Alexander McIntire - Murdered By Tecumseh's Warriors

My great great grandmother, Mary Amelia McIntire, married into the Bramel family of Mason County, Kentucky in 1885. She and Alonzo Wellwood Bramel (known as Wood and Amelia Bramel) were parents to two sons (George Pierce and Leslie B) and two daughters (Nancy Mae and Miriam Hassel). Amelia was the paternal grandmother of my paternal grandfather, Vernon Bramel, son of George Pierce Bramel and Sallie May (Nolan) Bramel. Amelia's father was Alexander McIntire, who died in 1856 at age 65 from injuries sustained from a falling tree. His father's name was also Alexander McIntire (sometimes spelled McIntyre).

Amelia Bramel of Maysville, Kentucky (1849-1927)

The family's roots in America began when the elder Alexander McIntire emigrated from Northern Ireland at the age of nineteen. He went to Kentucky and settled above the banks of the Ohio River at the town of Washington, near current day Maysville in Mason County. There, he married a Miss Goddard, and they had several children.

In the pioneer days of Kentucky, the threat of Indian attacks was a normal part of everyday life. During the 1780's, these uprisings became less frequent with the arrival of thousands of new settlers. But the Ohio River formed a firm boundary between Indian Country and the safer pioneer lands. The Ohio Country in the Northwest Territory was the arena for skirmishes between the frontiersmen and the natives from the Shawnee and other tribes.

Such was the case in the Spring of 1792, just a few weeks before Kentucky became the fifteenth state in the new nation. It seems that a band of Shawnee crossed into Kentucky to the town of Limestone (now Maysville), and made away with 16 horses owned by Kentuckians. In the days to follow, the famous frontiersman Simon Kenton organized a militia of about three dozen men to travel into Ohio to recover their horses. It was presumed that the alleged horse thieves would have taken up at a well known Indian campsite in current day Clermont County east of Cincinnati.

During the trip that ensued over the next few days, about a dozen of the Kentuckians turned back due to bad weather, but the others, including Alexander McIntire, pushed on with their mission. They approached the camp along the East Fork of the Little Miami River across from its confluence with the Grassy Run. Soon they spotted a brave riding on a horse they identified as one of the stolen. Despite Kenton's orders to not fire guns or do anything to alert the Indians to their presence, one of the militia men fired upon the unsuspecting brave, killing him. At this point, several more deserted the mission to return to Kentucky. The others followed the trail of the dead Indian toward the encampment.

As they approached, Kenton could not get an accurate count of how many warriors they would be up against, but estimates ranged upwards of 100 men along with several women and children. A decision was made to wait until the cover of night to make a surprise attack. They listened as warriors called out to their comrade who had not returned to camp, and a drum beat through the midnight hour to direct the missing warrior back. The men could not have known the Indians in this camp were under the leadership of Tecumseh, perhaps the most famous and highly regarded of the Shawnee warriors.

In the rainy darkness, confusion reigned, and when a warrior stepped out of a tent to stoke the fire, panic-stricken riflemen began firing before the signal was given. From that point, confusion gave way to chaos. One Kentuckian was killed by a strike from Tecumseh's war club. The remainder of the outnumbered Kentuckians ultimately retreated in all directions, with the Shawnee giving chase through the next day. While the mission failed in that their horses were not retrieved, the retreating Kentuckians did manage to make their way safely back to Limestone, with one exception.

Alexander McIntire, known as "Redheaded Aleck" to Simon Kenton, was described as a man of extraordinary strength; another account describes him as a short, robust, middle-aged Irishman. McIntire had taken a lunch break to cook a small animal he had shot over a fire he had built. The shot was heard by the Indians, and he was captured by Tecumseh's men. His captors returned him to the camp, where he was tied and held prisoner.

Tecumseh left the camp to check on horses that had dispersed during the melee, leaving instructions that the prisoner was not to be harmed. Tecumseh had strong beliefs that is was wrong to injure or kill a tied and defenseless prisoner. But McIntire may have gone out of his way to antagonize his captors, laughing at one of the braves who had been complaining about injuries from the battle. The brave killed McIntire with his hatchet. One account paints a gory pictures of the victim's limbs being strung from trees, and the head being planted on a pole. When Tecumseh returned to the scene, he was furious.

