Aaron Lucius Chapin

Aaron Lucius Chapin
1850-1886

Excerpted from "Seven Presidents of Beloit College" by Dr. Robert Irrmann:

A Puritan son of New England, a graduate of Yale's distinguished Class of 1837, Aaron Lucius Chapin was a teacher in the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb from 1838 to 1843. In that latter year he committed himself to service in the West, and came to Milwaukee as Minister to the Presbyterian Church there. One of the original Trustees of Beloit College, his colleagues wisely chose him as the first President, a post he occupied from 1850 to 1886. Mr. Chapin had a vision of collegiate education on the then frontier, and he led in molding Beloit College to be a distinguished institution, initially upon the model of Yale College. For thirty-six years his leadership, and his national reputation, led the college from infancy to a flourishing manhood. Chapin was a scholar, endowed with practical wisdom, and his faculty gratefully followed his lead. At his inaugural he declared that he had "... nothing here to pledge or to promise but the devotion of an honest purpose... to give my undivided energies to the building up of this college...." This he did, and death alone removed him from his service on the Board of Trustees in 1892. At his Memorial Service, the venerable William Porter, Chapin's brother-in-law and life-long member of the faculty, remarked that Chapin's "... work was largely out of sight, laying foundations for a growth that was yet to come. But so clear was his vision of the future of the College... that he could do his work with the most careful fidelity and thoroughness, with an energy that never rested, and a patience that never grew weary, and then wait for what he might never live to see."

Amasa Mulock

Amasa Mulock is my 3rd great grandfather...

Reference the google book search on details of the murder trial for Henry Gardner, a union soldier who murdered Amasa motivated by robbery.

https://books.google.com/books?id=6f82AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=Amsey+Amasa+Mulock&source=bl&ots=-iw-MqE55s&sig=NVjRS18OYlsxydE9CwupRKk-QnY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAWoVChMI35Cb-fqyxwIViaYeCh1kUgE8#v=onepage&q=Amsey%20Amasa%20Mulock&f=false


http://www.chemungsheriff.net/index.asp?pageId=247

The first hanging at the Sheriff’s Office occurred on March 1, 1867.  It was the first execution here for a capital offense since 1730 when an Indian chief had his head cut off and stuck on a pole as a result of a murder.   

Henry Gardner, a soldier of the 12th U.S. Infantry who was stationed at the old Pickways Barracks in Southport, used the butt of his gun to slay Amasa Mulock. 

The motive was robbery.  Just before his death, Gardner was asked if he had any last comments.  He spoke to the crowd of his misdeeds and told them that “liquor is the ruination of any man.” 

His hanging was described as bungled, horrible and revolting as he had to be dropped through the trap door three times. 

The Gardner case was unusual in another aspect as after his death the body was mummified and embalmed and turned over to Dr. P.H. Flood, a local physician, who kept it for many years in a glass case in his office.  Eventually the body was moved to the cellar of the Flood residence and then to a barn. 

One night a group of boys found the body, dragged it away and placed it in a vault at a brewery at the foot of E. Water St. 

 The group of boys then burned the corpse and when the charred remains were found there was considerable conjecture on the identity of the “murder victim.” 

However, it was finally established that the corpse was that of Gardner and the investigation ceased.

Unveiling a pioneer's statue. Springfield Massachusetts November 25, 1887.

Unveiling a pioneer's statue. Springfield Massachusetts November 25, 1887.

The Puritan statue erected on Stern's Park in honor of Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of the first settlers of this place, was unveiled and presented to the city yesterday.

It is the gift of the late Chester W Chapin, who was president of the Boston and Albany railroad company. It is a bronze, and is the artistic work of a Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Chester W. Chapin, Jr., formally presented the statue which was received by Mayor E.B. Maynard. Many descendants of Deacon Chapin were present, including HL Chapin, president of Beloit College, Wisconsin, who delivered an appropriate address.

Taft Visit to Cedar Falls Iowa in 1908

Obama’s C.F. stop sets century-old record

The last sitting president to stop in a non-election year was Taft in 1908.

CEDAR FALLS, IA

— President Barack Obama’s visit to Cedar Falls Wednesday marks the first time a sitting president has come here in a non-election year in more than 100 years, according to Courier files, local historians and records.

Several sitting presidents have visited during election years —
Ronald Reagan in 1984, George W. Bush in 2004 and Obama himself
in 2012. No surprise there, given Iowa’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses.

However, it’s been more than 100 years since a president came
to the metro area out of season, so to speak.
According to records at the Grout Museum, President
William Howard Taft found his way to Waterloo on Sept. 28,
1911.

According to the application for Lincoln Park’s inclusion in
the National Register of Historic Places, Taft delivered a speech
in the park.

He also took an automobile tour of the city and had
dinner at a private home on Leland Avenue.
He also visited Cedar Falls during his 1908 presidential run.

John Chapin, Jr. 1730-1815 Daughter's of the American Revolution

Here is our Chapin ancestry connection to the DAR through my great grandfather John Chapin, Jr.

• Daughters of American Revolution Ancestor #: A020774
• Service: MASSACHUSETTS Rank: PATRIOTIC SERVICE
• Birth: 10-7-1730 MENDON WORCESTER CO MASSACHUSETTS
• Death: 7-17-1815 HEATH MASSACHUSETTS
• Service Description: 1) MEM OF COMM OF FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL; 2) CONVENTION 1779

John Chapin, Jr.

Birth:	October 7, 1730 Mendon, Worchester Co., Massachusetts
Death:	July 16, 1815 (84) Heath, Franklin Co., Massachusetts
Immediate Family:	Son of John Chapin, Sr. (1698) and Dorcas (Wood) Chapin (1694) Husband of Rhoda Chapin Father of Berthiah Howard; Jacob Chapin (1762); Phebe Thompson; Ziba Chapin; Elizabeth CHAPIN and 5 others Brother of Dorcas Thurston; Bethiah Walker; Josiah Chapin; Japhet Chapin; Joshua Chapin, Sr.; Solomon Chapin and Peter Chapin « less

Peace by William Howard Taft, President of the United States

Peace
Performed by William H. Taft
Recorded October 1, 1912
I am willing to admit that war has accomplished much in the progress of the world. I am willing to admit that there are certain crises in the forward march of Christian civilization that perhaps could not have been met than in any other way than by the sword. I am willing to admit that war develops certain heroic traits in men and furnishes a test for the evidence of the highest character. Perhaps too, it trains and disciplines people. But the other side of the picture justifies the prayer of every man, of every civilized man, that war should be abolished and that the suffering, cruelty, corruption and demoralization that follow in its train should be, as far as we can bring it about, lifted as a burden from the human race. It is our duty to take every legitimate and proper step we can to persuade the nations of the world to settle their controversies in some other way. They are looking to us as a country independent of entangling alliances separated from all possible attacks by two wide oceans; rich, powerful, and in a situation where nobody can accuse us of being afraid of any nation or of taking this step because we are afraid of war, if war were a necessity. It is the common people of the world that are interested in this business, they know when we have war, it is they that have to bear the burden. It’s their sisters, and mothers and daughters that have to wait, trembling, to hear the news from the battlefields to learn whether their dear ones have bitten the dust. It’s the grave mass of the plain people that Lincoln loved so well that have to stand the brunt of war. They do not have the glory of coming home with the gold lace and the feathers and all that falls to the leader. They are not elected President because they happen to be successful. They know the demoralization that follows in the wake of war. We should lead the way and all doubts as to our constitutional authority should be resolved in favor of our stepping forward as a nation with the power, the wealth, the fortune and the opportunity that God has given us to help along the movement of Christian progress towards permanent peace.