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[This biographical sketch was provided by Jeff Miller, not a member of CFA, and as best we can determine it came from a published history of Erie Co., OH.]
Mr. F. A. Chapman came into this part of the country when he was about eighteen years of age, during the turbulent times of the last war with England. He was first engaged, with one or two of his brothers, and T. G. Amaden, in hunting, trapping and trading with the Indians, and their operations extended over a large portion of the northwest, reaching as far, at least, as Green Bay, on Lake Michigan. The dangers attendant upon such a calling, and the romantic adventures which made it so attractive to the young and daring, are well illustrated by a thrilling incident, which the reader will find recorded on another page of this work, in the biographical sketch of Mr. Amaden, who as above stated, was associated with the Chapman brothers in this exciting and perilous business. Having already related it in connection with the notice of Mr. Amaden, it will not be necessary to reproduce it here.
Soon after reaching his majority, Mr. Chapman went into the dry goods trade in Bellevue, with Mr. Amaden. Together, they carried on a successful business for many years. Never, perhaps, did the mental qualities of two men more completely supplement each other, thus forming that happy combination which alone can render a business partnership either satisfactory or successful. Mr. Carpenter's business tact enabled him early to see the value of real estate, of which he secured here a generous slice, while prices were cheap. Its rise in value, afterwards, together with a business well managed, provided his family with comfort and plenty.
Mr. Chapman was born at Bethlehem, Connecticut, March 10, 1796. His father's name, as we are informed, was Michael, and his mother was a daughter of Dr. Hawley, a physician of considerable note in those days. Before coming to Ohio, they resided for a number of years (not ascertainable) in Ontario County, New York. The parents settled in Huron County some five or six years after their sons came here.
On the 10th of May, 1830, Mr. Chapman was married to Clemence A. Follett, daughter of Eliphalet and Tryphena (Dimick) Follett, who had migrated from western New York to Huron County about six years before. The family came to western New York from Bennington, Vermont. Mrs. Chapman's mother died in 1833, but her father survived till 1851.
The name Follett is of Norman origin, coming into England about the time of William the Conquerer, and ever since honored in English annals. It is signalized by a monument in Westminister Abbey, erected at the Queen's expense, to the memory of Sir William Webb Follett, Kt., who was buried in the north transept of that historic pile as recently as the year 1845. This nobleman, as we have been informed, was a relative of the Huron County Folletts. "He was" (we quote from an historical description of Westminster Abbey"), "at the time of his decease, representative in Parliament for the city of Exeter and attorney general to Queen Victoria. Of unblemished conduct in every relation of life, of manners gentle and prepossessing, combining with great legal knowledge, and extraordinary powers of persuasive eloquence, he attained, with the esteem, admiration, and good will of all who witnessed his brilliant career, the highest eminence as an advocate and a parliamentary speaker. The general hope and expectation that he was destined for the highest honors of the law, were blighted by his untimely death. Died June 28, 1845, aged forty-eight.
The hope and expectation alluded to in this extract, were that Sir William was destined to become Lord High Chancellor of England. Two years ago two daughters and two granddaughters of Mr. and Mrs. Chapman, while on a visit in the land of their forefathers, had the pleasure (and an equisite pleasure it must have been to them) of looking upon this monument, erected by royal gratitude to the memory of their distinguished relative, and one of the daughters (Mrs. Davis) took great pains to learn all the facts connected with the life of the distinguised Mr. Follett, and to her we are indebted for the book from which the above extract was taken.
At the breaking out of the revolutionary wary, the ancestors of Mrs. Chapman were living in Pennsylvania, near the scene of that shocking tragedy, the Wyoming massacre, in which her grandfather, Eliphalet Follett, was killed. This massacre occurred, as our readers will remember, July 3, 1778.
The grandfather, Eliphalet, was born January 16, 1731, in Windham, Connecticut. He there married Elizabeth Dewey, on the 8th of March, 1764. She was born July 14, 1743, and either she was a native of Vermont, or her father's family must have removed to that State soon after her marriage. As above stated, this couple, at the breaking out of the revolutionary war, were residing in the Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, where they owned a large farm, and had a family of six children. They must have settled in that place immediately after their marriage-or perhaps he may have gone there before that, and got his farm under cultivation.
One of the forts thrown up by the inhabitants of that charming, but ill-fated region, in order to protect themselves from their allied foes, the Indians and Tories, was situated on his farm near Kingston; and when it was ascertained that these savage allies were approaching, he was among the first of those who rallied for the defence of their homes and their loved ones. Who has not read the history of that terrible contest, and of the more terrible slaughter and burning which followed? In the list of those who were killed on that day never to be forgotten, is the name of Eliphalet Follett. The manner of his death, too, has been recorded. He was one of the four hundred who accompanied Col. Zebulun Butler, the commander of the patriots, when, accepting the invitation to a parley, he went out to meet his treacherous cousin, John Butler, who was in command of the savages. He was one of the twenty who, alone, of all that four hundred, succeeded in cutting their way through, after they had been basely deceived, surrounded and attacked, on all sides, by the demoniac allies. The most of this twenty escaped by swimming across the Susquehanna river, but Follett was shot while in the water. His body was recovered and buried, and portions of his clothing, together with the knee-buckles and the shoe buckles, which he wore at the time, were afterwards sent to his family.
