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Chapman Family History, Part V

Harriet (CHAPMAN FISHER) WILLIAMS⁶ (1844-1936)

112DC2. Harriet J. Chapman⁶ was born on April 17, 1844, in Indiana, likely in Green Township, Madison County. She and her family moved west to Wapello County, Iowa, about 1858. There she met and eventually married John Jackson Fisher³ on July 27, 1862, in Wapello County. After they moved to Nebraska during the Civil War they had six children, only four of whom survived to adulthood:^{[Cen 1900]}

A month after their marriage, two of Harriet's uncles enlisted in the Union Army, joining yet a third uncle who had gone of to war earlier in October 1861. Harriet's father followed in September 1862, and then seven months later John enlisted and went off to Davenport, Iowa, for training in May 1863. There he contracted the mumps and was hospitalized a month before deciding to return home, without leave, to recuperate. He accordingly was branded a deserter.

At some point during the war the family 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.

John returned to his unit a year later in August 1864 and was gone until about July 1865 when, as the war wound down to a close, he again took it upon himself to return home--without leave--and was again declared a deserter.

Continue on to Fisher Family

The Fisher family moved to California around 1894 and by 1896 settled in Forestville, Sonoma County.

John Jackson Fisher died on May 8, 1906, in Forestville, at the age of 63. He was buried two days later at McPeak Cemetery in Forestville.

Harriet sought a pension for John's service in the Civil War, but was denied because of John's status as a deserted. She enlisted the help of Congressman Duncan E. McKinlay in 1909 but to no avail.^[Pens]

Harriet remarried to Ira T. Williams, a widower Civil War veteran, on March 8, 1910, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, by Justice of the Peace A. J. Atchinson. Ira was noted as age 63 (more likely 62) and Harriet as age 60 (more likely 65). Their marriage license was witnessed by her son-in-law John H. Robinson and Alonzo Beauchamp. Ira and Harriet lived as lodgers with the Alonzo and Martha E. Beauchamp family of Indiana in the hills above Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.^{[Cen 1910]}

In 1911, Harriet's youngest son, Theodoric died and his widow Cora remarried Ira's son, Albert Williams in 1913. Harriet once again became Cora's mother-in-law.

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.

Soon after Ira's death, Harriet resided at Rural Route 6, Box 135, in Santa Rosa, where she attempted to claim the month's pension that was due Ira when he passed away. Her pension claim was denied because she and Ira married after June 27, 1890. About this time she moved back down into Santa Rosa to 708 Fifth Street. While at this address she may have lived with or nearby her son-in-law John H. Robinson, who attested to her marriage with Ira.^[Pens]

By January 1917, Harriet moved a mile south from Fifth Street to 714 Hendley Street, near the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. By summer of 1917 she moved to Lakeport, Lake County, presumably near John's cousin Lewis and Rosa Fisher, who submitted affidavits attesting to Harriet's status between the death of John and remarriage to Ira. Harriet enlisted the help of Congressman Clarence F. Lea to gain the last month of Ira's pension. After much bureaucratic correspondence, she may have won that the following March.^[Pens]

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 to Marseilles, La Sallle County, Illinois, where she lived with eldest son Orville's family lived, sometime prior to 1920.^{[Cen 1920]}

Harriet attempted to gain a widow's pension against Ira's service in May 1921. In this effort she wrote to Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State under President Harding, but failed because she married Ira after June 27, 1905, and was therefore ineligible. She revived her endeavor again in September 1923 with a letter to President Coolidge, citing that at the time she was 77 years old (more likely 79) and living "in the car of Ben Shelton" in Ottawa, La Salle County. (Ben Shelton was Harriet's daughter-in-law Goldie (Shelton) Fisher's father.) This, and a second attempt by writing President Coolidge in May 1925, failed as ineligible. During this second time Harriet lived at 445 East Bluff Street in Marseilles.^[Pens]

Harriet's son Orville died in 1928 and she went to live with grandson Frederick R. Fisher and his family on Washington Street in Marseilles by 1930.^{[Cen 1930]}

Great-granddaughter Hazel also recalls that granddaughter Mildred (Fisher) Fechter took in Harriet some time in the early 1930s, after Harriet returned to Sonoma County, California. Again things did not work out so well. Not long afterward she bounced from family to family, successively living with daughter-in-law Cora, step-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. She was 92 years old.

Whenever Harriet is recalled there inevitably arises the topic of her travel chest. As the story goes she kept all of her worldly possessions in an old trunk, including "the wedding clothes she wore when she married Ira T....and her little pancake hat purse on a chain and long-handled underwear."

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.