Sheldon Madison was born January 25, 1829, the youngest son of Francis John and Mary Leigh Chapman. He married Charity Baggs in 1855. Charity was born 14 June 1832 in McIntosh Co., GA and is the daughter of William and Charity Hope Baggs. They had the following children:

		M	i	William Francis CHAPMAN was born 2 Aug 1855 and died 28 Dec 1932.
		M	ii	Sheldon Madison CHAPMAN Jr. was born 11 Sep 1857 and died 30 Jun 1889.
		F	iii	M. C. Agnes CHAPMAN was born 25 Jan 1861 and died 18 Feb 1884.
		M	iv	James Leigh CHAPMAN was born Mar 1863 and died 8 Nov 1932.
		F	v	Estelle Ellen CHAPMAN was born 22 Dec 1864 and died 24 Dec 1949.
		M	vi	John Lorenzo CHAPMAN was born 31 Dec 1868 and died 27 Mar 1937.
		M	vii	Sylvanus Landrum CHAPMAN was born 1871 and died 20 Feb 1928.
		M	viii	David Lester CHAPMAN was born 28 Oct 1872 and died 22 Sep 1939.

Francis Lloyd Chapman Jr., a great-grandson of Sheldon, provides the following historical sketch:

Sheldon inherited the homeplace from his father and lived there until it burned. He then built a home nearby which was lived in by his grand daughter, Hattie Chapman, until her death. The house in situated on highway US 301, near the Jones Creek church. The house was ransacked but left standing by Sherman's troops during the Civil War. Like his father, he was postmaster of the Jones Creek post office for a time.

He was able to add considerably to the lands inherited from his father and left a sizable estate to his children.

Both he and Charity were active in the Jones Creek church. Sheldon served as church clerk and deacon in the church. He gave land to the church for use as a baptismal site. Charity was active in the church and it's organizations. In 1881 she helped organize the first Women's Missionary Union. They were each memorialized by the church following their deaths. They are buried in the old section of the cemetery and their graves are marked by a suitable marker.

I have several items which were his. There is a soup bowl which he used. It has been handed down to the eldest son and is now mine. His cattle branding iron is hanging on the fireplace of the log cabin on our farm. I have a large bible which was his and in it was a certificate showing that he participated in a "Dollar Roll" campaign to raise one million dollars for support of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1876. Also, our Flatwoods land has been directly handed down from him.

In 1868, Sheldon gave four acres on which the Jones Creek baptistery and the lower end of the old white and black cemeteries are located. Sheldon Madison was memorialized by Jones Creek Church after his death on July 8, 1911. Charity died June 12, 1906 and both she and her husband are buried at the Jones Creek Baptist Church Cemetery.