Stories of the incident, which became known as the Battle of Grassy Run, have survived through the generations. A historical marker nearby commemorates the battle, during which the two Kentuckians died, along with anywhere from two to fourteen Shawnee, according to various accounts. Today, an annual celebration, the Grassy Run Heritage Rendezvois, is hosted by the Grassy Run Historical Arts Committee in Williamsburg, Ohio.

Sources:

A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities, Volume 3, E. Polk Johnson, Lewis Publishing Company, 1912

Tecumseh: A Life, John Sugden, Macmillan, Apr 15, 1999

Battle of Grassy Run, Richard Crawford, Clermont County Historical Society

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

Homer and Nettie Chapman - The Kansas Years

My great grandmother would sometimes reminisce about her childhood years in Kansas. Her name was Edna Mertie Chapman, but everyone just called her Mertie. She was born July 10, 1894 in Seneca County, Ohio, the second of three siblings, the children of Charles "Homer" Chapman and Nettie Margaret Flack. Mertie had an older brother, Earl Chapman, and a younger brother, John Chapman.



Homer and Nettie Chapman, with Earl, John, and Mertie,
just before the family moved from Ohio to Kansas

The family lived on a farm in Liberty Township three miles southeast of Bettsville, Ohio, land owned by Homer's father, Edwin Chapman. Edwin, a Civil War Veteran and former prisoner of war, had inherited the land from his foster mother, Sarah Robertson King. Follow the link at the end of this article for tales of Edwin's life and service in the Union Army.

Edwin's sister, Mary Frances Chapman, was raised in a different foster family in neighboring Wyandot County, Ohio, along with a brother, Buell Chapman, Jr. Buell was a sergeant in the 9th Ohio Cavalry during the Civil War when he died of illness in June, 1864.

In 1866, Mary Frances married William Hollenshead, also a war veteran. The Hollensheads raised five children, and four others died during infancy. They left Wyandot County and relocated to Madison County, Iowa, where they raised cattle during the decade of the 1870's. In 1880, they moved further west to Norton County, Kansas, in the northwest part of the state on the Nebraska border. Hollenshead acquired two tracts of land, 160 acres in 1883 and another adjoining 160 acres in 1895. The first acquisition was free land under the Homestead Act of 1863, requiring the recipient to make improvements, cultivate the land, and build a dwelling. The annex was free land under the Timber Culture Act of 1873, requiring 40 of the 160 acres to be set aside to plant trees, a legislated solution to the lack of lumber on the prairie. The requirement was subsequently reduced to 10 acres, and a grove of about that size was established at the south end of the farm.

By the late 1890's, Homer Chapman had acquired 320 acres in Norton County just a short distance from the Hollenshead homestead, his aunt's family. Mary Hollenshead was obviously instrumental in the Chapmans' decision to relocate there. Homer, Nettie, and the three kids packed their belongings and headed west to build a new life on the prairie.


The Hollenshead and Chapman farms
in western Norton County, Kansas.



The Homer Chapman farm in Norton County, Kansas about 1900

My great grandmother spoke of the home the family built in Kansas, a house made of sod, as she remembered it. Pioneers who moved to the prairie quickly learned that there was not the abundance of lumber they enjoyed back east, so they had to make do with whatever building materials were available. "Soddies" were constructed quickly and inexpensively from blocks of the deep rooted sod they plowed up from the landscape so that crops could be cultivated. "Dugouts" were rough structures built into the side of a hill. The Chapman farmhouse shown in photographs appears to be a combination of a soddy and a dugout. Later, as better materials became available, the sod walls and roofing would have been covered by more durable and more watertight panels.



The Chapman farmhouse after improvements

The children attended school in Norton County, but Mertie did not have fond memories of her time there. One can only imagine the difficulties the family had to endure, the unsanitary conditions, snake and rodent infested walls, leaks, bedbugs, fleas, lack of adequate food and drinking water. Mertie, it is said, became very ill with typhoid fever. She was so ill, it's said, that she lost much of her hair.

