Rozell and Voorhies—Pioneers of Wolf Creek

In the years leading up to the establishment of Bettsville, Charles Rozell lived in a primitive cabin he had built next to the West Branch of Wolf Creek a few miles west of its confluence with the Sandusky River in northwest Ohio. The New Jersey native arrived in March of 1831, having purchased a plot of 80 acres in Jackson Township, Sandusky County, near the Seneca County line, on which he planned to establish his homestead. The township had been organized just two years earlier and was named in honor of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States at that time. The area was largely uninhabited when Rozell arrived. After exhausting nearly all of his savings on this piece of land and a pair of oxen, the 27 year-old tapped into his pioneer spirit during that spring and summer, clearing enough trees and brush in order to erect his cabin, establish a vegetable garden, and cultivate a small cornfield.

Computer generated depiction

At the end of the summer, satisfied that the wild lot had been adequately tamed, Charles sent for his wife Catherine and their two young daughters, Susan and Martha. They were escorted to Ohio by his brother Isaac, following the Hudson River to Albany and then cruising in comfort along the recently completed Erie Canal all the way to Buffalo. They sailed across Lake Erie, probably to the Sandusky Bay, for their rendezvous with Charles and a day or two of overland travel. Upon arrival at their cabin, it's safe to assume Catherine was both relieved and unimpressed.

But Charles and Catherine worked diligently to provide for themselves and their family. The nearest settlement with a grist mill and provisions was Lower Sandusky about nine miles away. Roads were little more than paths, and to make matters worse, much of northwest Ohio to west of the Sandusky River was mosquito-plagued marshland, the Great Black Swamp. Most potential settlers opted out because of the poor drainage and the flat and boggy terrain left behind by the receding glaciers of the last ice age. For this reason, the northwest counties were the last in Ohio to be settled, and only by the hardiest of pioneers.

Location of Rozell purchase in the Great Black Swamp

The family was thrifty and adapted to life without the conveniences they enjoyed back east. Their hard work and diligence would pay off. In the decades to follow, their holdings would gradually increase to 174 acres of cleared land along with another 80 acres of woodland. Roads were built and ditches were dug to dry out the marsh and muck. As a result, the once uninviting wasteland was transformed into some of the most fertile farmland anywhere.

In 1849, the year Lower Sandusky was renamed Fremont, a group of prominent Sandusky County citizens organized the Lower Sandusky Plank Road Company. Their mission entailed construction of a road beginning at Fremont's Front Street, following the Sandusky River southward for five miles and then cutting southwest through Bettsville to Fostoria, modern day State Route 12. At the southwest bend, a branch would continue southward through Fort Seneca to Tiffin, modern day State Route 53. Charles Rozell was contracted to build several miles of the road, consisting of eight foot planks laid side by side on the west lane and a graded dirt road for use by teams on the east lane. After about a decade, the planks had deteriorated. Tolls collected were less than what was needed to replace the road, so the planks were removed and burned. In the 1870s, the use of crushed gravel from local quarries became prevalent in road construction.

Plank Road, computer generated depiction

In 1858, Charles and Catharine erected a beautiful and expensive home on their property alongside the plank road and furnished it neatly and tastefully. Both daughters married and remained nearby, Susan Ann, wife of John Fabian on the next farm over, and Martha, wife of Lucien Hull, a couple miles away in Seneca County. Catharine Rozell died in 1864 in her 60th year. Charles remarried to Rachel Jane Reed (nee Bay), and they had a daughter, Jennie Rachel Rozell, born in 1865.

A quote from "History of Sandusky County, Ohio," 1882:

Mr. Charles Rozell was always active in his business, strictly fair and honorable in all of his dealings, and treated every man justly. He was kind to the poor and unfortunate, and ever ready to assist the deserving. Though not a professing Christian, his moral character was above reproach, and his reputation for sincerity of friendship and integrity was unsullied. By attending diligently to his business, he became the possessor of a good property, and departed from earth honored and esteemed. He was a Republican, a strong Union man during the war, and assisted the soldiers and their widows by every means at his command. He died at his home in Jackson, November 27, 1870, at the age of sixty-seven.

