friends, going on trapping expeditions, and prospecting for precious metals in the mountains. In the wintertime, he vacationed in the warmer climates of Southern California, Arizona, and Florida. He remained in Saratoga until the early 1920's at which time his health began to decline. He went to Washington, D.C. for his final months and was cared for at the Soldiers' and Airmen's National Home, a retirement facility for veterans. He died there on November 2, 1922 and was laid to rest at the National Cemetery on the adjacent grounds.
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| Paying my respects at Soldiers' and Airmen's National Home Cemetery |
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| Obituary from The Saratoga Sun, November 1922 |
While researching his military career, I was surprised to stumble upon my granduncle's name in a number of historical publications. Most notably is the role his unit played at Little Bighorn, infamous as the site of General Custer's Last Stand, and then combat with the Nez Perce people at the Battle of the Big Hole. Later, he was involved in the Spanish-American conflict and Philippine-American War.
In the early years of his service, Lewis Chaplin is assigned to Company I of the Seventh Infantry. In the Spring of 1876, the Seventh under the command of Colonel John Gibbon at Fort Shaw in the Montana Territory is ordered to Fort Ellis for participation in a campaign to address hostilities with the Lakota Sioux. Since the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874, the U.S. Government has been unable to contain the influx of prospectors who have flooded into the region in direct violation of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which had set aside the region for Indian use. Mining towns like Deadwood spring up in the Black Hills, land considered sacred to the Sioux. They become increasingly agitated by the infringement upon their land and their customs, often ambushing and sometimes murdering the settlers in retaliation. In early 1876, when negotiations with Sioux leaders break down, President Ulysses S. Grant gives the order for the Army to secure the Black Hills and to force the submission of the Lakota Sioux.
Colonel Gibbon's so called "Montana Column" of 400 men departs Fort Ellis on March 30th with orders to keep the Sioux from crossing the Yellowstone River. They march up and down the river without incident. By June, scouts identify the location of a large Indian encampment on the banks of the Little Bighorn River, a tributary of the Yellowstone. The Montana Column receives orders to join forces with the Dakota Column, about 570 strong, under the command of General Alfred Terry, who had marched westward from Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory. Terry and Gibbon meet on June 22nd. They plan to attack the village with the two columns from opposite directions at the same time, with General George Custer leading a clockwise march to reach a point east of the Indian camp in four days. Gibbons' troops, along with General Terry, would backtrack and attack from the west. Private Lewis Chaplin is a member of this group.
On the third day, the Gibbon command marches 28 miles through hot and dry mountain terrain. Scouts are sent ahead into the night and early morning. They bring back grim news that Custer's command has been completely annihilated. The Gibbon command reaches the large deserted Indian village on June 26th. They discover 58 wounded on the hilltops above the flood plain, some of those who had branched off under Major Reno's command. None who remained with General Custer survive the slaughter. The initial count is 194 dead soldiers but that figure is later increased to 259.
The troops are tasked for the remainder of the day with moving the wounded soldiers down from the hills and providing proper care. The next day, they bury the dead and construct litters from timber for transporting the injured. Chaplin and the others from Companies H and I are assigned to carry the litters on their shoulders for several miles. Travel is slow and tedious, but on the 30th, they reach the mouth of the Little Bighorn, where the steamship Far West is awaiting their arrival.
Many of the Sioux flee to Canada to evade retaliation by the United States. In February of 1877, the U.S. annexes the Black Hills, essentially ending the Sioux War. The Seventh Infantry returns to Fort Shaw in the Montana Territory, but by July, they are once again called upon. This time, it is an uprising of the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho.
Traditional Nez Perce lands includes a wide swath in and around the Bitterroot Mountains in present day Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Their land shrinks after a treaty with the U.S. in 1855, but only slightly. However, white settlers pressure the government for use of the pristine ranch and grazing lands there, and when gold is discovered in 1860, more settlers arrive illegally by the thousands. Again, the government is unable to ebb the influx. In 1869, the Nez Perce are forced into a treaty forcing them into a reservation, giving up 90% of their land. Many of the chiefs refuse to sign. These "non-treaty" Nez Perce and the whites engage in acts of vengeance against each other resulting in numerous deaths.