The Chapman kids attended the Aurora School

Mamie Carnine was their teacher, and Homer Chapman served as Treasurer

The Chapman farm was located in a remote area about a dozen miles southwest of the county seat of Norton. The nearest town of any note at that time was Oronoque, a few miles north of the farm, and much of the family's town business  likely took place there. Oronoque sprung up in the late 1880's when the town was platted next to the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. Plots there sold for $150 each, and businesses included a hotel/diner, post office, general store and drug store. The town's population reached about 200, even though it had to rebuild three times following devastating fires. Another town, South Oronoque, was laid out in the 1890's about a mile and a half away along the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad. It's name was changed to Dellvale, and it peaked out with a population of about 30, with a stock yard, grain elevator, hotel, and post office. Both Oronoque and Dellvale vanished from the landscape in the aftermath of dust storms in the 1930's that chased away even the hardiest of the pioneers.

Town of Oronoque in its prime

Homer's entry in Earl Chapman's autograph book, 1905

The Homestead Act and Timber Culture Act required land recipients to stay on that land for a minimum of five years. Once their commitment was fulfilled, sometime in 1905 or shortly thereafter, Homer and Nettie decided to move the family back home to Ohio. There they farmed the Chapman land in Liberty Township for several decades. Homer inherited the farm from his father in 1913 and it was passed on to his son Earl, and then to Earl's son, Gerald "Gig" Chapman. The farmhouses have been gone for many decades, and the land has been rented out for farming. After Gerald Chapman died in 2014, his heirs fulfilled his wishes to sell the land to Hank Heilman, who had been renting the farm for several years.



  

John, Mertie, and Earl, back in Ohio!

 

Homer and Nettie Chapman in 1916.



The Hollensheads remained in Kansas for the rest of their lives. They were considered to be one of the significant early families to settle Norton County, arriving just eight years after the county was organized. William Hollenshead became prominent in local government and served as a state representative. His biological sketch is included in a 1894 book highlighting Norton County's significant pioneers, as follows:

William H. Hollenshead was born November 3, 1842 in Marion county, Ohio. Lived on a farm and received his education in the district schools. He enlisted in company M, 3rd Ohio cavalry, September 8, 1861, as a private, participated in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Chickamauga, Missionary ridge and many smaller ones. Was taken prisoner at Stone river, December 31, 1862, with two others of his company, he succeeded in making his escape the following night and the next day arrived safe inside the union lines. He was subsequently detailed as brigade scout for General Long and served as such the last nine months of his army life. He was discharged at Columbia, Tennessee, October 11, 1864, and returned to Wyandot county, Ohio, where he cast his first vote, it being for Abraham Lincoln in November 1864. His early environments were all democratic, but while he was in the army he learned to shoot right and when he came home he voted the same way, and has kept it up ever since. He engaged in the stock business and continued in that until the spring of 1866.

 

W.H. Hollenshead

Mr. Hollenshead was married March 15, 1866, to Mary F. Chapman; she was born November 20, 1844, in Tiffin, Seneca county, Ohio. They have had nine children, five are still living. Cora B., was born April 18, 1867, was married to F.C. Spencer, June 19, 1888, and is living in this county at this time; Della M., was born January 25, 1889, died March 29 of the same year; F.M., was born March 17, 1870, and is now attending school at Salina, Kansas; Ernest J., September 24, 1872, and lives in Colorado Springs; Maud A., June 9, 1875, is at home; Eddy, September 15, 1878, died February 14, 1879; Pearl S., September 14, 1880; Eliza L, April 27, 1883, died January 12, 1884; Carl, was born February 1, 1886, and died January 20, 1887.

Mr. Hollenshead moved from Ohio to Madison county, Iowa, in 1869, engaged in farming and stock raising until October, 1879, when he came to Kansas and took the land upon which he still resides. He went back to Iowa the same fall and in February, 1880, returned with his family. He landed here with a team of horses and wagon and a $5 dollar bill as his total assets.

He was elected member of the house of representative in 1884, served in the regular session of 1885, and the extra session of 1886; voted for John J. Ingalls for United States senator. He has been active in politics since coming here and has been a delegate to nearly every county convention since 1880, and has been chairman several times. He has represented this county in three state conventions and has been a delegate to several congressional and judicial conventions. He was nominated for county treasurer in 1893 by the republicans and elected, defeating Albert Hicks, populist. He is a leading member of the G.A.R. organization and a member of the Masonic lodge at Lenora. 

