Matrilineal Monday: Essie Chapin
Dec. 19th, 2010 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dee_burrisMy direct line of Chapins in this generation are quite frustrating to track. This generation seems to be the most nomadic of the bunch, and Essie was no exception. I imagine she, as did her siblings, got their wanderlust from their father, who moved their family from New York westward between the 1880 federal census and the 1885 Kansas State Census.
She was born in Olean, Cattaraugus County, New York, in August 1870, and was the ninth of ten children born to Nathaniel Foster Chapin and Elizabeth Harris.
Apparently, Essie's first marriage to Joseph Shepherd occurred in 1889 in Kansas (if anyone knows of a way to get a definitive marriage date other than me traveling to Kansas to do so, please let me know). They had a daughter, Broshia S Shepherd (born 27 Jan 1890), and then Joseph died.
With the help of another Chapin descendant from this line, I was able to puzzle through the birth and actual surname of Essie's second child, Elbert Carr, as well as get some further information on her second, third and fourth marriages to Elbert C Carr, Joseph H Lebolt and Daniel J Finn, respectively. According to that cousin:
Essie Chapin married Elbert Carr in Oregon, because she was pregnant with his son, Elbert. Broshia was her child by Joseph Shephard. Thus, Elbert was named after his father and Broshia and Elbert were half brother and sister. I don't know what happened to Elbert Carr, but Essie did marry LeBolt - his family were jewelers and silversmiths in the Chicago area. Essie and Dan Finn were married later. Ward Finn was not Essie's natural child, he was adopted by her. They moved to Altoona, Pa. because Essie’s family (the Chapins) were carpenters and owned lumber mills. As the Pennsylvania Railroad expanded, the Chapins had contracts to mill lumber for railroad ties. Altoona, Pa was (a "boom town" at one time) one of the fastest growing cities in the USA in the late 1800's because of the Pennsylvania Railroad expansion. Of course, Altoona became a repressed city when the railroads failed. The Chapins moved around a great deal because they followed the railroad business.
After the birth of Elbert, Jr., Essie moved back to Bourbon Co., KS for a while - she was there for the 1895 Kansas State Census, and the 1900 Federal Census. By 1910, she had relocated with her children to Altoona, PA., where she lived out the remainder of her life.
Oddly, when she died on 14 Dec 1948, she was buried as Essie Lebolt Finn.
Essie is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Altoona, Blair Co., PA.
She was born in Olean, Cattaraugus County, New York, in August 1870, and was the ninth of ten children born to Nathaniel Foster Chapin and Elizabeth Harris.
Apparently, Essie's first marriage to Joseph Shepherd occurred in 1889 in Kansas (if anyone knows of a way to get a definitive marriage date other than me traveling to Kansas to do so, please let me know). They had a daughter, Broshia S Shepherd (born 27 Jan 1890), and then Joseph died.
With the help of another Chapin descendant from this line, I was able to puzzle through the birth and actual surname of Essie's second child, Elbert Carr, as well as get some further information on her second, third and fourth marriages to Elbert C Carr, Joseph H Lebolt and Daniel J Finn, respectively. According to that cousin:
Essie Chapin married Elbert Carr in Oregon, because she was pregnant with his son, Elbert. Broshia was her child by Joseph Shephard. Thus, Elbert was named after his father and Broshia and Elbert were half brother and sister. I don't know what happened to Elbert Carr, but Essie did marry LeBolt - his family were jewelers and silversmiths in the Chicago area. Essie and Dan Finn were married later. Ward Finn was not Essie's natural child, he was adopted by her. They moved to Altoona, Pa. because Essie’s family (the Chapins) were carpenters and owned lumber mills. As the Pennsylvania Railroad expanded, the Chapins had contracts to mill lumber for railroad ties. Altoona, Pa was (a "boom town" at one time) one of the fastest growing cities in the USA in the late 1800's because of the Pennsylvania Railroad expansion. Of course, Altoona became a repressed city when the railroads failed. The Chapins moved around a great deal because they followed the railroad business.
After the birth of Elbert, Jr., Essie moved back to Bourbon Co., KS for a while - she was there for the 1895 Kansas State Census, and the 1900 Federal Census. By 1910, she had relocated with her children to Altoona, PA., where she lived out the remainder of her life.