Tensions increase in 1876 and 1877. General Oliver Otis Howard is tasked with ending the resurgence and establishes an ultimatum for the non-treaty Nez Perce to retreat to the reservation. A group of warriors stage a raid to avenge family murders, and four white men are killed. The chiefs hastily make plans to flee east to Montana to avoid retaliation from Howard's troops and to seek help from their friends there, the Crow. Nez Perce bands combined, about 250 warriors, 500 women and children, and 2,000 heads of horses and other livestock, begin the long trek in June of 1877.
After a few skirmishes with the Army in Idaho, the Indians escape over the mountains along the Idaho-Montana border to cross at Lolo Pass. Howard sends word to Fort Shaw for Gibbon to head them off. Gibbon's Seventh Infantry catches up to the Indians on August 8th at their camp of 89 tipis on the North Fork of the Big Hole River. They decide to lay in wait in the hills overnight and execute a surprise attack at first daylight. The Nez Perce believe they are far ahead of General Howard. But they are unaware of the imminent ambush by the Seventh Infantry, 161 men in total plus 45 volunteers who joined up with them along the way.
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| Private Chaplin under Gibbon's command at Big Hole |
Gibbon believes that once they surround the camp, the Indians will simply surrender. But the attack begins prematurely when a volunteer fires the first shot. The warriors quickly rally after the initial shock and fight back valiantly. The soldiers attack indiscriminately, and many women and children are killed or wounded, in addition to warriors.
In the end, losses are heavy on both sides. The Army suffers 29 dead and 40 injured, two of which die later. Gibbon himself has been shot in the leg. Lewis Chaplin is not listed on the casualty report, but four of his comrades from Company I are among those killed. Among the Nez Perce, it is estimated that between 70 and 90 are killed, but only about one-third of those are warriors; the remainder are women and children. During the sniper battle that lasts into a second day, the Nez Perce hurriedly dismantle their camp, with no time to properly bury their deceased, and relocate some 18 miles to the south.
In the end, losses are heavy on both sides. The Army suffers 29 dead and 40 injured, two of which die later. Gibbon himself has been shot in the leg. Lewis Chaplin is not listed on the casualty report, but four of his comrades from Company I are among those killed. Among the Nez Perce, it is estimated that between 70 and 90 are killed, but only about one-third of those are warriors; the remainder are women and children. During the sniper battle that lasts into a second day, the Nez Perce hurriedly dismantle their camp, with no time to properly bury their deceased, and relocate some 18 miles to the south.
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| Depiction of the Battle of the Big Hole |
General Howard's much larger battalion arrives in the days to follow, and the pursuit of the Indians continues through Yellowstone Park and through Montana. The Nez Perce receive no support from the Crow Nation and continue their escape. Eventually, some make it into Canada, but most surrender at Bear's Paw Mountain, just 40 miles short of the border. In less than four months, they have trekked 1,700 miles in their remarkable quest for refuge. But instead, they are put on trains and transported to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and then to what is now Oklahoma.
Back east, sentiment is mixed with regard to the Indian Wars, some sympathetic to the plight of the indigenous people and others believing that coast to coast expansion by the U.S. is justified and inevitable. But a career soldier does not have the luxury of choosing his wars, and as an expert marksman, one can imagine that Lewis Chaplin witnessed and carried out some very sordid deeds.
For Private Chaplin, the remainder of his tour of duty in the Great Plains is relatively dull as the Indian Wars are winding down. But his marksmanship earns him the honor of representing his unit in the Army's annual rifle competitions. One of many prize-winning performances is memorialized in the General Orders and Circulars, Adjutant General's Office, 1884:
After his initial enlistment in Ohio, Lewis reenlists at least five times. On each enlistment, his home is "Seneca County, Ohio." He is small in stature, described as just under five feet and five inches. He has black hair, blue or grey eyes, and a dark complexion. For much of the decade of the 1880's and into the 90's, he is stationed at Fort Washakie, Wyoming Territory, where his rank is "Sergeant." He's there when Wyoming gains her statehood on July 10, 1890 and long enough overall that he yearns to make it his home upon retirement.
