Saturday, September 24, 2016

Lincoln Isham is the great grandson of both Abraham Lincoln AND Deacon Samuel Chapin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Isham
Lincoln “Linc” Isham (June 8, 1892 – September 1, 1971) was a descendant of Abraham Lincoln. He was one of three great-grandchildren of Abraham Lincoln and the only child of Mary "Mamie" Lincoln.
Biography
Isham was born to Mary "Mamie" and Charles Isham. Being a drop out at Harvard, a newspaper once said "his frail body was unequal to the strain". Later on, Isham was said to have been a secret operative for the U.S. government in World War II.
On August 30, 1919, Isham married Leahalma "Lea" Correa, a New York ‘Society Girl of Spanish Descent’, and helped raise her daughter, Frances Mantley. He was a frequent visitor at Hildene and once when young was allowed to drive his grandfather Robert Todd Lincoln's, 1905 Thomas Automobile but rolled it in a ditch.
Later in his life, Isham and his wife settled in Dorset, Vermont where they owned a 22-acre (9 ha) farm. A talented amateur musician, he would often play music while his wife wrote children’s stories. On September 1, 1971 at 12:30 am, Lincoln Isham died at Putnam Memorial Hospital at the age of 79. He left most of his estate to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and American Cancer Society. He also left a US$440,000 trust fund for his stepdaughter, and sent his grandmother's ‘Chicken Leg Coffee Set’ and ‘White House china’ to the Smithsonian. The rest of his family artifacts were auctioned off.

Edwin Hubbell Chapin



'Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.' — Edwin Hubbell Chapin
Congregationalist minister Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriett Beecher Stowe), who said : "The audience at Chapin's funeral was remarkable. It came the nearest being a representation of the Church Universal I ever saw . . . Not another minister in New York could draw such a diversity of people to his burial."


Edwin Hubbell Chapin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edwin Hubbell Chapin
Edwin Hubbell Chapin (December 29, 1814 – 1880) was an American preacher and editor of the Christian Leader. He was also a poet, responsible for the poem Burial at Sea, which was the origin of a famous folk song, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Here's an interesting weave of history....
On April 10, 1692, Our great uncle, Captain Samuel Chapin (1659-1692), drowned at sea. He had a wife named Mary (Hobart) Chapin(1664-1743).

Mary Chapin was remarried in 1701 to a blacksmith named Mordecai Lincoln (1657-1727).

Mordecai and Mary are great grandparents of President Abraham Lincoln(1809-1865).

Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln(1843-1926), had a daughter "Mary "Mamie" Lincoln(1869-1938). She married Charles Bradford Isham(1853-1919), who is a great grandson of Deacon Samuel Chapin(1598-1675). Charles Isham also happens to be a 1st cousin of Captain Samuel Chapin.

++++
Find a grave... Mary Hobart Chapin.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi…
Mordecai married Mary (Hobart) Chapin, widow of Samuel Chapin, on February 17, 1701/02 in Braintree, Suffolk county, Province of Massachusetts Bay.
They had children: Jacob - baptized 23 May 1708

Samuel Chapin... died on 10 Apr 1692 at sea, near Boston, Suffolk,Ma.


Friday, June 10, 2016

Charles Chapin Diary - Letter Reveals Hardships of VT. Man in Civil War Prison


 Charles Chapin Diary - Letter Reveals Hardships of VT. Man in Civil War Prison

Excerpt...

Montpelier Evening Argus, March 22, 1940
The hardships endured by a Vermont corporal in a Confederate prison during the Civil War are related tersely but graphically in a long but incomplete letter in the archives of the Vermont Historical Society. The soldier was Charles B. Chapin of Williston, a member of Company L of the Vermont first regiment cavalry. He enlisted as a private in August, 1862, was taken prison in May, 1864, pardoned November, 1864, and died of disease January, 1865.
The letter was apparently written by a mother to her son, George, and was dated Williston, February 10, 1865. The writer quotes at length from the diary of Charles B. Chapin.

 Continue the article from the Vermont Historical Society...

http://vermonthistory.org/research/research-resources-online/civil-war-transcriptions/charles-chapin-diary

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

The Puritan (deacon Samuel Chapin) is a bronze statue by sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens

Source: Wikipedia...

The Puritan (Springfield, Massachusetts)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Puritan by St. Gaudens.jpg
The Puritan is a bronze statue by sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, which later became so popular that it was reproduced for over 20 other cities, museums, universities, and private collectors around the world. Augustus Saint-Gaudens was one of the most influential and successful artists of the late 19th century.

