INQUIRIES ARCHIVE

I discovered your Chapman Family Association website and am very intrigued. I descend from a Chapman whom I don't think you have yet listed on your site. He is also one of my brick walls. I'm hoping that by our communications, perhaps I can share some data with your association and also, perhaps, one of your members might have done research on a Chapman family which might line up with me, helping me to break down my brick wall.
Here is what I know about my Chapman progenitor, George Chapman:
George Chapman was born December 25, 1755, according to the age he gave when he applied for a pension late in life. I don't know where he was born. It could have been some place in Pennsylvania. Some people have supposed Scotland but I have seen nothing that would indicate such was the case. The first trace I have of my George is on March 26, 1776, when he enlisted in Captain Peter Grubb's Company of Colonel Samuel Miles' Regiment in the Pennsylvania Line during the American Revolution. This company was raised among the people of Lancaster County, including what is now Dauphin and Lebanon, and I suspect he was living there at the time of his enlistment. I have not found any Chapman’s listed among the records there who could have been his father but, admittedly, I have not done a thorough search. I
note that, according to the published Pennsylvania Archives, a James Chapman enlisted in the same Company on April 30, 1776. After the Battle of Long Island, George was transferred to Carnhart's Company of Colonel Walter Stewart's Regiment. In addition to the Battle of Long Island, he fought at White Plains and the taking of the Hessians at Trenton, as well as the Battle of Brandywine, where he was wounded through both thighs and taken prisoner, afterwards exchanged. He was discharged at Valley Forge at the end of 1777.

I next find him on the 1779 tax assessment list of Derry Township, Lancaster [now Dauphin] County, Pennsylvania. In 1785, Dauphin County was formed from Lancaster, and I find him taxed 1785-1789 in West Hanover Township, Dauphin County. He is no longer taxed there after 1789, and in the 1790 census I find him enumerated in Northumberland County, that part which probably afterwards, in 1795, became Lycoming County. George Chapman has 1 male 16 years and upwards (himself), 2 males under 16 (a son, George Jr., and probably another young son), and 4 females (probably his wife, Mary, and 3 daughters). George applied for a warrant for 400 acres in Northumberland County on February 25, 1794, adjoining land granted to Jane Hood. In an interesting land grab, his wife Mary applied for 400 acres
adjoining his on the same day, and a warrant for 400 acres for his ten-year-old son George Jr. was also taken out the same day! He appears on the direct tax of 1798 in Washington Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, with fifty acres and one house.

On the 1800 septennial census of Lycoming County, George is listed in Washington Township, as is his wife, Mary Chapman. (Women's names were given in this record.)

In 1810, he is listed on the census in Washington Township, with 1 male over 45 (himself), 1 female over 45 (presumably his wife Mary) and 1 female aged 16-26 (probably one of his daughters). On the same page are the households of his son George Jr., aged 16-26
[he was 25] and Michael Chapman, also 16-26 [probably his other son as indicated by the 1790 census].

In 1820, George is still listed on the census in Washington Township. Now he has 1 male over 45 (himself) and 1 female over 45 (his wife Mary). George Jr. and his family are listed nearby.

On February 1, 1825, George applied for a pension under the Act of 1818 based upon his Revolutionary War service. He gave his age, service history, and stated that he was a weaver by occupation, but not able to follow it constant by infirmity of body. His family included his wife, who is now very infirm, himself, and a hired female whom he is obliged to keep to take care of his wife & perform the necessary duties of the house. He states that [h]e had purchased 27 acres of low rate land some time since & had erected a small house and barn but between 13 and fourteen acres of the same of the best part with the improvement has since been lost at law by a claim unknown, at the time he purchased & the remaining part is now involved at law. His son, George Jr., also gave a deposition concerning his father's service and affairs, and stated that he, George Jr., was in the fortieth year of his age. He also submitted testimony from a neighbor, Thomas Smiley, who knew him about the close of the Revolutionary War and stated what he knew concerning his service. He also submitted testimony from Michael Wheelan of White Deer, Union County, who had served with him in Capt. Grubb's Company. George Chapman Sr.'s pension was granted March 17, 1826, and made retroactive to December 13, 1825.

From an old (brief) newspaper death notice, I know that George died June 17, 1833, at his home in Clinton Township, Lycoming County. (Clinton Township was formed in 1825 from part of Washington Township.) His estate was settled the following year but gives little information.