By the end of the 1890's, Chaplin is transferred to the Eleventh Infantry. In 1898, the Spanish-American War breaks out. Chaplin's unit trains in Mobile, Alabama and is then sent to Tampa for transport to Puerto Rico. The Eleventh Infantry sees combat at the Battle of Silva Heights in the Puerto Rico Campaign.
Back east, sentiment is mixed with regard to the Indian Wars, some sympathetic to the plight of the indigenous people and others believing that coast to coast expansion by the U.S. is justified and inevitable. But a career soldier does not have the luxury of choosing his wars, and as an expert marksman, one can imagine that Lewis Chaplin witnessed and carried out some very sordid deeds.
For Private Chaplin, the remainder of his tour of duty in the Great Plains is relatively dull as the Indian Wars are winding down. But his marksmanship earns him the honor of representing his unit in the Army's annual rifle competitions. One of many prize-winning performances is memorialized in the General Orders and Circulars, Adjutant General's Office, 1884:
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| Fifth place in the whole Army? Not bad! |
After his initial enlistment in Ohio, Lewis reenlists at least five times. On each enlistment, his home is "Seneca County, Ohio." He is small in stature, described as just under five feet and five inches. He has black hair, blue or grey eyes, and a dark complexion. For much of the decade of the 1880's and into the 90's, he is stationed at Fort Washakie, Wyoming Territory, where his rank is "Sergeant." He's there when Wyoming gains her statehood on July 10, 1890 and long enough overall that he yearns to make it his home upon retirement.
By the end of the 1890's, Chaplin is transferred to the Eleventh Infantry. In 1898, the Spanish-American War breaks out. Chaplin's unit trains in Mobile, Alabama and is then sent to Tampa for transport to Puerto Rico. The Eleventh Infantry sees combat at the Battle of Silva Heights in the Puerto Rico Campaign.
The Eleventh is then called upon for an overseas mission, this time to the Philippines in 1901. Spain had ceded the Philippines to the United States at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War under the 1898 Treaty of Paris. But hostilities between Filipinos and occupying American troops percolate for a few years, a conflict known as the Philippines-American War. Lewis Chaplin is one of a very select group of special forces tasked with the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of an insurgent group of guerilla fighters. Under the command of Brigadier General Frederick C. Funston, who develops plans for a deceptive sneak attack on Aguinaldo, the mission is successfully carried out by four officers, six veteran scouts, and 78 Filipinos of the Macabebe tribe loyal to the U.S. For more about this operation, follow the link at the end of this article.
In 1903, Sgt. Chaplin returns to the U.S. pending the processing of his application for retirement, as reported in the Army and Navy Journal, March 14, 1903:
I first researched Lewis Chaplin over a decade ago, but only recently did I learn of his burial in Washington, D.C. So I took the short trip there from my Baltimore home to pay tribute. The cemetery is adjacent to the grounds where the Soldiers' Home is located, a beautiful site just three miles north of downtown Washington. As I reflected on his amazing life, it occurred to me that I'm probably the first relative to ever visit his grave site. I don't know if he ever returned to Ohio to visit his family during his military career or after his retirement, but it appears that he lost contact. He is named in the will of his grandfather Joseph Hoover who died in 1896, but in it, Lewis' address is "unknown." In his own will, there is no mention of family, only his friends in Saratoga, Wyoming.
My Chaplin ancestral line is my most recent to arrive in America. In 1851, a teenaged carpentry apprentice named Richard Chaplin emigrated to the United States and found his way to Northwest Ohio. Most likely, he is the Richard Chaplin born in 1834 in the town Northleach in Gloucestershire, England. With such a common name, I cannot confirm with complete certainty, however I believe he is the son of Richard Chaplin (1798-1881) and Mary Hooper (1797-1855). I collaborated with a fellow researcher in the U.K., a descendant of Richard's brother Thomas Chaplin, who shared his finding that Richard "came across to the US around 1851 and married and lived there. I think we have the same person."