Charles Rozell and his second wife Rachel Jane (Bay) Reed

While the Rozells were among the very first of European descent to settle along Wolf Creek, others soon arrived. In 1834, John Betts acquired from Jacob Garn 68 and a half acres bordered by the south bank of Wolf Creek, a mile or two upstream in Liberty Township, Seneca County. Four years later, 21 lots were plotted from the Betts acquisition to establish the original village of Bettsville. A few additions expanded the size of the community in the decades that followed. The population totaled just 23 in 1840 and 40 in 1847. But the plank road brought additional traffic through the village. Then in 1873, the Tiffin, Toledo, and Eastern Railroad was completed, and a depot was built at the west end of town. The population swelled to 515 by 1880, and Bettsville was incorporated in 1882. After a fire in old Bettsville, the business district was rebuilt further west, closer to the railroad.

"This town (is) built on three streets and has mostly fine buildings, frame and brick. We have two dry goods stores, one grocery, and not much drunkenness in that, one saw mill, three fine churches,. . . a school house two doctors, a Justice of the Peace, and I am glad to say that this year none of the inhabitants of Bettsville have been prosecuted on account of debts. We have two blacksmith shops and a harness shop, one shoe shop, two wagon and carriage shops, two cabinet makers, a plasterer, brick layer, and an ashery." -Tiffin Advertiser, August 20, 1860

In 1834, more Rozell pioneers arrived from New Jersey, including Charles' sister Jane and her husband Elijah Coert Voorhies, my 4th great-grandparents. They arrived with their four young children, Ann, Eliza, John, and William. Charles and Catharine shared their cabin with the Voorhies family through that winter, and one can only imagine what a scene that was.

By the following spring, the Voorhieses moved into their own crudely constructed cabin on an adjacent 80-acre lot that Elijah and Jane had purchased. When they first occupied the structure, it did not yet have a floor, doors, or windows. But they got to work, cleared some land, and planted five acres of wheat that summer, yielding about 200 bushels. In July of 1836, a son, Andrew Voorhies, was born, my 3rd great-grandfather, followed by George (died in infancy), Amanda, Oliver, and Enos Ezra.

The Voorhies homestead was very near a trail used by the local Indians traveling along the Sandusky River, although few remained by then, and those they encountered were generally docile. Family lore holds that they would sometimes awaken in the morning to find that Indians, having not adopted our tradition of knocking first, had made entry overnight and slept by their fireplace. The most prevalent tribes along the Sandusky Valley were the Seneca and the Wyandot. A 40,000-acre reservation existed nearby along eight miles of the eastern bank of the Sandusky River until about 1832, at which time the various tribal peoples were pressured by the United States Government to remove to Indian Territory, now northeast Oklahoma.

Historical Marker at Green Springs, Ohio

Just as the construction of the plank road was ramping up in 1849, Ann Voorhies, the oldest child of Elijah and Jane, married Amos Mull. The Mull family had land holdings downstream a bit, just into Ballville Township where the East Branch of Wolf Creek meets the West Branch. The Mulls operated a sawmill on the East Branch, and like most sawmills in the area, much of their resources were shifted to the processing of lumber for the road. Access to the mill was limited due to its proximity to the two creeks, so the Mulls petitioned the Sandusky County Commissioner and were granted $75 to construct a bridge across the creek. With their own materials, labor, and ingenuity, the Mulls completed a covered bridge in 1851, and it remained active for more than a century. With the opening of a new bridge in 1962, The Mull Covered Bridge was retired and has since undergone multiple renovations to preserve it as an historic landmark. Amos and Ann Mull raised six children and relocated to Nebraska later in life. My grandfather Joe Jeanette enjoyed taking his grandchildren on an occasional drive around the area, and the covered bridge was one of our favorite site seeing destinations.

From the photography collection of Joe Jeanette circa 1970

The Mull Covered Bridge, now maintained by the Sandusky County Parks System

Many of the descendants of Elijah and Jane Voorhies were prominent in their vicinity and became leaders in public affairs. They held large tracts of land in both Liberty Township in Seneca County and Jackson Township in Sandusky County. In and around Bettsville, the Voorhies name was well recognized for a number of generations. Oliver Voorhies (1843-1925) eventually acquired his father’s original homestead, just southeast of what is now State Route 12. He lived there until retiring to a house in Bettsville at Union and State Streets, at which time his son George acquired the farm. Enos Voorhies (1846-1917) purchased a farm from Dr. Rufus Norton in 1893 on the Liberty Township side of the Seneca/Sandusky County line. This land was passed down through the generations, and during my years in Bettsville, it was the Harold Klopp farm; Klopp was married to a granddaughter of Enos Voorhies. The farm butts up to the south shore of Wolf Creek, and these banks provided some favorite fishing spots for myself and many of my childhood friends. Some of the other Voorhies siblings settled around the village of Burgoon on the Sandusky County side of Wolf Creek.

