Welcome Chapman

Welcome Chapman (July 24, 1805 - December 9, 1893) was an early Mormon leader born in Readsboro, Vermont. Chapman was the leader of the Mormon settlers in Manti, Utah, from 1854 to 1862, and helped broker peace between the settlers and Chief Wakara's tribe.^[1]

Childhood

Chapman was born in 1805 in a southern Vermont settlement founded by his grandfather, Throope Chapman. Fellow Mormon leader Brigham Young was born a few miles up the river four years earlier. Chapman was sickly as a child, so his parents sent him at an early age to work on a fishing boat in the North Atlantic, which helped his health considerably.^[2]

Marriage and Conversion

Chapman married Susan Amelia Risley (1807-1888) in about 1831 and they made their home in a hamlet known as Hubbardsville in Madison County, New York, where they had their first four children, all daughters. The first was a pair of twins who died in infancy.^[3]

While in Hubbardsville, they joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. First Welcome joined, to which Amelia reacted harshly, declaring "You have went and joined those awful Mormons." However, she joined the church about six months later.

Soon, persecution against them began and their friends and neighbors shunned them and looked down on them. This was especially difficult for Amelia, as she came from a prominent family in Madison County.

Amelia's parents were broken-hearted over their daughter joining this new, unpopular religion, but they did not turn bitter. However, Chapman's family disowned him.^[3] The Chapmans soon moved to a Latter Day Saint community, possibly in Kirtland, Ohio, but by 1838 in Missouri.^[2][3]

Armed mobs drove the Chapmans from their homes in Missouri and Wikipedia:Illinois.^[2] They built a home in Far West, Missouri, in 1838, only to be forced from the state by order of the governor that Fall.^[4] Amelia was six months' pregnant when a mob gave the Chapmans and their Mormon neighbors a few hours to clear out before their homes would be burned. They remained in the area long enough for Amelia to carry the baby, a son, to full term. He was born two weeks after the Wikipedia:Haun's Mill Massacre.^[3] They soon fled to Illinois,^[5] where they built a home in Nauvoo along the banks of the Mississippi River^[6] and Chapman cut stone for the Nauvoo Temple.^[7] While in Nauvoo, Amelia had three more children, all sons, one of whom died at three months.^[3][8]

Chapman was part of the Maid of Iowa expedition sent in support of Joseph Smith when an armed company of men from Missouri were sent to kidnap him.^[9]

Mobs drove them from Nauvoo in 1846, when they fled with most other Nauvoo residents across the river to Iowa,^[10] and then on to what later became known as Winter Quarters, an unsettled area along the Missouri River in present-day eastern Nebraska, where Amelia gave birth to another daughter in October 1846. Two months earlier, Brigham Young divided the Winter Quarters settlement into two "grand divisions" presided over by himself and Heber C. Kimball, respectively. Each division had two subdivisions presided over by a foreman. Chapman was foreman of the fourth subdivision, with Hosea Stout serving as its clerk.^[11] In the summer of 1848, the Chapmans crossed the plains with their six surviving children to what later became Utah Territory.^[3]

Settling Utah

The Chapmans had their final child, a son named Welcome Chapman, Jr., in the Salt Lake Valley in Fall 1849. About the same time, Brigham Young asked Chapman to help colonize the Sanpitch (now Sanpete) Valley with Isaac Morley.^[3] They arrived in November 1849 and endured a harsh winter with little shelter. Chapman was part of the first militia of Manti and used his stone cutting skills to help construct the first fort.^[12] He was also among the first group of [[Wikipedia:Selectmen]|selectmen].^[13] The young colony experienced great difficulties, but gradually began to prosper.

On April 30, 1851, Brigham Young called Chapman to be part of the first High Council of the Manti Area Branch in Manti, Utah.^[14] On July 8, 1854, the High Council installed Chapman as the colony leader, replacing Isaac Morley, who had been "called to Salt Lake."^[15] The next day, the settlers unanimously approved him as their leader.^[16] Later that month, on July 27, a stake was organized and Chapman was chosen as its president.^[17] That same day, the Mormons baptized Chief Wakara into the LDS Church^[7] in Manti's City Creek, along with 120 other members of his tribe (103 males, 17 females).^[17]

Amelia was born into a family of seven girls and five boys on a flax farm in upstate New York. Her mother taught the girls reading and mathematics, as well as how to cord, spin and weave wool and linen.^[13] When the Chapmans first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Amelia turned most of the housework over to her 12- and 14-year-old daughters while she focused on weaving Linsey-woolsey cloth, which the young community badly needed. Contemporary accounts consider Amelia an excellent cook and housekeeper and an authority on herbal medicine. She served as a practical doctor and nurse to "neighbors for many miles around" and as a midwife. She assisted in the births of somer of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.^[13] She was more educated than her husband, which helped him during his active public life. After the Chapmans relocated to Manti, Brigham Young and other authorities from Salt Lake City made the Chapman home, which was better furnished than most neighbors, their headquarters when visiting Sanpete.^[3][13]

After Wakara's death in 1855, his brother, Arapeen, succeeded him as war chief. Although the brief Walker (Wakara) War was over, tensions between the Mormons and the Ute Indians in Sanpete still existed. However, in early 1857 Arapeen reported having a vision in which Wakara came to him with a message of peace. In the vision Wakara instructed him to pass the message on to Chapman. B.H. Roberts believed it was the peace that ensued that enabled Arapeen to accompany Brigham Young on an expedition to make peace with the Bannocks in what is now Idaho.^[1]

In Manti, Chapman practiced plural marriage. He married Ann Mackey on October 5, 1855, and Catherine Stainer on March 5, 1856. He had a large family with each of these women, in addition to the family he had with Amelia.

After serving as the leader in Manti for eight years, Brigham Young called him to Salt Lake City to cut stone for the Salt Lake Temple. He worked on the temple through at least 1880.^[7] He made his living in Salt Lake City by cutting and hauling wood to Fort Douglas, where he sold it to the soldiers.^[12]

Chapman died in Fountain Green, Utah on December 9, 1893, and was buried in Manti, Utah.^[3]

References

Other Sources

• Stubbs, Glen R. History of construction of the Manti Temple, 8
• Early Latter-day Saints project at http://earlylds.com/getperson.php?personID=I5644&tree=Earlylds