In Ohio, Richard settled in Seneca County near the community of Watsons Station, six miles northeast of Tiffin, near Fort Seneca. In February of 1853, he married Elizabeth Hoover, a daughter of Joseph Hoover (sometimes spelled Huber) and Catharine Gulmire, and I believe Richard had been working on the Hoover farm. The Hoovers were a large and prominent family in this area of Seneca County, Joseph having been born in Switzerland and his wife in Prussia (Germany). Richard and Elizabeth Chaplin became parents to two boys, Lewis in 1853 (the subject of this article) and Richard in 1858 (my great-great grandfather). Sometime prior to the birth of the second son, the young family had relocated to the Memphis, Tennessee area.
On the 1860 Federal Census, Elizabeth is enumerated with the two boys in Memphis, but her husband Richard is not. She lists no occupation and holds a net worth of $75 in personal effects with the nearest family nearly 700 miles away. The fate of Elizabeth's husband is to this day unknown by researchers, but the general consensus is that he died in 1860 or earlier.
Elizabeth began a partnership with a cabinet maker named George Sharps, a Louisiana native living in a Memphis boarding house who might have been a co-worker of her husband. The couple married, but then Elizabeth became ill in the Summer of 1861. George, Elizabeth, and the two boys returned to Seneca County, Ohio. After a lengthy illness, Elizabeth died in 1862 as reported in The Seneca Advertiser, Tiffin, Ohio:
Eight months after Elizabeth's passing, George Sharps married her younger sister, Lucinda Hoover. The two brothers were presumably living with their Hoover grandparents. George and Lucinda then had a daughter, Minnie Sharps, in 1864. The Sharps relocate to the newly incorporated town of Pierceton in Northern Indiana, where George worked as a house carpenter. Richard Chaplin accompanied his stepfather and aunt/stepmother on this move. The Sharps had two more children in Indiana, Lucinda and Joseph Sharps. The 1870 Federal Census has Richard Chaplin living with the Sharps and attending school in Pierceton. His brother Lewis, on that same census report, is back in Ohio, still living with his grandparents and attending school in Pleasant Township.
The fate of George Sharps after 1870 remains a mystery as of this writing. Likewise, the youngest daughter may have died during early childhood as there is no record of her after 1870. We know that Lucinda returned to Ohio with daughter Minnie and nephew Richard in 1874 and was granted a divorce from George Sharps on the grounds of desertion. Later that year, she married Joseph H. Bricker, a physician in Tiffin, Ohio, but the marriage ended in divorce before the decade's end. She married for a third time in 1885 to Julius Varin in Battle Creek, Michigan, who died in 1901. She moved in with her son Joseph and his wife and daughter in Battle Creek. Joseph died in 1906, Lucinda in 1910.
Meanwhile, with his return to Ohio from Indiana in 1874, Richard Chaplin was reunited with his brother Lewis, but only briefly. Lewis enlisted in the Army a year later in 1875, and this might be the last time the brothers were together. For the duration of his teen years and as a young man, Richard lived with his uncle, John Albert Hoover, a Civil War veteran, helping out on the Hoover farm.
A strange thing happens in our family history about this time. Richard's version of the surname changed from Chaplin to Chapman. The change first appears on the 1880 Federal Census which has him living with John and Fanny Hoover and their three children, Laura, Ellis, and Francis:
Whether this change was intentional or accidental is open to speculation, but it's one of many surname alterations I've discovered in my family tree. For the remainder of his life, he was known as Richard Chapman or R.H. Chapman. If Lewis Chaplin ever tried to reach out to his brother in Ohio, this might have made that quest a bit more difficult.
Many of the individuals named in this article are recorded in the family Bible of John Albert Hoover, whose name was passed down for at least four generations and who still has descendants in and around Old Fort, Ohio.
On February 9, 1881, Richard Chapman married Clara Voorhies. For a time, they operated the farm of Clara's father, Andrew Voorhies, in Sandusky County just east of Bettsville. I wrote a story about the Voorhies branch of the family tree in a previous article, and there is a link to it at the end of this post.
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Special "thanks" to Lynda Dicken Heilman, also a descendant of Joseph Hoover, for contributing research to this project!
