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Troy's Genealogue

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Family Histories:

Chapman Family History, Part III

Harriet (CHAPMAN FISHER) WILLIAMS⁶ (1842-1936)

112DC1. Harriet J. CHAPMAN⁶ was born on April 17, 1842 (or 1844) in Indiana (likely in Green Township, Madison County). She married John Jackson FISHER on 27 July 1862 in Wapello County, Iowa and then moved to southeastern and central Nebraska. They had six children, only four of whom survived to adulthood:^{[Cen 1900]}

Soon after John and Harriet married they moved to southeast Nebraska Territory and settled in Big Sandy (also known as Meridian), Hobbs Precinct in Jefferson County (now in Thayer County). John's father had settled here by 1862. Big Sandy Crossing was an important watering place on the Oregon Trail where it gave way to a flat region between Big Sandy Creek and the Little Blue River.

It was most likely that the FISHERs were at Big Sandy when the Civil War erupted. According to Elsie Alberta (WILLIAMS) HITCHCOCK, John fought in the Civil War. They were living on the plains then, probably in Nebraska, when the war broke out. John went off to war leaving behind his pregnant wife, Harriet. With the aid of an Indian squaw, Harriet gave birth to a son, but the son died after about two years, prior to John's return from the war.

After the war the FISHER family was still noted at Big Sandy during the 1870 census. After John's father died in 1871 at nearby Hebron, the family move into central Nebraska in Clear Creek Precinct in Sherman County where they resided during the 1880 census.

By 1894, but perhaps as early as 1884, the FISHER family moved to California. According to Harriet's death certificate she had resided in California for 52 years at the time of her death in 1936. By 1896 they had settled in Forestville, Sonoma County. Seven years later John died on 8 May 1906 in Forestville. In 1911, Harriet's youngest son, Theodoric died and his widow Cora remarried to Albert WILLIAMS in 1914. After this, Harriet remarried to Al's father, Ira T. WILLIAMS, a Civil War veteran, and became Cora's mother-in-law once again.

Not long after their marriage, Ira T. WILLIAMS died on October 4, 1916 in Alpine Valley, Sonoma County, California. He is buried at the Veterans' Home in Yountville, Napa County, California.

Harriet lived for a while with daughter-in-law Cora (MILLER FISHER) WILLIAMS, but things did not work out very well. According to recollections from great-granddaughters Virginia (FISHER) THOMAS and Hazel (MALUGANI) GOSS, Cora's children did not get along with Grandma, especially eldest son Earl. She and Earl bickered constantly and one day Earl, irritated by how much sugar she used, filled the sugar bowl with salt. Sonoma also expressed her contempt one day by making her a sandwich with a powder puff in it.

These incidences likely led to Harriet's moving back east where she lived with grandson Frederick R. FISHER and his family in Marseilles, La Salle County, Illinois.^{[Cen 1930]}

Great-granddaughter Hazel also recalls that granddaughter Mildred (FISHER) FECHTER took in Harriet some time in the early 1930s, but again things did not work out so well. Not long afterward she bounced from family to family, successively living with daughter-in-law Cora, grandson Ed WILLIAMS, and granddaughter Pearl (FISHER) MALUGANI, about 1935.

It was while living with the MALUGANI family that Harriet fell ill with chronic myocarditis and hypertension, and was hospitalized until her death on June 25, 1936. She is buried with her first husband John at the McPeak Cemetery in Forestville, Sonoma County, California.

Anderson Acton CHAPMAN (~1861->1910)

112DC6. Anderson Acton CHAPMAN was born about 1861 in Wapello County, Iowa. He married Bessie BROOKHART on November 12, 1890 in Muscatine County, Iowa and had one son. Bessie died a few years later on January 9, 1894 and Anderson remarried to Bessie's elder sister, Laura Olive BROOKHART, on November 5, 1896 in Muscatine County. Laura died just after their second anniversary on November 7, 1898. Both Bessie and Laura (BROOKHART) CHAPMAN are buried at the Cranston Cemetery in Muscatine County, Iowa.

Anderson remarried a second time to Mrs. Martha Caroline (LEWIS) GARRISON on December 11, 1901 in Muscatine County. She brought with her a four-year old daughter and gave Anderson a second son:

Anderson Action CHAPMAN died sometime after the 1910 census of Muscatine.

Martha remarried to Orva GALLOGLY on June 24, 1916 in Twin Falls, Twin Falls County, Idaho and raised Ina and Lloyd through at least the 1920 census of Burley, Cassia County, Idaho.