 

Norton Cemetery

Follow this link for more information about the Chapman farm in Ohio and Edwin's life and service: Edwin Chapman of the 72nd Ohio Voluntary Infantry

Sources:

• The History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas, Francis Marion Lockard, Champion, 1894.
• Family photographs contributed by B.Funkhouser and D. Martin.

Edwin Chapman of the 72nd Ohio Infantry

My 3rd great-grandfather was just 17 years of age when he was captured by the rebels in a Mississippi cornfield. As a prisoner of war for the final year of the conflict, his survival would be a testament to his determination and, I believe, his genetics.

Edwin N. Chapman, ca. 1863

Edwin Chapman was born September 12, 1846 in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. His parents were Buel D. Chapman and Fanny Northrop. Buel Chapman, born in 1815, relocated to Ohio from Massachusetts with his mother and some of his siblings. Fanny Northrop, born in New York, was the daughter of John Northrop, originally of Rhode Island; a DNA match connects us to a descendant of Fanny's sister Harriett, the wife of Abial Canfield. Follow the link at the end of this article to trace the Chapman line back to New England and to The Mayflower.

Thousands of New England families arrived in the Western Reserve beginning about 1800.

Chapman and Northrop ancestors migrated to north central Ohio in the early days of the state, settling near the town of Litchfield in Medina County. This part of Ohio, prior to her statehood, was organized as Connecticut's "Western Reserve." Much of the land served as payment to New Englanders who served in the Continental Army during America's Revolutionary War. The plots were often sold or passed along to ambitious heirs who were ready to go westward.

Buel Chapman and Fanny Northrop marriage record.

Buel and Fanny were married in 1841 in Medina County. The couple moved 65 miles west to Tiffin, and this is where all three of their children were born: Buel D. Chapman, Jr in 1842; Mary Frances Chapman in 1844; and Edwin in 1846.

At a young age, the three Chapman children were placed with foster families. Their mother Fanny had been admitted to the Ohio Lunatic Asylum in Columbus on February 15, 1849, escorted there by the Seneca County Sheriff, Eden Lease. According to the admission record, the condition which resulted in her hospitalization was "Ill treatment from her husband, probably, jealous, Hereditary", which had been ongoing for a year and a half. There is no record available for her discharge, but Fanny Chapman is enumerated as a patient there on the 1850 Census. The facility, which opened in 1838, was later renamed Columbus Hospital for the Insane and then Columbus State Hospital.

Fanny Chapman Admission 1849

Meanwhile, after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California in 1848, it seems that Buel Chapman joined the ranks of the tens of thousands of "forty-niners" who made the journey, either by land across country or perhaps by ship around Cape Horn, in hopes of striking it rich. The only clue to his whereabouts during these years is on California's first State Census in 1852. In Northern California's Siskiyou County, a "B.D. Chapman" is enumerated, white male, age 32, born in Massachusetts. Buel eventually acquired land and settled in the Sioux City, Iowa area, married for a second and third time (1866 and 1878) with a daughter born into each marriage. Buel Chapman died in 1880 in a Mondamin, Iowa saloon that he operated, chronic alcoholism determined to have been the culprit, leaving a widow and a one year old daughter.

Buel and Fanny Chapman's two older children, Buell Jr. and Mary Francis, were placed with the Milton Morral family on a farm west of Upper Sandusky in Wyandot County, Ohio. Edwin Chapman, at the age of 2, was bound to David and Sarah (Sweet) King in Tiffin. The Kings also had two children of their own, John Pearson King and Louisa King, about ages 12 and 14 respectively.

Mrs. King died in June of 1850, leaving David, a weaver by trade, to raise his two children and Edwin Chapman. Soon he had remarried to Sarah Robertson, widow of Nelson Yeakey who had died in 1848. Sarah had been married to Yeakey since 1841, but this marriage did not produce any children. Edwin Chapman was raised by the Kings and remained close to them into his adulthood.

