Does anyone belong to this family? Carol list MOM
The Chapmans (Note: It appears that the first place of settlement of this
family, after leaving England, was in the state of Connecticut.) were English
people, and some of those who emigrated to this country came from
Connecticut to Charles County, Maryland, long prior to the American Revolution. After
the settlement in Maryland, and before the beginning of the Revolution, some
of them came to Culpeper County, Virginia, and settled. Among those who came
was Isaac Chapman, who married, in Culpeper County, Miss Sara Cole, by whom
he had three sons and one daughter. The sons were Isaac, John, and Richard,
the daughter, Jemima. Isaac went South, and finally located in Alabama,
where his descendants still reside. His grandson, Honorable Reuben Chapman, was
a member of Congress from Alabama in 1841. John married Sallie Abbott and
Richard married Margaret Abbott, daughters of Richard Abbott of Culpeper
County, Virginia; the daughter, Jemima, married Moredock O. McKensey, (Note:
McKensey died on Five Mile Fork of East River, in the year 1805.) a Scotsman
from the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Richard Abbott having died, his widow
married a man by the name of Tracey, by whom she had two children, Bettie, who
married James Rowe, and a son, William Tracey, the ancestor of the Traceys of
Wolf Creek of New River Valley.
In November 1768, John Chapman, Richard Chapman, and Moredock O. McKensey
removed from Culpeper County to the Shenandoah, in the Valley of Virginia, and
from thence, in 1771, came to the New River Valley and settled at the mouth
of Walker's Creek, where John Chapman had two dwelling houses destroyed by the
Indians; his family being forced to flee to the Snidow Fort for protection.
In the spring of 1778 McKensey removed to the mouth of Wolf Creek., where
his family, in May of that year, was attacked by the Indians, and a portion of
them killed and another portion carried into captivity. Some years
afterward, time not definitely known, Richard Chapman removed from Walker's Creek to
Wolf Creek.
The children of John Chapman were Isaac, who married Elian Johnston;
George, who married Patience Clay; John, who married Miss Napier; Henley,
who married Mary Alexander; Sallie, who married, first, Jacob Miller of
Franklin County, Virginia, and by whom she had a daughter and three sons: Jacob,
who married Mrs. Polly Harman; John, who married Sallie Peck; Tobias, who
married Elizabeth Bane; Barbara, who married Morton P. Emmons. After the
death of the elder Jacob Miller, his widow Sallie, married David Johnston,
and they had the following children: Oscar F., who married Elizabeth French;
Chapman I., who married Elian C. Snidow; Olivia, who married William M.
Gillespie, of Tazewell County, Virginia; Louisa A., who married Colonel Daniel
H. Pearis, of Mercer, and Sallie C., who died unmarried.
Jemima Chapman married Charles Hall and had the following children:
Benjamin, who went to Cook County, Illinois, at an early date, and Chloe, who
married John Brian.
Annie Chapman, who married John Lybrook, had a numerous family, of whom was
Philip Lybrook, the father of the present Major Samuel E. Lybrook, a great
grandson of Philip, the settler.
Isaac Chapman and his wife, Elian Johnston Chapman, had the following
children: John, a lawyer of distinction and often a representative of Giles County
in the Senate and House of Delegates, who married Ann Freel; Doctor David
Johnston Chapman, who married Sallie Pepper; William Chapman, who married
Nancy McDonald; Rachael, who married John Snidow; Priscilla, who married
Doctor Thomas Fowler; Polly, who married John Bane; Nancy, who married Joseph
McDonald; Sallie, who married William Kyle, and Rebecca, who married
Samuel P. Pearis.
John Chapman, the son of Isaac, had one daughter, Adeline, who married
Colonel William H. Snidow, by whom she had three children, viz: John C., who
married Anne Hoge; James P., who married Fannie Hale; Annie, who married Dr.
Harvey G. Johnston.
Doctor David J. Chapman had the following children, Viz: John, drowned in
his youth; William, who married Miss Mather; James, who went west many years
ago; David J., Jr., who now lives in Giles County and is unmarried, and who
is the only Chapman in Giles County; Annie, who married Colonel James W.
English; Jennie, who married Major Samuel E. Lybrook, and Malinda, who married
Samuel S. Dinwiddie.
William Chapman, who married Nancy McDonald, had the following children:
Isaac E., who married Eliza Gillespie; John who went to Texas and was
drowned; Louisa, who married Rev. Mr. Chanceleum; and Keziah, who married Isaac
Chapman Fowler.
