The Chapman Family Chronicles

Let's set the stage. My mother was Annabeth Chapman, the youngest of the Richard H. and Elizabeth Chapman family. There were five children; Josephine, Seymour, Warren, Richard, and Annabeth.  Annabeth Married Dixon Webb and they produced four children; Dixon Jr., Diane, Warren, and Charlotte.

My Uncle Seymour collected and wrote stories that, taken together, illustrate an important history of the Chapman family after they arrived in America. 

Moses Smith and his wife Rebecca came from Maine to Zumbrota, Minnesota where they settled on a farm. Charley Berdan, a Civil War Veteran who had married Moses Smith's oldest daughter, Abbe,  also came to Zumbrota.

Note:It seems the railroad came to the Mississippi somewhere in Iowa.As the settlers would take a boat up the river to Red Wing. It's Interesting that Minneapolis, and St. Paul are never mentioned in the stories. They were then just no-account logging towns and these people wanted to farm.

As they were living near Zumbrota, they saw many other settlers traveling through. They were going further west to the prairie lands and they wondered if they had made a mistake in not settling in Zumbrota with it's rolling hills and wooded areas. Out there on the prairie all you had to do was plow the rich black soil. No clearing of brush, woods, and stumps. Just till the soil and raise large crops of wheat, oats, barley, and corn.

So Moses and Rebecca, now parents of two sons, Lynn and 
Benjamin, and four daughters, Abbe, Etta, Octavia, and Elizabeth (my Grandmother), decided to go go further west. Their son-in-law Charleiy Berdan had decided to go with them. They obtained large pieces of canvas, stretched it out on the side of the barn and painted it good with linseed oil. When dry, they stretched it over the frameworks they had built on their wagons and packed their possessions in these "covered wagons". Then they tied their cattle and extra horses behind and set out for Big Stone County to obtain land out there as government claims.

They travelled overland directly through the great hardwood forest (50 miles wide and 100 miles long) which lay just west of what is now Minneapolis. There was no road through the hardwood forest. Just a winding trail where only a few trees had been cut down to let wagons trough. The covered wagons would sway from side to side on account of the protruding roots of the big trees and back into the mud holes. They got through for Moses Smith was a very persistent man. Terribly embittered throughout his life against the liquor industry.  He had learned that his own mother had died during his childbirth because the Doctor was under the influence of liquor and was unable to properly perform the duties of his profession. Moses Smith fought for and voted for the Prohibition Party ticket all his life - only to die before prohibition became the law of the country. 

Note. And Charley Berdan had also some trying times in the Civil War. To prove it he carried throughout his life a bullet imbedded beneath the skin of his arm.

They managed to get their covered wagons and livestock through this 50 miles of treacherous road through the hardwood forest, and at time there were two terribly frightened little girls peeking out of the cracks of their covered wagons, into the semi-darkness of the woods around them. One was the youngest daughter of Moses Smith, Elizabeth, (my Grandmother). The other was the oldest daughter of Charley and Abbe Berdan. One child was the Aunt, the other the Niece, but both nearly the same age.

These covered wagons finally reached Big Stone County where they took claims out in Big Stone Township. Six miles to the north east of Ortonville. It was several years before the Chapmaqns came to Otrey Township through Morris and Appleton and settled about six miles east of them.

The lands of the Smith Colony lay between two ridges of low lying hills. Afterwards tree claims were planted and groves planted around the farm houses and buildings. The ground was broken and put into crops and the whole country became a beautiful green. The locality became known as PLEASANT VALLEY.

The first year these families spent most of their time building shanties and sheds for themselves and the livestock. Theyalso found time to break up enough ground for gardens. Moses also broke about an acre of ground and planted it in wheat, seeding the wheat by hand so as to raise enough for flour and meal for their own use - but a few wandering grasshoppers found the wheat and told all of their friends of the wonderful new grass they had found. It wasn't long before the patch of wheat was swarming with grasshoppers. Moses and Rebecca got a long rope and stretched it across the patch and they would walk back and forth all day long, dragging this rope through the wheat and keeping the grasshoppers jumping or flying. Thus they saved the patch of wheat which became their means of livelihood during the coming winter.

Pleasant Valley was to prosper and grow into a very laqrge colony. Most of Moses and Rebbeccas' children began oir lived part of their married lives here in Pleasant Valley.

The crowning glory of Moses Smiths' life must have come when in the grove of trees his son Linn had planted as a tree claim, Moses laid the cornerstone for the Pleasant Valley Methodist Church. He then watched as his children and other neighbors painted and finished the building, all white.

Perhaps the greatest event ever held at this church was the Golden Wedding Anniversary of Moses and Rebbecca Smith. The church was located about a quarter mile north of the old Smith homestead. This church also became the Community Center for people miles around. Huge crowds would come to the grove of trees nearby for the Fourth of July Celebrations, baseball games, and other events.

Octavia, who married another Civil War veteran, John Gardner who lived in Pleasant Valley, just east of the old homestead.Octavia and John Gardner also celebrated their golden Wedding Anniversary in this Pleasant Valley Methodist Church.

Charley and Abegail Berdan took over the claim of Ferd Berdan, Charley's brother, who had filed for this piece of land west of the Amos Benson claim and bordering the lake on the west.  Ferd was unable to prove up on this claim because his wife would not move that far west, among the Indians, jackrabbits, and gophers.

The Pleasant Valley Methodist Church was located on the South East corner ofthe Linn Street tree claim, which was taken over bythe John Keefe families of Adelaqide. The two acres of ground being donated by John Keefe, Jr.

The church was built under the trustee-ship of Charley Berdan, Jophn Keefe JR., Ben Smith,  Walter Halllock, Richard Chapman, Jr., and John Gardner. The cornerstone was laid by Moses Smithin 1896 and the church was nearly completed that same year.  The $1,000 (or a little more) worth of materials purchased were all paid for. When the church was dedicated on Sunday Morning, November 28th, 1898 by Rev. F.A. Burdick, FREE OF DEBT. The First Communion Service in the evening of the same day with presiding Elder, Rev. R. R. Atchison Officiating.

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