Sarah Robertson King plays a very important role in the Chapman story. She had moved to Seneca County from Loudoun County, Virginia sometime around 1840 with her mother and some of her siblings. Her father was John T. Robertson, a Scottish immigrant who purchased land in 1822 from the U.S. Government, 480 acres in Liberty Township, ten miles north of Tiffin. Mr. Robertson died in Virginia in 1836, bequeathing the land in Ohio to his five daughters. Sarah was deeded the easternmost 80 acres of the plot, about three miles southeast of what would become the village of Bettsville. Much of the adjacent Robertson family land straddled a swath of exposed limestone, duly reported when Liberty Township was established and surveyed in 1832. This land, known to locals as "the ridge," would later be quarried by what would become Basic, Inc., the largest employer in the area and the lifeblood of the community for well over half a century.

In the north-eastern part of this township, is a tract of land about three miles in length, and three-fourths of a mile in width, remarkably stony. In some places, the lime-stone rock literally covers the ground. In others, it is not so thickly covered, and tolerable crops are raised. The lime-stone, by being exposed to the weather, becomes white, giving to the land a singular appearance. This tract is the more remarkable, as the county in general, is so very free from any thing of the kind. 

From the 1836 Will of John Robertson

The Civil War broke out in 1861, and many young Ohioans enlisted for military service. Soon after his 17th birthday, Edwin traveled to nearby Fremont on October 7, 1863 and enlisted in Company "C" of the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry with rank of Corporal. He may not have been aware that his brother Buell Chapman had enlisted three months earlier. Buell served in Company "F" of the Ohio 9th Cavalry Regiment, having mustered in at Fort Dennison near Cincinnati.

Regimental Colors of the 72nd Ohio Voluntary Infantry

After its formation in 1861 and into early 1862, the 72nd marched through western portions of Kentucky and Tennessee, and then into Mississippi.  It was involved in several important campaigns, including the Battle of Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee. By the time Edwin joined up with the 72nd, they were huddled up near Memphis, where they had been ordered until January 1864 to guard the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, the first railroad to link the Mississippi River with the Atlantic Ocean.

In the Spring of 1864, the 72nd received orders to join General Samuel Sturgis' expedition against Confederate troops led by Nathan Bedford Forrest in north Mississippi. There, at Brice's Cross Roads, the Union forces met a formidable foe, and just as the tide was turning in their favor, Sturgis' troops were ordered to retreat. Then when their ammunition dwindled, the men of the 72nd were forced to run for their lives. Only about one-third managed to escape, while the rest were destined to spend months in the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia, formally known as Camp Sumter.

 
Edwin Chapman was one of more than two dozen men from the 72nd captured by the rebels on June 11, 1864 near Ripley, Mississippi.  He spent about ten months as a prisoner of war at Andersonville, enduring unimaginable horrors. The camp was known for its horrible conditions and disregard for human life. By July of 1864, nearly 30,000 prisoners of war were held there, with no sanitation or medical treatment, and very little food. Disease ran rampant, and about 13,000 men died at the camp during its existence, including no fewer than four of Edwin's mates captured alongside him near Ripley. For more about Edwin's prison camp experience, follow the link at the end of this article.

The camp was emancipated in May of 1865, and those who had survived were free. Edwin Chapman and the others from the 72nd officially mustered out of the Federal Army on September 11, 1865 at Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they boarded a steamship back to Ohio.

Monument to the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Vicksburg National Military Park

Buell Chapman, Edwin's brother, faced an even worse fate. He was hospitalized at a military post in Nashville after becoming ill with measles. His condition deteriorated, and he died on the 9th of June, 1864. Back in Wyandot County, his foster parents arranged for the relocation of Buell's interment from Nashville National Cemetery to Oak Hill Cemetery just south of Upper Sandusky, Ohio. A grand headstone marks Buell's gravesite in the Morral family plot next to Milton and Eleanor Morral, who raised Buell and Mary Francis. On the headstone, his first name is spelled incorrectly as "Bewel," but his biological parents are correctly identified as "B.D. & F" (Buel D. and Fanny).