Bettsville merchants ca.1940 with Vaughn Voorhies, right, grandson of Oliver

Andrew Voorhies became a successful farmer on the Sandusky County side of the homestead. He married Mary Magdelena Mowry on March 12, 1857 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Fremont. A son, Franklin Voorhies, was born in 1858, but Mary, at just 20 years of age, passed away on February 9, 1859. In 1860, Andrew remarried to Elizabeth Jackson, and they were my 3rd great-grandparents. They had three daughters, Clara, Florence, and Mina. Andrew and his family lived in a fine farmhouse on property backing up to Wolf Creek. The children grew up but stayed local, at least for the duration of Andrew’s time. His wife Elizabeth passed away in 1879, and then he married for a third time to Fanny Harley in 1880. Andrew retired to Fremont where he passed away on March 23, 1896.

Illustration of Andrew Voorhies farm

Andrew Voorhies (1836-1896)

Andrew's daughter Clara Voorhies married Richard Chapman in 1881 (originally spelled Chaplin), and they were my 2nd great-grandparents. Their son Harry Chapman married Edna Mertie Chapman in 1914, and they had two daughters before his death during the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918. My grandmother Winnie was just seven months old and her sister Eleanor was age three years when their father died. Edna and the two girls went to live on the farm of her parents, Homer and Nettie (Flack) Chapman. Homer's father was Edwin Chapman, a veteran of the Civil War who had inherited the farm from his foster parents. Follow the link at the end of this article for stories of Edwin Chapman's life and the history of the Chapman farm.

Clara passed down a family Bible to my grandmother, Winnie (Chapman) Jeanette. Clara received the Bible as a Christmas gift in 1875, and it remains in our family today, along with its trove of old photographs and clippings. A link at the end of this article takes the reader to my story about the Clara Voorhies Bible.

Richard and Clara (Voorhies) Chapman, ca.1920

Edna remarried to Pete Hanson in 1921, and they moved into Bettsville. They had a son, Paul "Corky" Hanson, but the marriage ended in divorce. Edna was proprietor of the Home Restaurant in Bettsville during the 1930s and 1940s, serving up lunch to the locals and a offering a hangout after high school basketball games. She was the only living great-grandparent I remember, and I have fond memories of my time with her.

Voorhies Reunion ca. 1914
Meadowbrook Park, Bascom, Ohio

Harry and Edna Chapman
Voorhies Reunion ca. 1914

Seated: Edna (Chapman) Hanson and her aunt, Ella (Flack) Kime
Standing: Eleanor (Chapman) Addis, Paul Hanson, Winnie (Chapman) Jeanette

Joe and Winnie (Chapman) Jeanette, married 1937

Home Restaurant ca. 1940

Richard Chaplin/Chapman and his brother Lewis Chaplin were orphaned at a young age. Their father Richard Chaplin had immigrated from England and married Elizabeth Hoover of Old Fort in 1853. The boys were raised by family after both parents had died as of 1862. Lewis Chaplin served a long career in the U.S. Army with an extensive list of achievements. A link to my article about the Chaplin/Chapman branch can be found at the end of this article.

1836 marked the arrival of Charles Rozell's parents to the frontier, John and Jane (Quigley) Rozell, my 5th great-grandparents, and the younger Rozell siblings. The Quigleys and Rozells were natives of the Trenton, New Jersey area, as were the Voorhieses. Jane's father was Isaac Quigley, a native of Northern Ireland and a patriot in the American Revolution. John and Jane purchased 80 acres from John Rosenberger a couple miles south of Charles Rozell, near what would eventually become Maple Grove, and established their home there. Back in New Jersey, Isaac was the only sibling of Charles who never moved to Ohio; Isaac's descendants adopted the Rossell spelling of the surname. The older siblings, Charles, Jane (Voorhies), Elizabeth (Shawl), and Emy (Andrews) all remained in the Bettsville area for the remainder of their lives. David went to Angola, Indiana, and the younger siblings, John Jr., Theodocia (Peake), and Enoch all relocated to Danby Township in Ionia County, Michigan in their early adulthood.

Enoch Rozell, the youngest, was last to leave after signing onto an agreement to stay and care for his parents until their demise in exchange for the deed to their property for one dollar. His mother, Jane Rozell, died in 1848, and a burial plot was established at the south end of their land near Maple Grove, still called Linden in those days. Then in 1850, John Rozell and Enoch sold the burial ground to Liberty Township for $10 for the establishment of a cemetery where many of the early settlers have since been laid to rest, including John Rozell in 1856. The cemetery is situated across Weaver Road from what was the Levi Crissa farm and came to be known as Crissa Cemetery, sometimes spelled "Creasy."