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Check out more here: Clara Voorhies Family Bible
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More here about Homer and Nettie Chapman
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An account of the Aguinaldo mission here: A Desperate Undertaking: Funston Captures Aguinaldo
I first researched Lewis Chaplin over a decade ago, but only recently did I learn of his burial in Washington, D.C. So I took the short trip there from my Baltimore home to pay tribute. The cemetery is adjacent to the grounds where the Soldiers' Home is located, a beautiful site just three miles north of downtown Washington. As I reflected on his amazing life, it occurred to me that I'm probably the first relative to ever visit his grave site. I don't know if he ever returned to Ohio to visit his family during his military career or after his retirement, but it appears that he lost contact. He is named in the will of his grandfather Joseph Hoover who died in 1896, but in it, Lewis' address is "unknown." In his own will, there is no mention of family, only his friends in Saratoga, Wyoming.
My Chaplin ancestral line is my most recent to arrive in America. In 1851, a teenaged carpentry apprentice named Richard Chaplin emigrated to the United States and found his way to Northwest Ohio. Most likely, he is the Richard Chaplin born in 1834 in the town Northleach in Gloucestershire, England. With such a common name, I cannot confirm with complete certainty, however I believe he is the son of Richard Chaplin (1798-1881) and Mary Hooper (1797-1855). I collaborated with a fellow researcher in the U.K., a descendant of Richard's brother Thomas Chaplin, who shared his finding that Richard "came across to the US around 1851 and married and lived there. I think we have the same person."
In Ohio, Richard settled in Seneca County near the community of Watsons Station, six miles northeast of Tiffin, near Fort Seneca. In February of 1853, he married Elizabeth Hoover, a daughter of Joseph Hoover (sometimes spelled Huber) and Catharine Gulmire, and I believe Richard had been working on the Hoover farm. The Hoovers were a large and prominent family in this area of Seneca County, Joseph having been born in Switzerland and his wife in Prussia (Germany). Richard and Elizabeth Chaplin became parents to two boys, Lewis in 1853 (the subject of this article) and Richard in 1858 (my great-great grandfather). Sometime prior to the birth of the second son, the young family had relocated to the Memphis, Tennessee area.
On the 1860 Federal Census, Elizabeth is enumerated with the two boys in Memphis, but her husband Richard is not. She lists no occupation and holds a net worth of $75 in personal effects with the nearest family nearly 700 miles away. The fate of Elizabeth's husband is to this day unknown by researchers, but the general consensus is that he died in 1860 or earlier.
Elizabeth began a partnership with a cabinet maker named George Sharps, a Louisiana native living in a Memphis boarding house who might have been a co-worker of her husband. The couple married, but then Elizabeth became ill in the Summer of 1861. George, Elizabeth, and the two boys returned to Seneca County, Ohio. After a lengthy illness, Elizabeth died in 1862 as reported in The Seneca Advertiser, Tiffin, Ohio:
On the 7th day of Oct., 1862, at the residence of her parents near Watson Station, Seneca Ct., OH, Elizabeth Sharps, wife of George Sharps, after an illness of 14 months. Aged 28 years, 2 months
Eight months after Elizabeth's passing, George Sharps married her younger sister, Lucinda Hoover. The two brothers were presumably living with their Hoover grandparents. George and Lucinda then had a daughter, Minnie Sharps, in 1864. The Sharps relocate to the newly incorporated town of Pierceton in Northern Indiana, where George worked as a house carpenter. Richard Chaplin accompanied his stepfather and aunt/stepmother on this move. The Sharps had two more children in Indiana, Lucinda and Joseph Sharps. The 1870 Federal Census has Richard Chaplin living with the Sharps and attending school in Pierceton. His brother Lewis, on that same census report, is back in Ohio, still living with his grandparents and attending school in Pleasant Township.