Buell Chapman Gravesite near Upper Sandusky, Ohio
(photo by M & K Bramel)

Mary maintained contact with her brother Edwin throughout their lives even though she left Ohio as a young woman. In 1866, she married William Hollenshead, also a war veteran who was involved in several important campaigns during the conflict. The Hollensheads left Wyandot County in 1869 and settled for the next decade in the Des Moine, Iowa area near the town of St. Charles, Madison County. Mary had reconnected with her mother Fanny Chapman, and Fanny also relocated to Iowa, settling in the town of Indianola less than 20 miles from her daughter. In 1880, the Hollensheads relocated again to Norton County, Kansas, where they would live out the remainder of their lives, raising five children along the way. Mr. Hollenshead was involved in local government in Kansas and was an officer in the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). Fanny Chapman remained in Indianola, Iowa until her death in 1891. With the satisfaction of her debts and the settlement of her meager estate, her heirs Edwin and Mary each received an inheritance of twenty-five dollars and some change.

Fanny Chapman gravesite in Indianola, Iowa.

From Fannie Chapman probate documents 1891

After surviving the war, nineteen year-old Edwin Chapman settled into a more normal life back in Ohio. In 1866, he married Anna Elizabeth Burkett of Old Fort, Ohio. "Ed and Anna," as they were known, operated the farm owned by Edwin's foster parents, David and Sarah King after the Kings retired to nearby Fort Seneca. David King died in 1876, and when Sarah died in 1891, Edwin inherited the farm after buying out her relatives for the sum of $2,000 split between Sarah's step-grandchildren, siblings, nieces and nephews.

Excerpt from the Will of Sarah Robertson King, probated February, 1891.

Ed and Anna's first child, Eva, died during infancy in 1868. A son, Charles "Homer" Chapman was born in 1871 (my great great grandfather), followed by Edwin "Cornie" Chapman, Florence Myrtle "Mertie" Chapman, and Harrison Morton "Harry" Chapman. Diphtheria took the lives of Mertie and Cornie during the winter of 1892-93, Mertie at age 13 and Cornie at age 18. Harry Chapman enlisted for military service on July 14, 1917 and was severely wounded during combat duty in France and Belgium during World War I; he died in 1937 at the age of 49 after living for several years at a disabled soldiers' home in Dayton, Ohio. Homer Chapman married Nettie Flack, daughter of Jefferson Flack and Harriett Lott, in 1892, and they lived in a second house that was constructed on the Chapman homestead. Harriett Lott's grandfather Jeremiah Lott passed down some remarkable tales from his experiences in the American Revolution, and a link at the end of this article takes the reader to his story. Another link connects to stories of the Flack settlers of early Seneca County.

John T. Robertson’s original land entry was for the eastern half of section 11 and the southwestern quarter of section 12 in Liberty Township. The easternmost 80 acres became the Chapman farm.

The western portion of John Robertson's purchase was later quarried by Holran Stone Company and then Basic Refractories

Some first hand stories involving Ed and Anna Chapman have been preserved in the diary of Sarah Green Murray, wife of Jerome Murray. Her mother was Helah Robertson, wife of Valentine Green, and a sister of Edwin's foster mother Sarah Robertson King. Helah's portion of the Robertson homestead was adjacent to the Sarah King plot. So Ed and Anna were neighbors and best friends with the Murrays, sharing many memorable experiences. The Murrays were there when Ed and Anna lost two children to diphtheria. The children were buried at Pleasant Union Cemetery in Old Fort, where Ed served on the Cemetery Board. Ed decided to relocate his first child Eva's interment from the Crissa Cemetery near Maple Grove over to Pleasant Union to the family plot there, and he called on Jerome Murray for assistance. In an era when permits were not required for such a deed, the pair dug up the pine box, badly deteriorated after a quarter of a century underground. Ed drove the carriage for the bumpy five mile trip while Jerome held the casket together the best he could.

Ed and Anna Chapman family plot at Pleasant Union Cemetery

The operation of the Chapman farm was eventually turned over to Homer and Nettie when Ed and Anna retired to nearby Old Fort. Anna died in 1909 and Ed followed in 1913.

Edwin Chapman's farm in Liberty Township was passed to his son, Homer Chapman.

