************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm
************************************************

Submitted by  Cheryl VanWomer

				
				BECKET AND EMMA S. (STANNARD) CHAPMAN

	This venerable pioneer was born in Barnard, Windsor Co., Vt., June 8, 1808.  His father,
Willard Chapman, followed the vocation of a gunsmith.  Her served with distinction in the war of 
1812, and at its close settled in Tunsbridge, Vt., where he resided until his removal to Ionia 
County, in 1844.  He was an industrious mechanic and a successful business man.  He died in 
Saranac on Aug. 16, 1868, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.  He reared a family of six 
children,--three boys and three girls,--Becket being the eldest.
	At the age of seven years Becket met with an irreparable loss, that of his mother, and 
at this tender age he was left to take care of himself.  He went to live with a gentleman by the 
name of Bruce Jones, with whom he remained until he was sixteen years of age, when he apprenticed 
himself to the trade of a tanner and currier.  After the completion of his term of apprenticeship
he went into business in Tunbridge, Vt., where he remained nine years, when he decided to make a 
home in the wilds of Michigan.  He came to the town of Boston in November of 1836 and purchased 
from government one hundred and sixty acres of land in section 28.  The following winter he spent
in Kalamazoo County, where he followed his trade.  In the spring he returned to Boston and 
commenced the improvement of his purchase.  He cleared and fenced five acres, and in the fall 
returned to Kalamazoo, where he remained for three years working at his trade.  He then went to 
Grand Rapids, where he remained four years.  In 1844 he returned to his farm, and the following 
year was married to Miss Emma S., daughter of Jeremiah Stannard, one of the early pioneers of the
town.  She was born in Hardwick, Caledonia Co., Vt., in 1825, and came to Boston in the spring of
1837, the date of the family's emigration.
	After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Chapman entered into the development of their home with
that energy which has characterized their subsequent operations.  They can look back over forty 
years and feel assured that they have been in a measure rewarded for the privations and hardships
of their pioneer life.  In this connection a single incident may be related as showing something 
of Mr. Chapman's pluck and energy, and of the material required for a Michigan pioneer.  In 
plowing new land for the first time, of "breaking," as it was called, the plow irons had to be 
frequently sharpened.  At the time we speak of the nearest blacksmith was at Ionia, a distance of
sixteen miles, and Mr. Chapman was obliged to carry his irons on his back the entire distance 
every other day.  He would leave his home after the completion of his day's work, walk to Ionia 
and return the next morning in time to commence his day's work.
	In all the relations of life Mr. Chapman has done his duty.  He is an indulgent husband, 
a kind father, and a valuable friend and neighbor.  He was deacon in the Free Baptist Church of 
Boston twenty-one years.  Both he and his wife are prominent members of the Union Evangelical 
Church of Boston, of which they are liberal supporters.  He was one of the founders of the 
Hillsdale College, and has done much to advance the interests of that institution.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Between pages 208-209.  Boston.