The fate of George Sharps after 1870 remains a mystery as of this writing. Likewise, the youngest daughter may have died during early childhood as there is no record of her after 1870. We know that Lucinda returned to Ohio with daughter Minnie and nephew Richard in 1874 and was granted a divorce from George Sharps on the grounds of desertion. Later that year, she married Joseph H. Bricker, a physician in Tiffin, Ohio, but the marriage ended in divorce before the decade's end. She married for a third time in 1885 to Julius Varin in Battle Creek, Michigan, who died in 1901. She moved in with her son Joseph and his wife and daughter in Battle Creek. Joseph died in 1906, Lucinda in 1910.
Meanwhile, with his return to Ohio from Indiana in 1874, Richard Chaplin was reunited with his brother Lewis, but only briefly. Lewis enlisted in the Army a year later in 1875, and this might be the last time the brothers were together. For the duration of his teen years and as a young man, Richard lived with his uncle, John Albert Hoover, a Civil War veteran, helping out on the Hoover farm.
A strange thing happens in our family history about this time. Richard's version of the surname changed from Chaplin to Chapman. The change first appears on the 1880 Federal Census which has him living with John and Fanny Hoover and their three children, Laura, Ellis, and Francis:
- Name: Chapman, Richard
- Age: 22
- Relationship: Boarding
- Occupation: Farmer
- Birthplace: Tennessee
- Father's Birthplace: England
- Mother's Birthplace: Ohio
Whether this change was intentional or accidental is open to speculation, but it's one of many surname alterations I've discovered in my family tree. For the remainder of his life, he was known as Richard Chapman or R.H. Chapman. If Lewis Chaplin ever tried to reach out to his brother in Ohio, this might have made that quest a bit more difficult.
Many of the individuals named in this article are recorded in the family Bible of John Albert Hoover, whose name was passed down for at least four generations and who still has descendants in and around Old Fort, Ohio.
On February 9, 1881, Richard Chapman married Clara Voorhies. For a time, they operated the farm of Clara's father, Andrew Voorhies, in Sandusky County just east of Bettsville. I wrote a story about the Voorhies branch of the family tree in a previous article, and there is a link to it at the end of this post.
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| Richard and Clara (Voorhies) Chapman Bettsville, Ohio |
Richard and Clara had three children but only one, Harry Raymond Chapman, my great grandfather, lived to adulthood. After the turn of the century, the Chapmans moved a a few miles to the south into Seneca County, not far from another Chapman farm occupied by Homer and Nettie Chapman (see the link to their story below). Harry began a courtship with their daughter, Edna "Mertie" Chapman, my great grandmother, and they married in 1914.
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| Harry Raymond Chapman (1886-1918) son of Richard Chapman, nephew of Sgt. Lewis Chaplin |
Harry and Mertie, my great grandparents, had two daughters, Eleanor in 1915 and my grandmother Winnie in 1918. My grandmother was just seven months of age when her dad died in December of 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Sadly, most of the stories of our Chaplin heritage died along with Harry and his parents, complicating our research efforts.
Clara Voorhies Chapman died in 1926 and Richard Chapman spent his widower years living in nearby Bettsville until his death in 1934. I wonder, did he he know of his brother's death in 1922 in Washington, D.C.? Did they ever correspond? Probably not. It saddens me to know that Lewis Chaplin had so many amazing stories to tell but, in all likelihood, no family members ever heard them. Today only a handful of descendants in our Chaplin line in America remain, those of us who descended from Eleanor Addis and Winnie Jeanette.
Clara Voorhies Chapman died in 1926 and Richard Chapman spent his widower years living in nearby Bettsville until his death in 1934. I wonder, did he he know of his brother's death in 1922 in Washington, D.C.? Did they ever correspond? Probably not. It saddens me to know that Lewis Chaplin had so many amazing stories to tell but, in all likelihood, no family members ever heard them. Today only a handful of descendants in our Chaplin line in America remain, those of us who descended from Eleanor Addis and Winnie Jeanette.
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| Winnie Chapman Jeanette and Eleanor Chapman Addis, great granddaughters of Richard Chaplin |
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Special "thanks" to Lynda Dicken Heilman, also a descendant of Joseph Hoover, for contributing research to this project!
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Check out more here: Clara Voorhies Family Bible
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More here about Homer and Nettie Chapman
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An account of the Aguinaldo mission here: A Desperate Undertaking: Funston Captures Aguinaldo
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