Many of the women and children were butchered or consumed in the flames, but the wife and children of Eliphalet Follett were among those who were permitted to escape. The sufferings which they underwent, are well nigh inconceivable. With only an old horse, with a feather bed for a saddle (obtained by the aid of a friendly Indian) that heroic woman made her way fifty miles, in the direction from which succor was expected, with six children,-the oldest, thirteen years of age, and the youngest, two years of age. The older children let or carried the younger and two who were enfeebled by sickness, rode with their mother. A painful accident aided to her torture. Before they had gone far from the scene of the massacre, the horse stumbled, and she was thrown from his back, and in the fall her arm was broken. Three or four days elapsed before a physician could be found to set the broken limb. How she could continue her journey, under such distressing circumstances, it is impossible to imagine, but by her indomitable energy and resolution, with the blessing of God, she was enabled to persevere until at the end of the fifty miles, she met the baggage train sent out by Gen. Sullivan for the relief of the refugees.
In the course of a few weeks she succeeded in reaching her friends at Pownal, Bennington County, Vermont. There, six months after the tragic death of her husband, she gave birth to another son, who, in process of time, became the father of Mrs. Chapman. The six children born in Pennsylvania were, in the order ot their ages, Martin, Betsey, Charles, Eliphalet, Jr., Benjamin and James. Eliphalet, Jr., having died a few months after the posthumous child was born, it was decided to call the last Eliphalet, in order that the name might be preserved in the family.
We have gleaned the most of the foregoing facts from a book of records and reminiscences in manuscript, partly compiled, but mostly composed, by Mrs. Mary E. Bull, a sister of Mrs. Chapman, who, at the time of writing it, was residing at La Salle, Illinois. She died at that place some four or five years ago. The work evinces much talent and would make a readable volume in print. If the poet, Campbell, had had access to it he might have avoided some of the mistakes which he bell into in writing his "Gertrude of Wyoming" and he would have found in it plenty of incidents quite as romantic as those which form the basis of that affecting story.
The children of Eliphalet Follett, the father of Mrs. Chapman, were: Dewey E., Abel D., Julia, Clemence A., Mary, Thede, Elizabeth, Tryphena and Fannie. Dewey E. died at Alton, Illinois, in 1860. His wife was Sarah Bull. They had two children: Francis, who married a Mr. Moyer, a prominent citizen of Memphis, Tennessee, and Harmon, who is a leading lawyer of Brainard, Minnesota. Abel D. lives in California. He married Laura Smith. They have one chld living, Clemence, who married an elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Follett buried three children: Clemence, Ellen and Edward. Julia is spoken of in the sketch of Dr. L. G. Harkness, and Clemence A. elsewhere in this memoir. Mary married Mason Bell and resides at LaSalle, Illinois. They had two sons killed in the army and buried two others, and have two still living. Follett Bull, a prominent lawyer of Ottawa, Illinois, and Dewey, a resident of St. Louis. Thede married William Harkness, a nephew of Dr. L.G. Harkness, and resides with her husband at Des Moines, Iowa. They have one son and two daughters: Daniel, Arabella and Florence. Elizabeth married John McKee and lives in Upper Sandusky. They have one son living: John, who resides at Dayton, Ohio. Tryphena married Cuyler Greene, by whom she had three children: Eliphalet, Malcolm, and Ferguson. Mr Greene died in 1848, and she married, for her second husband, Dr. J. W. Goodson, by whom she had one child: Nettie, now living with Mrs. J. A. Higbee. Fannie married Calvin Merrels and resides at Alton, Illinois. One child, Julia, died five years ago, and three, Franklin, Luella and Charles, are still living.
The members of the Follett family, from the grandfather of the above named children down, have all been exemplary christian men and women, devoted to the churches of their choice. Mrs. Chapman is the only one of her father's family who became a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and her fidelity to this branch of the Christian church has ever been of the truest kind.Mr. F. A. Chapman was married to Clemence A. Follett on the tenth of May 1830. They have had eight children as follows: 1. Arabella, married to Dr. A. Woodward, one of the "solid men" of Bellevue. They have two daughters: Louise and Arabella. 2. Julia T. married Charles Roberts, and died without issue in 1855. 3. Louise C. married Cuyler Greene, a prominent lawyer of Rushville, New York. He died a few years after their marriage and she is now living with her mother in the old home. 4. Frederick A. lived to be a young man and died in 1861. 5. Nellie married George R. Finch, a wholesale merchant of St. Paul, Minnesota. She died May 30, 1869, leaving one child -Clemence. 6. Mary G. who married the widower of her sister Nellie, and has three children: Nellie, George C. and William. 7. Florence married John H. Davis, a banker doing business in Wall Street, New York City. They have one daughter - Flora C. 8. Kate married R. W. Matthews of Boston. He is now engaged in business in Toledo, Ohio. They have had two children: Kittie, who died in November, and Frederick C.
Mr. Chapman died in 1861 of apoplexy. He was public spirited and generous almost to a fault, always ready to assist, with money or advise, those who needed assistance. He won the esteem and good will of all who knew him and died deeply regretted by his fellow citizens. His widow still resides in the beautiful and luxurious home which he had provided, highly esteemed by hosts of friends for many amiable qualities. And her devotion to the church, though not the church of her ancestors, is the most precious inheritance which their deep religious nature has transmitted. Amid the privations of pioneer life, with which, in her maiden days, she was brought in contact; in her home life as wife and mother, and in the later years of her life, Mrs. Chapman has ever shown herself to be an amiable kind hearted generous Christian woman.