The children of George and Mary Chapman, as far as I know them, are as follows:
1. George Chapman, Jr., born ca. 1785, died ca. 1851/52. He married Margaret Eli zabeth Shuler (17871855), a neighbor in Washington Twp., and moved to Centre County toward the close of his life, where his children settled. He is my ancestor.
2. Michael Chapman?, born ca. 1784-90, probably the son who is named in the 1790 and 1800 censuses and lived next to George Sr. in 1810.
3. Daughter born between 1784 and 1790.
4. Daughter born between 1784 and 1790.
5. Elizabeth, born 1795, died Nov. 28, 1850, in Clinton Township, married Henry Billman (1792-1872). I have a lot on their descendants. Maybe more.
Now, I want to bring up a couple of other points: A lot of people have George Chapman's wife Mary as Mariah Ann Hall, and some have her as the daughter of Richard Hall and Sarah Burroughs. The first record I have of this is the DAR application of Mrs. Helen Billman Wolfe, who also had George (incorrectly) as a Sergeant. Now, I don't think this is right. Richard and Sarah Burroughs Hall lived in Lycoming County, and I think George met and married his wife ca. 1784 while still in what is today Dauphin County. Also, the Hall genealogy shows a Maria Hall who married a George Chaplin and they lived in New York State, and were a generation younger than my George and Mary. I think someone saw the Lycoming County connection and confused George Chaplin with my George Chapman.

Also, there is a Richard Chapman in this area who lived in Dunnstable Township, Lycoming (now Clinton) County, at one point, and who later moved on to the Sinnemahoning area of Cameron County. I thought he might be George's son but he just doesn't seem to fit in this family at all. He is a mystery to me as well.

I hope that you might be of some help in figuring out who my George belongs to, or offering me some suggestions on where to look next. Perhaps his father was named George or Michael (based on the names of his sons) or perhaps the James mentioned in the Revolutionary War records could be a brother. I found an early George Chapman who died in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1757, and left a son George, but I researched this family and found that George moved to Virginia, so I ruled him out.

Steve Valenta has contacted CFA looking for information on George Harold Chapman (1890-1967), and his father, Solomon Austin Chapman (1858-1909)from Tipton, Iowa. Other known information: S.A. Chapman's father was Rev. Charles Stowe Chapman (1832-1910) born Binghamton, N.Y., died in Tipton, Iowa. Charles parents are believed to have been Austin Benjamin Chapman (1809-1877) born in Connecticut, died in Tipton, Iowa.

My name is McKay Coffey. I am continuing the research of my mother, Debbie Coffey, who has an inquiry on your website. I would like to know who I might contact to collaborate on Chapman research being done in the Detroit, Michigan area in the early 1800s.

My 2nd and 3rd great-grandfathers were both named George W. Chapman and were both born in the Detroit Michigan area before the family moved to Washington around 1891. George W. Sr. was born in 1840 and was a mason or plasterer as recorded in the Detroit city directory in 1861 and 1871-1891 (not sure where he went from '61-'71). I've found the family in the 1870 census, but not the 1860. In 1850 I find a George W. Ch. *1840 in the home of Francis Furton (Not sure if this is him or not).
George W. Sr. married Mary "Sauteuse" (1844- ) in 1860. This fact comes from the marriage return of their eldest son, Charles (1864- ) in Washington state. The assumption here is that George W. Sr. married a woman of the Sauteuse Indian tribe!
These are the facts I have to work with along with some other later records in Washington. Please let me know who I might contact to get help in my research of these Chapman ancestors so I can link up with the bigger family tree!

Thanks so much!

I have doing some lineage of my family on my father’s side of the family. I hit a dead end. I will start with me. I was born in 1952 in Anderson county TX. My father was Jack Holland Chapman born July 1915 in Anderson county Texas. His father was Abijah C Chapman born about 1888 in Texas. His father was Abner N Chapman born 1863 in Texas. His father was Jasper N Chapman born 1834 in Coffee Tenn. in 1834. His father was George Washington Chapman born 1810 in South Carolina. He married a Nancy Womack around 1832 in Coffee County Tenn. He was a blacksmith owned property and I think he was a constable in the Coffee county Tenn. That is where the trail ends. I found this information on Ancestry and Family Search. This has become some sort of obsession to me and any help would be deeply appreciated.