Crissa Cemetery est. 1850

Many of those mentioned in this article are among the nearly 200 interments in the Crissa Cemetery, and on a personal note, I can't imagine a worse spot for one's eternal resting place. John and Jane's land was situated on what was known as "the ridge" to the locals, a large swath of partially exposed limestone extending across some of the northeast sections of the township. A small stone quarry operated by Holran Stone Company opened nearby in 1903. H.P. Eells acquired the quarry and then mined and processed dolomite under the names Dolomite Production Company, Basic Refractories, and then Basic, Inc. For the next half century, dynamite explosions rocked the community regularly, not unlike life on an active fault line. I experienced this phenomenon personally during my youth through the 1970's, with the periodic shaking of the Bettsville School. I never quite got used to the unannounced nature of the process. The western edge of the quarry gradually infringed upon the cemetery plot, ultimately leaving nothing more than a peninsula protruding out over the abyss. The quarrying operation, on a positive note, lured many newcomers to the region and provided jobs for hundreds of local residents until Basic's demise in the 1980s. Both of my grandfathers retired from Basic, Inc. after combining for 97 years of service.

Crissa Cemetery surrounded by the quarry

When John and Jane Rozell left for Ohio in 1836, their daughter Emy was employed as a maid in Philadelphia, and she did not initially make the move with them. She was living in the home of her employers, John and Margaret (Abercrombie) Andrews. The Andrewses were a family of significant social standing within the community with Mr. Andrews being an associate of the National Bank in Philadelphia. While in the Andrews home, nineteen year-old Emy became involved romantically with their son James, who was about nine years older than she. The couple were married in April of 1837, causing somewhat of a stir within aristocratic circles. It was suggested that the couple consider a relocation to join up with the Rozells out in Ohio, and later that year, they did indeed make the move.

James Andrews, or "Doc," as he came to be known, purchased a very large tract of land from John Rosenberger and others in Liberty Township, bordering the eastern boundary of the Bettsville plot and just north of Emy's parents, John and Jane Rozell. Doc Andrews was not really a medical doctor, but he was very knowledgeable in the area of natural herbal remedies and became somewhat of a legend for that reason. But his privileged upbringing did not adequately prepare him for the labors of frontier life. This is not to say Doc was unambitious. In 1846, during the early theater of the Mexican-American War, Doc rode to Texas over land with a herd of horses to donate to the war cause, leaving Emy to tend to the farm and four young children. He delivered the team to his cousin, Colonel George W. Morgan, and enlisted in Morgan's 15th Regiment.

Doc Andrews returned to Ohio and remained on the farm until his death in 1860. The four children of Doc and Emy all married and had families, but only George spent his entire life in the area. He married Emma Shaffner in 1874 and they acquired 100 acres of farmland just south and east the original Andrews homestead, land that eventually was surrendered to the quarry. George and Emma operated the Goodyear Hotel near the railroad depot in Bettsville, and their son Charlie Andrews ran a grocery market in Bettsville for several decades until his death in 1958. Charlie had also been an officer at the local bank for a time. My father purchased for $25 the desk from Charlie's office at the bank, and this piece remains in our family. George's sister Elizabeth married David Fisher, and they lived on Emy's farm with their children before relocating across the county to Bloomville.  Additionally, after Doc's death, Emy took in two presumed orphans and raised them, as enumerated on both the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census.

1880 Census:

Emy Andrews, age 53, head of household, widowed, keeping house

Jacob Dingledine, age 19, took to raise, works on farm

Catharine Lawrence, age 23, took from poor house, does house work

In 1871, Emy Andrews contracted a surveyor to lay out lots on the westernmost sliver of her land butting against Bettsville's eastern boundary. In total, 82 residential lots were plotted along with a five-acre grove in the middle. In 1882, the village annexed these lots, extending it's eastern boundary from the center of Sullivan Street eastward to include both sides of Monroe Street and the land between Sullivan and Monroe Streets, bordered by Union Street on the north and Seneca Street on the south. It became known as the Andrews Addition, and it was the largest single annex ever made to Bettsville.