Oddly, when she died on 14 Dec 1948, she was buried as Essie Lebolt Finn.
Essie is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Altoona, Blair Co., PA.
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Chapin Genealogy
Date: 2010-12-28 02:42 am (UTC)Re: Chapin Genealogy
Date: 2010-12-28 02:57 am (UTC)Mine were such adventuring nomads...
Elbert Carr Shephard
Date: 2011-01-19 08:23 pm (UTC)Thank you for the information on Essie Chapin. She was my great grandmother. I am Steven Judd Shephard, 59 year-old retired historian and archaeologist living in Springfield, Virginia. The story in my family is that when EC Shephard (my grandfather) was 2 years old, his family...Essie, Broshia and EC, were abandoned by their father Frank Shephard. The only mention of other husbands od Essie was a vague mention that she later married a man named Finn. I am very interested in tracing back the line of Frank Shephard and have little information. I have a photocopy of a REPLACEMENT birth certificate for EC Shephard, born Sept. 5, 1891, issued Feb. 3, 1932 or 1942 (date blurred). It lists his father as Franklin Shephard, 20 years old, undertaker, born in Fairfield,Iowa and residing in Ft. Scott, KS at time of birth. It lissts his mother as Essie Chapin, 19 years old, housewife, born in Olean, NY, residng in Ft. Scott KS. I would very much like to know the date and place of death of Joseph (Franklin?) Shephard and the date and place of marriage of Essie and Elbert C. Carr. It seems a real question as to why the baby is given the name of Essie's second husband and surname of the first husband. Who is the biological father? This of course is an important question to me. I would REALLY appreciate any information I could obtain about this. I can be reached at: docsherd@gmail.com Thank you very much!!
Yours,
Steven
Re: Elbert Carr Shephard
Date: 2011-01-19 08:33 pm (UTC)Re: Elbert Carr Shephard
Date: 2011-02-04 06:15 pm (UTC)My name is Broshia P (Boorman) Bless. Essie was my great grandmother. My grandmother was Broshia Shephard, although she preferred usining the surname of LeBolt. I encountereed this thread much by happenstance--
Re: Elbert Carr Shephard
Date: 2011-02-05 06:33 am (UTC)Stop copying others research
Date: 2011-02-05 06:28 am (UTC)Re: Stop copying others research
Date: 2011-02-05 01:57 pm (UTC)Re: Stop copying others research
Date: 2011-02-05 02:03 pm (UTC)A different light has been cast on your information above though, since E C Shephard's (and that's what his family called him) grandson sent me his birth certificate, as well as family history information his grandfather wrote in his own hand.
So yes, you and I are cousins. There were 10 children in Nathaniel and Elizabeth Chapin's family - most of them also had children. So we have a lot of Chapin cousins out there just from this branch of the Chapin family alone.
I think that's neat. However, it seems to bother you.
Re: Stop copying others research
Date: 2011-02-05 05:00 pm (UTC)Ofcourse I know who is in possession of the Bible -and as a child spent many a bored moments not only rifling through documents (family secrets)--but hearing first hand
When copying someone else's work and taking credit for it -at least try to get it right
BTW if this chickiecousin is related, I think I get the family estrangement
Re: Stop copying others research
Date: 2011-02-05 05:23 pm (UTC)Here's the link. (http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.chapin/1.2.3.4.69.1.1.1.1.1.2.1.1.2.1/mb.ashx)
You have to scroll down to the reply dated 27 Dec 2009.
I left out the part about Nathaniel's dad being Nathan Foster Chapin. That had me on a wild goose chase for a couple of years. As I stated in a recent blog entry, now I know Nathaniel's father was Joel.
Re: Stop copying others research
Date: 2012-01-27 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-05 05:10 pm (UTC)More Poor Information
Date: 2012-01-27 06:34 pm (UTC)Re: More Poor Information
Date: 2012-01-27 08:54 pm (UTC)Here's the World War II draft card. He was living 316 S Duke Street in York and was unemployed.
And here's the World War I draft card:
This trait you have of not letting historic documents stand in the way of your version of the truth is getting quite tiresome.