The Chapmans.

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.