Birds eye view of Bettsville, looking east

About 1940, my grandparents Vernon and Marietta Bramel purchased three lots #225-227 at the south end of the Andrews Addition on the northwest corner of Seneca and Monroe Streets. Vernon had arrived in town in 1927 at age 17, specifically to work at the quarry, and married Marietta Semer later that year. He and his two younger brothers had been taken to the orphanage in Maumee, Ohio after their mother died near Cincinnati in 1925. He was then farmed out to the Huffords, six miles north of Bettsville, who welcomed him into their family.

Vernon and Marietta (Semer) Bramel, married 1927

Marietta's clan, the William and Nettie (Russell) Semer family, came to Bettsville in 1917 after the conclusion of William's 15-year military career in Key West, New York City, and Pensacola. He too came for work at the quarry, his sister and brother-in-law, Joseph and Jane Dunlap having previously moved to Fort Seneca for the same reason. William Semer, a native of Van Wert County, Ohio, met Nettie Russell, a native of Key West, Florida, during his deployment to Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West. The Russells were one of the original Keys families, the so called "conch families," who migrated from the Bahamas in the 1830s after the United States acquired Florida from Spain. Many of these Bahamian families were descendants of British Loyalists who fled southern states in the aftermath of the American Revolution. William and Nettie were married on Christmas Eve, 1903. My grandmother Marietta was born at Fort Schuyler, Bronx, New York in 1910, the fifth of 11 Semer children. Grandpa Semer died tragically in 1920 from injuries sustained from a dust explosion at the Kennedy Refractories facility in Bettsville where he was the night superintendent. Follow the link at the end of this article to read about the family's time in Key West.

William Semer family, Fort Totten, Queens, New York, 1914

Vernon and Marietta had been renting for $6 per month a two story house next to the railroad tracks south of Seneca Street, where all five sons were born. That same house was relocated a quarter-mile up the street to the middle lot of their acquisition, and I'm told the total cost of the land, house, and relocation was $900. Grandpa built a kitchen addition along the north side and then added a bathroom in the back. He built a large garage/barn structure in his spare time with cinderblocks he made at Marian Flack's shop, mixing cement and pouring it into molds. The neighborhood kids in the southern half of the Andrews Addition during that generation, the Bramels, Mowerys, Fogels, and others, came to be known as the "ridge rats" due to their proximity to the stony ridge running through the township. They were a close-knit bunch who wore that badge with great pride. In 1976, Grandpa received an inheritance from a relative he probably never knew, and a link at the end of this article takes the reader to that story.

My dad with his big brothers on "the ridge," 1936

 

Aunt Sally at the back of the Bramel home on "the ridge" ca. 1945

Later, in the 1970's, my other grandparents Joe and Winnie Jeanette sold their State Street home next to the Bettsville Public Library, and downsized to a home in the northern portion of the Andrews Addition near the intersection of Monroe and Union Streets. It had a basement large enough to host several of our family Thanksgiving celebrations.

Jeanette home on Monroe Street, ca. 1975

Emy Andrews died in 1912 at the age of 95. She is buried in the Crissa Cemetery near her husband, her parents John and Jane Rozell and many of her Rozell siblings. The Rozells and their Voorhies cousins were instrumental in the early settlement of Bettsville and the surrounding area. Those of us who inherited their wanderlust and thirst for adventure are eternally grateful!

Links:

Clara Voorhies documented her family history here: Clara Voorhies Family Bible

The story of Edwin Chapman and the history of the Chapman farm: Edwin Chapman of the 72nd O.V.I.

Our Chaplin heritage and stories from Lewis Chaplin: Sgt. Lewis Chaplin, Little Bighorn and Beyond

William and Nettie Semer met in Key West, Florida: William Lampson Semer, Fort Zachary Taylor 

Vernon Bramel's surprise: Grandpa Bramel's Big Inheritance

Sources:

History of Sandusky County, Ohio, with Portaits and Biographies of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers, (Cleveland, Ohio: H. Z. Williams & Bro., 1882.)

Durrett, John E. History of Bettsville, Ohio. 1984. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://ohiomemory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15005coll27/id/29643.

Lake, D. J. Map of Seneca Co., Ohio. Philadelphia: Cyrus Stone, Clarence Titus, . Phila.: Printed by Thos. Wagner, 1864. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2012592236/>.

Sgt. Lewis Chaplin—Little Bighorn and Beyond

Among the most interesting characters to have been discovered in the course of my genealogy research is Lewis Chaplin. His brother was my great-great grandfather, which makes Lewis my 2nd-great granduncle officially. The two brothers were orphaned at a young age, so there were no Chaplin stories that survived the generations. Research was further hindered by an inexplicable change in the spelling of the surname. But through persistent efforts and a few lucky hunches, our Chaplin descendants now have a tale to share.

