John CHAPMAN [Parents] was born 15 Apr 1810 in Liberty Co., Ga. He died 30 May 1895 in Liberty Co., Ga and was buried in Jones Creek, Liberty Co., Ga. John married Elizabeth DELK on 16 Feb 1837 in Liberty Co., Ga.
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The following is taken from:
Source 1) "A Short History of the Chapman Family" by Clyde L. Chapman, 1966.
Source 2) "A History of the Jones Creek Baptist Church", by Elmer Oris Parker, Gateway Press, 2000.John Chapman lived in Liberty and McIntosh counties, Georgia. He was a large landowner and was engaged in farming and stock raising. The farming consisted in milling rice and corn, the ginning of cotton, the spinning of yarn and the weaving of cloth. The cotton gin was operated by horse power. The cowhides were tanned into leather; and shoes, saddles, and other articles were manufactured by hand. The sugar cane mills were made from the trunks of live oak trees. The cogs of metal were made in the blacksmith shop and mortised in by hand. The mill was operated by horse power. The cane juice was boiled into syrup and sugar. John. Chapman was a slaveholder and owned 36 slaves before they were freed in 1865. (source 1)
Although he was 55 years old near the end of the Civil War, John Chapman joined a home guard company, and was captured and taken to a prison fort in New Jersey. Here food was short, so he was forced to pick up bones that dogs had been gnawing and make soup to eat. During Sherman's "infamous" march to the sea, a portion of his army camped near John Chapman's home. When the army came, there were barns filled with corn, rice, potatoes, sugar, syrup, bacon, lard, etc. The morning after the army left, the women, boys, and slaves (the men were in the Confederate Army) picked up the corn out of the dirt where the Yankee horses had been fed. This corn was washed, ground, and used for food. The dwelling had been searched for valuables, and the paling fence that was around the yard had been torn down to make camp for fires. (source 1)
John Chapman was a member of Jones Creek Baptist Church and the Altamaha Lodge #227 F.& A.M. He was a very skilled blacksmith and wheelwright. His wife, Elizabeth Delk, was a daughter of David Delk, a Scotch-Irish immigrant to this country and a Revolutionary soldier. John and Elizabeth had fifteen children, twelve of whom lived to adulthood; eleven married and raised families. (source 1)
John married Elizabeth Delk, daughter of old David Delk who had escaped the fateful Indian massacre. To John and Elizabeth were born fifteen children, eleven of whom lived to be married and have families. John and Elizabeth had three great-grandsons who are outstanding Baptist ministers - Horace Francis Chapman and Walter Fuch Chapman, sons of Horace F. Sr. Chapman, and Malcolm Chapman, son of Clyde Lamar Chapman. (Source 2)
Capture of 23 Old Men in 1864. Complete textIn Ebenezer Church, 23 old men were captured by Federal troops on the night of August 3rd 1864. These civilians, too old for military service, were the sole protection of McIntosh County, which was constantly being plundered by forces from blockade gunboats. Advised of the meeting by spies, Federal troops surrounded the church in the darkness and opened fire. The old men were captured and marched overland to Blue and Hall Landing near Darien, where they were put on board ship and taken to northern prison.
The following is a description of John Chapman taken from the official records of the Union and Confederate Navies"
John Chapman; age 55 years, complexion light, eyes gray, hair black, height 5 feet 9 inches, occupation planter, citizen of McIntosh County, Ga. Remarks; States he has never been in the military service of the State or Confederate Government.The following is from "A History of Savannah and South Georgia" by William Harden:
John Chapman, one of the children of Francis and Mary Chapman, was born in Liberty county, April 15, 1810, and was reared on the home farm in that county. He possessed a genius for mechanics, and with his own hands fabricated many of the tools used on his farm, and did all his own blacksmithing. He took up state land and also bought large quantities until at one time he was the owner of upward of six thousand acres. With the aid of his slaves he carried on general farming and stock raising on an extensive scale. He was eighty-six years old when he died.