History

In 1881, Chester W. Chapin, a railroad tycoon and congressman from Springfield, Massachusetts, commissioned[1] the renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a bronze likeness of his ancestor, Deacon Samuel Chapin (1595–1675), one of the early settlers of the City of Springfield.[2] By 1881, Springfield had become one of America's most innovative industrial and manufacturing centers, and was one of the wealthiest cities in the United States.
The sculpture, cast at the Bureau Brothers Foundry in Philadelphia, [3] was unveiled on November 24, 1887 in Stearns Square, between Bridge Street and Worthington Street - a collaboration between the artistic "dream team" of Stanford White (of the renowned architecture firm McKim, Mead, and White) and Saint-Gaudens - and featured numerous sculptural and landscape architectural details to enhance the sculpture. In 1899 the statue was moved to Merrick Park, on the corner of Chestnut and State Streets, one of Springfield's most important intersections (now part of the Quadrangle cultural center). It has remained there ever since.[4]
This impressive sculpture of the The Deacon can be found next to the palatial Springfield City Library. The base is inscribed: "1595 Anno Domini 1675 Deacon Samuel Chapin One Of The Founders Of Springfield"
A copy of the larger sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Slightly different from the one in Springfield.

Popularity

The statue was so popular with the public that Saint-Gaudens decided to produce smaller scale versions of this work under the title "The Puritan". He correctly surmised that this would be an excellent source of addition income. Today more than 25 slightly altered copies of this work can be found in museums, art galleries, universities, and private collections around the world.[5] For example, a copy of The Puritan remains on display in gallery 767 of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.[6]
The New England Society of Pennsylvanians asked Gaudens to make a replica of The Puritan for the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the later commission Gaudens made some changes in the figure's dress and adjusted the facial characteristics to represent a New England type: "For the head in the original statue, I used as a model the head of Mr. Chapin himself, assuming that there would be some family resemblance with the Deacon, who was his direct ancestor. But Mr. Chapin's face is round and Gaelic in character, so in the Philadelphia work, I changed the features completely, giving them the long, New England type, besides altering the folds of the cloak in many respects, the legs, the left hand, and the Bible." The Pilgrim was originally placed on the South Plaza of City Hall but was relocated to its present site in Fairmount Park in 1920.[7]

Saturday, March 5, 2016

First Tax Supported Public School and the First Teacher, Ralph Wheelock

 The Chapin family and the other families who settled in early America established governmental and educational systems that are a foundation to what we have today.  My 9th great grandfather, Rev. Ralph Wheelock is noted to be the first school teacher in America in a tax supported school system.
The connection to the Wheelock line for me comes though my great grandmother Rhoda Albee Chapin.

Notable cousins to this line are:











These references are sourced from Wikipedia...

The first American schools in the thirteen original colonies opened in the 17th century. Boston Latin School was founded in 1635 and is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States. The first tax-supported public school was in Dedham, Massachusetts, and was run by Rev. Ralph Wheelock.

Ralph Wheelock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rev. Ralph Wheelock
Born Donington, Shropshire, England
Died Medfield, Massachusetts
Occupation Puritan minister, civil servant, school teacher
Ralph Wheelock (1600–1683) was an English Puritan minister, American colonial public official, and educator. He is known for having been the first public school teacher in America.

Early life and education

Ralph Wheelock was most likely born on 14 May 1600[1] in Donington,[1] Shropshire, England. He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge University alongside John Milton and John Elliot. He enrolled in 1623, obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1626, and a Master of Arts in 1631.[2] He participated in the radical Puritan movement that was centered at Cambridge University at the time.

Marriage and family

On 17 May 1630, in the church of Wramplingham St Peter and St Paul, Wramplingham, England,[3] Wheelock married Rebecca Clarke.[4] The two had three children in England: Mary, baptized in Banham, County of Norfolk, 2 September 1631; Gershom, baptized in the village of Eccles, County of Norfolk, 3 January 1632/33; and Rebecca Wheelock, baptized in Eccles as well, on 24 August 1634.[5]
The family sailed to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636, 6 years after the settlement of Boston, and at the peak of the "Great Migration".[6] Ralph's wife, Rebecca, reportedly gave birth to their daughter, Peregrina, on the voyage. He and his family settled in Watertown, Massachusetts upon arrival. After moving to the town of Dedham in 1637, which Wheelock had a major role in establishing, children Benjamin, Samuel, Record, and Experience were born. The family lived there for over a decade.
In 1651 Wheelock and his family moved to Medfield, Massachusetts, which he founded and where he spent the remaining 32 years of his life. Eleazar Wheelock was born to Ralph and Rebecca at Medfield. One of Eleazar's grandchildren, also named Eleazar, would go on to become the founder of Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Career