John Snidow and Rachael, his wife, had the following children: Christian,
who married Sylistine Goodrich; they had no children; James H., who
married Elvina Lucas and had the following children: John D., William R.,
Cornelia, who married Eugene Angel, and some daughters who are not married; David
J. L., who married Malinda Pepper, but left no children; Elizabeth, who
married John Tiffany, and had the following children: Captain Hugh S., killed in
the first battle of Manasses; Charles C., who lives in Kansas, and
Elizabeth, who married Andrew B. Symns; Mary B., who married John S. Peck, and had
the following children: James P., killed in the battle of Cold Harbor in
1864; Hugh T., who lives in the State of Maryland; Chapman I., who lives in
Giles County; John, who died a few years ago; Annie, who married John P.
Peck; Elizabeth, who married Harvey Snidow, and Eliza, who married
...........Williams.
Elian Chapman Snidow, who married Chapman I. Johnston, had the following
children: David Andrew, John Raleigh, Sarah Ellen, who married Honorable
William A. French; Annie C., who married Charles D. French; Rachael S., who is
now dead, and who first married ........Daugherty, and secondly Joseph Alvis.
Ellen J. Snidow, daughter of John and Rachael Chapman Snidow, is unmarried.
Samuel P. Pearis and Rebecca Chapman Pearis, his wife, had three children:
Dr. Robert A., who married Amanda Fowler; Dr. Charles W., who married
Electra Pearis; and Rebecca, who married honorable Frank Hereford.
The children of Joseph McDonald and Nancy Chapman McDonald, his wife, were
W. W. McDonald, of Logan; John C. McDonald, Isaac E. McDonald, Lewis
McDonald, Floyd McDonald; Sallie, who married John Sanders; Nancy, who married Lewis
McDonald, Elizabeth, who married John Anderson; John C., Isaac E. and
Floyd, who died unmarried.
Dr. Thomas Fowler and wife had the following children: Thomas, Isaac C.,
Allen, Elbert; Mary, who married Captain James D. Johnston; and Amanda, who
married Dr. Robert A. Pearis.
Henley Chapman and his wife, Mary Alexander Chapman, had two sons and three
daughters. The sons were General Augustus A. Chapman, who married Mary R.
Bierne, and Manilius, who married Susan Bierne; the daughters, Araminta D.,
married Captain Guy D. French; Elvina married Colonel Albert G. Pendleton, and
Isabella married Major William P. Cecil.
John Chapman, son of the settler, and brother to Isaac, George, and Henley,
married Miss Napier; was killed by a horse, and his widow and children
removed to Cabell County about the year of 1800, where his descendants now reside.
Captain John Chapman, who was a son of Andrew Johnston Chapman, son of
the above John, was a distinguished Confederate soldier, and died only a few
years ago at his home in Lincoln County, West Virginia.
Colonel Albert G. Pendleton and his wife, Elvina Chapman Pendleton, had
three children: Nannie, who married Judge Philip W. Strother; Sallie, who
married Van B. Taliaferro, and Alberta, who married Samuel Crockett.
Major William P. Cecil and his wife Isabella Chapman Cecil, had one child,
Mary, who married Charles Painter.
Captain Guy D. French and wife, Araminta Chapman French, had four sons:
Henley C., who married Harriet Easley; Captain David A., who married, first
Miss Williams, second Miss Jennie C. Easley; William A., who married Nellie
Johnston; Charles D., who married Annie C. Johnston; they had daughters
Sarah M., who first married Dr. W. W. McComas, second, Captain F. G. Thrasher;
Mary, who married William B. Mason; Fannie, who married J. H. D. Smoot, and
Susan, who married Dr. R. T. Ellett.
John Chapman, son of Richard, married Jemima, a daughter of the Elder David
Johnston, and they had a daughter who married William Wilburn, of Sugar Run;
and James H. Wilburn, whose photograph appears opposite this page, is a
grand son of the said John Chapman, and a great grandson to the first William
Wilburn, who came in 1780 to what is now Giles County, Virginia.
James W. Chapman, a grandson of John, of Wolf Creek, is the only descendant
of John Chapman bearing that name who now resides in this section of the
country; the remaining members of the Richard Chapman family went at an early
date to the Big Sandy and Eastern Kentucky region, some of them removing to the
State of Ohio. Some of the descendants of Richard Chapman still reside in
the Counties of Lincoln, Logan, Mingo, and Wayne, West Virginia.
The Elder John Chapman, and his son, Isaac, were soldiers during the Indian
wars on the border, and were stationed during the years of 1774 to 1779 in
Snidow's, Hatfield's, and Barger's Forts.
The family of George Chapman, who married Patience Clay, consisted of three
daughters and two sons. Sallie Chapman married Hugh Jordan, Elizabeth
Chapman married Joseph Peck, and Lucretia Chapman married William McClure; the
sons, Isaac and Archer, went to the state of Ohio at an early day. Opposite
page 396 is a photograph of the dwelling house built by George Chapman, in 1794,
on the East Bank of New River, near Ripplemeade, Virginia, and which still
stands and is on land now the property of Mr. Harvey Phlegar and Mr. H. B.
Shelton.