Coffee County AlArchives Biographies.....Chapman, William H. April 19 1852 - living in 1893
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 16, 2004, 12:03 am

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    WILLIAM H. CHAPMAN, M. D., retired physician and surgeon, living near Elba,
was born in that portion of Pike county that is now Crenshaw county, April 19,
1852. He is a son of Hon. John D. and Mary H. (Anderson) Chapman, the former a
native of Georgia and the latter of
South Carolina. They each received a liberal education, and married in Georgia,
and in about 1847 removed to Alabama. They lived a few years in Wetumpka and
then in what is now Crenshaw county, where Mr. Chapman died, March 11, 1884.
When he removed to Crenshaw county he settled in the woods and improved his
farm. For some years he lived in Covington county, which he represented in the
legislature in 1866-67, and introduced the measure which established Crenshaw
county and in which county he spent the rest of his life. He was quite a
prominent and active citizen. He was very popular and was a general adviser and
counselor in his neighborhood for many years. For some years he was justice of
the peace and was a great church and temperance worker. He was a member of the
Missionary Baptist church for many years and a prominent Mason. His father,
Benjamin Chapman, died in Georgia many years ago, when the family separated,
some of the children going to Arkansas. Supra Anderson, the maternal grandfather
of Mr. Chapman, was probably born in South Carolina, whence he removed to
Georgia and came with Mr. Chapman to Alabama, dying in Crenshaw county about
1868, his wife having died about 1852. Both were members of the Baptist church,
and reared a family of five sons and one daughter. Mrs. Chapman is still living,
aged sixty-six. She is the mother of seven children, viz.: John Henry, who
served in the Home Guards during the latter part of the war, operating in
southern Alabama and Mississippi; he now lives in Andalusia; Sarah E., wife of
Dr. E. H. Johnson, of Troy; William H., Dr. Robert B., a dentist, of Troy, Ala.;
Anna, wife of Judge Malachi Riley, probate judge of Covington county, Ala.;
Mary, wife of P. N. Hickman, attorney, of Elba; Dr. Abner R, a practicing
physician of Geneva, and a graduate of Vanderbilt university, of Nashville,
Tenn. Mr. William H. Chapman received his early education in the schools near
the farm upon which he was raised. He afterward attended Auburn college, and
then read medicine with Dr. E. H. Johnson, then at Rutledge, in 1871, and 1872
he attended the medical department of the Washington university at Baltimore,
graduating in 1873 from Mobile college. His first year's practice was at Leon,
Crenshaw county, then in Butler county until 1878, and then he removed to Elba,
where he had an extensive practice until 1884, when he retired on account of ill
health. He then lived two years at Troy engaged in the milling business and has
since lived on his farm, five and a half miles northeast of Elba, where he owns
440 acres of good land. Here he does a neighborhood practice in connection with
farming. He is a member of the State Medical association and of the Coffee
county Medical society, of which he was secretary for some years. He is a member
of Elba lodge, No. 170, F. & A. M., and was worshipful master three years, and
he is also a member of the farmers' alliance. In March, 1877, he was married to
Miss Belle Reynolds, daughter of Charles and Mary (Rhodes) Reynolds, who are
natives of Georgia, but who removed to Coffee county, Ala., before the war. Mr.
Reynolds died in February, 1864, a prisoner of war at Camp Chase, Ohio. He
belonged to the Thirty-third Alabama infantry and was captured at Dalton, Ga.
Mrs. Reynolds is still living. Mrs. Chapman was born in Twiggs county, Ga., and
was educated at Macon, in that state, and at Elba, Ala. Dr. and Mrs. Chapman are
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, and belong to the best
families of the county.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 659-660

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