Across the road from the Chapman farm, Isaac Murray, son of Jerome and Sarah, built a farmhouse around 1910, on the land that I remember from my youth as the Stanley Miller farm. The remainder of the original Robertson purchase, the acreage to the west of the Chapman and Murray land including the Valentine and Helah Greene home, had been sold by the turn of the century. Cleveland businessman John Raymond Holran started a small stone quarry on "the ridge" for the construction of roads. The quarry was later acquired by Howard Parmelee Eells, also of Cleveland, for the mining of dolomite and the manufacture of refractories used in steel production. The unique quality of the dolomite here, coupled with the construction of two rail lines intersecting at Maple Grove, made this an ideal site for Eells' operation, which was turned over to his son H.P. Eells, Jr. The Dolomite Production Company became incorporated in 1931 under the name Basic Dolomite, Inc., and in 1941 the name was changed to Basic Refractories, Inc.

At her farmhouse on "the ridge," Helah (Robertson) Greene, seated right, with Jerome and Sarah (Greene) Murray, standing center, and other family including grandson Isaac Murray, standing second from right, ca.1890

Holran Stone Company, Maple Grove, Ohio

Basic, Inc., Maple Grove, Ohio

Homer and Nettie Chapman raised three children, Earl Edwin Chapman, Edna "Mertie" Chapman (my great grandmother), and John Webb Chapman.  All three children remained in or around Bettsville, Ohio for all of their lives with the exception of a five-year stint in Kansas around the turn of the century. Homer was drawn westward by the lure of free land and acquired a farm very near the Hollenshead homestead there, his aunt and her family. But by about 1905, the Chapman's had returned to Ohio. For more about the family's time in Kansas, and their Hollenshead cousins there, follow the link at the end of this article.

State Street in Bettsville 1907

Earl and his wife Mabel (Falvy) inherited the farm and it was later passed to their son, Gerald "Gig" Chapman. The farm and its two houses were rented for decades, with the houses eventually being razed. After Gerald Chapman's death in 2014, the farm was sold to Hank Heilman who had most recently rented the land.

At home on the farm - Top L to R: Nettie Flack Chapman, Harriett Lott Flack, Jefferson Flack, Charles Homer Chapman; Bottom L to R: Edna Mertie Chapman, John Webb Chapman, Earl Edwin Chapman, Harry Chapman. 

Homer (seated), Nettie, Earl, Edna, and John

Earl, Mable, and Gerald Chapman

Edwin Chapman obituary from 1913

My mother, Sharon Jeanette Bramel, down on the farm

Homer Chapman funeral 1941: Nettie with her daughter Edna,
granddaughter Winnie, and great granddaughter Sharon (my mother).

Read more about Edwin Chapman's experiences at Andersonville here: Surviving a Civil War Prison Camp

Read about the Hollenshead and Chapman families in Norton, Kansas here: The Kansas Years

Trace the Chapman ancestry back to Connecticut and Massachusetts here: Isaac Chapman Bible - A Legacy from His Mother

Delve into Jeremiah Lott's Revolutionary War tales here: Jeremiah Lott: Honored by Washington

Read about the Flack family and a troublesome feud here: Flack Family of Seneca County

Sources:

• Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2016.
• History of Seneca County, Ohio, containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages ... portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Michael A. Leeson, Warner, Beers, and Company, 1886.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com, memorial page for SGT Bewel D. Chapman (30 Nov 1836–2 Jun 1864), Find a Grave Memorial no. 64408346, citing Oak Hill Cemetery, Upper Sandusky, Wyandot County, Ohio, USA ; Maintained by ProgBase (contributor 47278889).
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29945879/fannie-c-chapman : accessed 08 March 2022), memorial page for Fannie C Chapman (unknown–26 Feb 1891), Find a Grave Memorial ID 29945879, citing IOOF Cemetery, Indianola, Warren County, Iowa, USA ; Maintained by 46620252 (contributor 46620252) .
• The History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas, Francis Marion Lockard, Champion, 1894.
• Family photographs and stories contributed by B.Funkhouser, D.Martin, and L.Swickard
• Regimental Colors photograph, ohiosyesterdays.blogspot.com, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums - Manuscripts Division, Nan Card
• Edwin Chapman Death Notice, Fremont Daily Messenger, 31 March 1913
• "California State Census, 1852," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V4NX-JRB : 30 July 2017), B D Chapman, Siskiyou, California; citing p. 18, State Archives, Sacramento; FHL microfilm 909,233.
• Ohio History Connection, Columbus State Hospital (Ohio), Admission Books, State Archives Series 896, 1838-1868