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. In addition to the operation of a ranch, 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.

Paying my respects at Soldiers' and Airmen's National Home Cemetery

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. Of note, Chaplin claimed to have enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 16 during the final months of the Civil War in 1865. This would set his birth year as 1849 or earlier and contradicts research placing the arrival of his father to America at 1851 and Lewis' date of birth at 1853. Child soldiers are known to have participated in the Civil War, typically in noncombat roles, running errands at the enlistment camp and such. Perhaps this would be an accurate characterization of his involvement in that particular event.

In the early years of his enlisted 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.

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.

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:

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:

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.

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.

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.

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

Clara Voorhies Family Bible

My great-great grandmother, Clara Voorhies, descended from a proud Dutch family whose American roots stem back to the 1660 arrival of Steven Courten Van Voorhees at present day Brooklyn, New York. Many generations later, Clara's grandparents, Elijah and Jane (Rozell) Voorhies, relocated their family westward from New Jersey to Ohio in 1834. Voories and Rozell descendants became very prominent in the areas south of Fremont, Ohio along the Sandusky / Seneca County line near Bettsville. Their contributions to the early settlement of the area is documented in the essay linked at the end of this article.

In my mother's possession today is Clara's family Bible dating back to 1875. It was passed to her by her mother, Winifred Chapman, who received it from her mother Edna "Mertie" Chapman. A century and a half later, the bindings weakened and the pages yellowed, this treasure has provided dozens of clues about our family's history.

On Clara's Bible, the inscription reads, "Clara A. Voorhies Christmas 1875"

Clara was born in 1861, the daughter of Andrew Voorhies and his second wife Elizabeth Margaret Jackson. Clara married Richard H. Chapman (originally spelled Chaplin) in 1881, and they had three children. But one child, Fanny, died during infancy and another, Howard, died during childhood. The surviving son, Harry Raymond Chapman, married Mertie Chapman, the daughter of Homer and Nettie Chapman, in 1914. They had two daughters, Eleanor and Winifred. But then Harry became ill during the Spanish flu pandemic and died in 1918 at the age of 32. Richard and Clara lived the remainder of their lives in and around Bettsville. A link at the end of this article connects the reader to other articles about the Homer and Nettie Chapman heritage.

Richard H. and Clara A. (Voorhies) Chapman

Within the pages of Clara's Bible are handwritten recordings of significant events in her family, including births, marriages and deaths.

Mary Magdelina Mowry, the first wife of Andrew Voorhies, died in 1859, one year after the birth of their son, Franklin Voorhies. Andrew then married Elizabeth Jackson, with whom he had three daughters, Clara, Florence, and Mina. 

Clara's Bible contains four pages with family photographs carefully sealed into slots, with no chance of removing them without risking damage. But none of the photographs are labeled with names. They are mostly tintype and Daguerreotype photographs that can be dated to the 1860's and possibly even the 1850's, providing the only clues as to who they might be.

Left: The back of a toddler's photograph on page 2 identifies the studio in Fremont.
Right: I believe this is Clara on the right, with her sister Florence and half-brother Franklin (ca. 1868).

Unknown children, possible Franklin, Clara, and Florence.

Top Left: I believe this is Clara's father, Andrew Voorhies.

Top Right: Possibly Andrew Voorhies with his first wife Mary, or second wife, Elizabeth.

Bottom Left: The Cartouche paper sleeve was popular in photography only from 1863 to 1866.

Therefore, I believe this is Andrew's second wife and Clara's mother, Elizabeth (Jackson) Voorhies.

The two children in the top left photograph are probably Franklin and Clara.

Inside the front and back covers of the Bible, it is stuffed with many other loose photographs, letters, and newspaper clippings.

Andrew Voorhies' death announcement

Voorhies Family Reunion 1913 - Descendants of Elijah and Jane (Rozell) Voorhies

Sympathy letter from friends in Gibsonburg following Harry Chapman's death

My grandmother, Winnie Chapman, was an infant when her father died in 1918. Mertie then remarried to Peter Hanson. But because Clara documented her family's history in her Bible, the Voorhies branch of our family tree is forever preserved, whereas it might otherwise have been lost and forgotten.

Harry Raymond Chapman (1886-1918)

Links:

Homer and Nettie Chapman, The Kansas Years 

Rozell and Voorhies Pioneers of Wolf Creek