Ralph Wheelock joined the dissenting religious movement known as Puritanism while attending Clare College. On 6 May 1630, he was ordained priest at Peterborough Cathedral by Francis White, Bishop of the Norfolk Diocese.[7] His ordination comes almost four months before the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, where 12 men agreed to the sale of Massachusetts Bay Company shares to those interested in in emigrating to the new world. It is probable that Wheelock served clerical duties at the parish in Eccles where his children Gershom and Rebecca were baptized.[7]
Wheelock participated in a plan to create a new settlement further up the Charles River from Watertown, Massachusetts, to be called Contentment (later renamed Dedham). In 1638, Wheelock became one of the earliest settlers and a founder of Dedham. He was granted a tract of land in the west end of town, 1 mile from meeting and school house. The lot staddles today's Channing Road from Havern Street down to the Charles River. He lived there with his wife for over a decade, and played a leading role in the affairs of the town. In July 1637, Wheelock signed the "Dedham Covenant", effectively the founding constitution of Dedham. In 1639, he and six others were chosen to be town selectmen. He was also appointed to assist in the surveying the boundaries of the town. He most likely had a hand in the planning of Mother Brook, the first English canal in New England that was started in 1639.
On 13 March 1638/9, Wheelock was declared a freeman.[8] In 1642, he was appointed the clerk of writs at the General Court, which was the central court of the Bay Colony with powers granted by the British Crown. Two years later, in 1645, he was appointed one of the commissioners authorized to "solemnize" marriages, which at the time was a civil rather than religious duty.
On 1 February 1644 a Dedham town meeting voted for the first free (public) school in Massachusetts, to be supported by town taxes. Ralph Wheelock was the first teacher at this school, and hence the first tax-supported public school teacher in the colonies. Three years later, in 1647, the General Court decreed that every town with 50 or more families must build a school supported by public taxes.[9]
As Dedham became increasingly populous in the late 1640s, it was decided to forge a new township up the Charles River out of a tract of land that was then part of Dedham. Wheelock was appointed leader of this effort, and in 1649 he and six others were given the duties of erecting and governing a new village, to be called New Dedham, later renamed Medfield. Wheelock almost certainly wrote the document called "The Agreement" which, for a time, every new settler of Medfield had to sign. The Agreement stated that the signatories were to abide by the town ordinances and laws, maintain orderly conduct, and resolve differences between themselves peaceably.
The first house lot in Medfield (12 acres) was granted to Ralph Wheelock. The house lot was at the intersection of North and Main streets on the west side of North and extended almost to Upham Road (which used to be called Short Street). His planting field was directly across Main Street from his house lot and ran along Pleasant Street, extending almost to where Oak Street is today.[10] Ralph served on the first Board of Selectmen (1651). He subsequently served on the Board of Selectmen in 1652-1654, and again in 1659. In 1653 he took up a collection for Harvard College. Wheelock held the position of representative to the General Court in Massachusetts for Medfield in the years 1653, 1663, 1664, 1666, and 1667. Ralph Wheelock was the first schoolmaster of the public school in Medfield, which was founded in 1655. He remained schoolmaster for around 8 years.[11]

Death and legacy

Wheelock died 11 January 1683/84,[12] the 84th year of his life. His wife, Rebecca Clarke Wheelock, died on 1 January 1680/1 in Medfield.[13] Both are buried in unmarked graves in the old section of Medfield's Vine Lake Cemetery.
Ralph Wheelock played an active and important role in the settling of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was instrumental in establishing two new towns, and held virtually every office of importance in both of them. Furthermore, he was at the forefront of establishing the educational foundations of the country.
His descendants would also prove to play an important a role in settling New England and the rest of America. His son, Benjamin, was a founder of the Town of Mendon, Massachusetts. Among his great-grandchildren were founders of several New England towns, as well as Eleazar Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth. Succeeding generations would push farther west, settling the frontiers in New York, Michigan, Illinois, Nova Scotia, and Texas, establishing impressive credentials as teachers, writers, soldiers, founders of towns, and creators of business.[14]

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

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."