Family Secrets Chapter 5 Our Grandmother, the Midwife

John Pinckney Chapman 1844-1927 This is the oldest photo I have of our Chapman grandparents. He and his wife, Nancy Emaline Hickey,were the parents of 9 children, including Peter, Euda's dad.
His mother was Polly, a midwife.

She is buried here beside his father, Solomon, in Oak Hill Cemetery, Montgomery County, Arkansas. You see the cows first, but look for the fence that surrounds the cemetery. This is an old photo of the cemetery which is now is not accessible because it is on private property and is overgrown with bushes, weeds, insects and behind several gates.

Mary Elizabeth "Polly" Whitt Chapman was born in 1808. She traveled throughout Montgomery County in Arkansas on horseback and stayed with mothers during the last of their pregnancies and delivered their babies.

The earliest record we have of our ancestors is Thomas Chapman, born 1772 in Virginia. That was 4 years before the Declaration of Independence.

He later moved to South Carolina where his son, Solomon Chapman, was born in 1802.

Solomon married midwife Polly in 1840. They were the parents of John Pinckney, born in Alabama. They later moved to Oden, Arkansas.

Family Secrets Chapter 4 Ilene

Ilene's dad, Uncle Isaac Chapman, in his general store in Olden, Arkansas

He also had another store at Mt. Ida. My cousin told me he has been in this store and that Ike was a clever and successful businessman.

I have more photos of Ilene than any of my grandmother's cousins. I also have a letter of sympathy that she wrote to my grandmother in 1943 when my great grandfather died. Ilene is the youngest. Her sister Eunice has the long hair that was always fascinating to me when looking at Grandma's photos. They lived in Oden, Arkansas.

Ilene with her cousin Hannah

In her letter to my grandmother, Ilene said she had been sick and bed fast for 2 years and 4 months and her sister was caring for her as well as "Fred, who was sick with a skin infection". She said "we practically have a hospital here."I wondered what was wrong with her.

Ilene and her cousin Norvile

My cousin knew what was wrong with Ilene. She had a brain tumor that was inoperable in those days. Fred was Eunice's husband. He recovered because I found a photo of him later.

A lot of the photos have people posing with their cars and near railroad tracks.

This is Ilene with her family on the porch of her childhood home. She also ended her days here under the care of her mother, Kate, in 1948.

My cousin told me that Aunt June lived here later and they had their family reunions here. This house has recently been torn down, but June's grandson owns the property and plans to build another house.

The letter from Ilene

Family Secrets Chapter 3 Family Reunion 1962

My grandmother is the second in the first row. These are her first cousins at the Chapman Family Reunion in 1962. Our new found cousin with our Aunt June and Uncle Wade. Our cousin is the oldest brother. We learned that we were both at this reunion in 1962 in Mena, Arkansas. My grandmother, mother, sister and me at the reunion in 1962. I had forgotten about that hairdo with the little bows on each side!

Family Secrets Chapter 2 or Snail Mail Dating

Letters from my scrapbook to Granny Chapman from a widower asking her to come to Dimmit, Tx. to be his housekeeper
My great grandmother, Bettie (Elizabeth) Maddox Chapman Another photo of Betty with her husband, Peter Chapman and her daughter, my grandmother, Euda in 1912

My second cousin once removed, Clark, who wrote to ask me when Bettie died and where she was buried. He is a retired professor of music and currently is a church music director. His wife is also a church music director. Their cute twins with the great smiles are 8. I did not have the correct date of her death, but after hearing this story, he found her records and she was buried near Dimmit, Tx. I had asked my mother about her when I was making my scrapbook with the photos I had that belonged to my grandmother, Euda. I have a letter from my mother telling me what happened to Bettie (Granny Chapman) after her husband, Peter died.

"When Granddad Chapman died in '43, some neighbors told Granny Chapman about a widower in Dimmit, Tx. He had 2 teenage daughters who helped him lure his prey. They persuaded Granny C. to come and live with them as a housekeeper. She and the old coot were soon married. She was a simpleminded, naive person. She was told before hand the he was probably a con man but she didn't listen. They did persuade her to transfer her money & property out of her name. She came back for a visit to OK, during the summer of '45 & I knew the minute he showed up that he really was a crook. There were a lot of problems - a court trial to get the property (80 acres)etc. After that, one of Mom's cousins who lived at Durant, got a letter from her saying, "Help, I'm in trouble". Before anyone could do anything, Granny was dead & buried. The widower got the money, anyway. He had buried 2 other women besides the girls' mother. It might be interesting to see what the cause of death was on the death certificate. She took digitalis for her heart."

I don't know why Granny decided to ride the bus to Dimmit, Tx. to be a housekeeper, but we can learn from this that people were leaving home to meet strangers before the Internet.

Family Secrets Chapter 1

Recently, I received a letter from my second cousin once removed asking for information about one of my great-grandparents. Since then, we have been corresponding and I have learned some things about some of those photos in my scrapbook that were just names to me. This is how we are related:

These people are brother and sister.

Elizabeth Chapman 1875-1957

Peter Chapman 1871-1943

They are my great-grandfather and my cousin's grandmother.