AUDIO TEXT:
Site Number 37. The Lamprey River. This river connects us to four centuries of town history. Let’s go back to the year 1647, when this point in the river is a boundary between Exeter and Dover. For several years both towns had talked about maintaining a bridge over the Lamprey River, but this year—1647—the provincial court fines both towns for failure to do so. Exeter is fined 30 shillings, Dover has to pay 5 pounds.
By 1723, after a flood took out a bridge downstream from here, the next bridge was relocated up here to this spot. It spanned a local landmark, the Picked Rock, and a bridge has been here ever since.
Early on, both Exeter and Dover granted mill rights for this part of the river. Mill power meant cut lumber, ground grain, and finished fabric. In 1655 Valentine Hill even got permission to dig a canal to increase flow to the Oyster River. If you have ever heard of “Moat Island” in Durham, that was where he tried to do it. With the early mills, there were dams—and not just here: Wiswall, Sullivan, Crow & Eagle, Wadley’s Mill, Hall’s Mill, and Piscassic First Falls were a few of them.
There are two stories about how the river got its name. An 1872 town history describes a Roman Catholic Frenchman named John Lamprae who retreated from Protestant Exeter and built his hut on an isolated part of the river. However, no other mention of the reclusive Mr. Lamprae has been found. Early documents do use a variety of names for the river—Lamper, Lamperelle, or Lamper-eel. These names sound more like the sea lamprey, which is native to Great Bay, looks like an eel and travels between fresh and saltwater.
Down past the falls, the river had yet another name—Salt River.
And the Squamscot people living in the Heron Point settlement called the river Pascassooke. They must have been horrified to see the colonists damming up the water and interrupting the migration of fish. Squamscot tradition didn’t involve land ownership, which put them at a disadvantage with the colonists. The tribe vacated this area around 1672, as more Europeans took over the land and settled nearby.
In 1790 the old Esquire Young property up on the northwest side of the river was sold to the Chapman family. Daniel Chapman died in 1815, leaving his wife Nancy destitute with four young children. As was customary, the county court assigned Benjamin Lovering as guardian for the Chapman children. In 1825, to cover the cost of caring for the children he sold the Chapman property. It became one more parcel of land owned by the Newmarket Manufacturing Company.
Continue across the Veterans Memorial Bridge to Site 38 at the cannon and flag.
END OF AUDIO TEXT. See below for photos and more information.
The Lamprey rises on Saddleback Mountain in Northwood and travels through seven towns before it flows into Great Bay in Newmarket. Not one of the major rivers of New England, it nevertheless carries considerable power as it falls over rapids in its reach to the sea.
The saltmarsh hay and this river are the two reasons that people settled here. The earliest inhabitants were the Squamscot who planted, hunted and fished down past the falls. The earliest European colonists saw opportunity in these falls, harnessing their power well before any of them settled here.
(a photo taken from the Main Street bridge looking upriver around 1910 by Thibault shows a boom across the river meant to hold back debris prior to reaching the bridge and dam)
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Town Boundaries
It was no accident that the early colonial towns of Dover and Exeter both laid claim to “Lamprey First Falls.” Records show that by 1647 Dover had a claim to the northern boundary of the river at this point. As can be seen by the mill rights granted, both towns claimed rights here at the First Falls of the Lamprey. Up river, the Piscassic First Falls were clearly in Exeter, but the Dover/Durham line was here on the riverbank itself.
There continued to be boundary discussions between the two towns for several decades. In January 1669 Peter Coffin, Anthony Nutter, Wm. Follett, Robert Burnum, William Roberts and Richard Otis of Dover were appointed to go to Lamperill river to meet with Exeter men to perambulate the lines and set bounds between the two towns.
Ten years later in 1679 Dover brought the issue up again, even though Exeter considered it settled. The boundary did not change until 1871, when the New Hampshire Legislature approved the current boundary between Newmarket and Durham. It expanded the town’s land along the Bay as well as its land north of Elm Street and along Packer’s Falls Road. Before this date, much of the land of New Village and the more recent riverside apartment and condo developments was previously part of Durham.
Early documents show several spellings: Lamperelle; Lamper-eel; Lamper, Lamprel.
The naming of the “Lamprey River” has two histories—one of a water creature and one of a hermit:
In Great Bay Matters, Spring/Summer 2019, page 5:
Sea Lamprey - (Petromyzon marinus) Commonly mistaken for an eel, this interesting-looking fish travels between fresh and saltwater throughout its lifetime, latching onto other fish species as a parasite. …. Its long, cylindrical body and circular rings of teeth are two characteristics that make it easy to mistake for an eel…
Sea lampreys are native to the Eastern waters of the Gulf of Maine and the Great Bay watershed. Their range extends throughout coastal rivers along the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf Coast of Florida and parts of Western Europe. Being anadromous, they hatch and begin their lives in freshwater rivers, moving into saltwater once they reach maturity and return to freshwater, about ten years later…
This river is the largest contributor of fresh water to Great Bay, and has historically been populated with sea lampreys, it would make sense for such a descriptive name to evolve.
However, the 1872 “Sketch of New Market” states:
New Market was set off from Exeter, in 1727, and incorporated into a separate town, comprising two villages, one called Lamprae’s River, and the other Newfields. Lamprae River received its name from a Frenchman, John Lamprae, who came to the Exeter settlement at an early day, and being a Roman Catholic, was, probably on account of his religious views, compelled to find a home away from the more orthodox families, and being a single man, and perhaps possessed of somewhat of a hermit-like disposition, he built his hut on the banks of this stream.
It does seem odd that the mythic (and elsewhere unmentioned) hermit John Lamprae would be the namesake for a river that was also home to the ancient sea lamprey. At any rate, once the river’s waters tumbled down the First Falls to the tidal area, it took on another local name — that of Salt River. That term seldom appeared on maps, and after the 1940s it fell into disuse.
Before the colonists started using variations of Lamprey, the Squamscot called it “Pascassooke”. According to Sylvia Fitts Getchell: The name Pascassooke probably came from the three words: pos(great); cooash(pine); auke(place), meaning “great pine place”.
The Squamscots were part of the Pennacook branch of the Algonquian family. These first settlers here may well have been decimated by the plague that hit New England tribes earlier in the 17th century. As their history was generally written by the European settlers perpective, there are many aspects of their lives and culture that we cannot know for sure.
With the earliest arrival of colonists in the mid-1600s, there was reference to an indigenous settlement here along what is now Heron Point. Their wigwams appeared on early maps, and there was mention of many of their practices, such as burning underbrush, their use of weirs, and their construction of birch bark canoes. Getchell described early colonial attempts to respect indigenous space: In the early years of the first settlers, the Indians’ customary planting grounds were reserved for the Indians’ use and settlers were forbidden to use or buy them without permission from the town.
New Hampshire historian David Miller has spent a lifetime researching the Pascataquak band of Native Americans living in the New Hamphire area of the Piscataqua water basin. Within the square shown lies the westerly section of Great Bay and the home of the Squamscot. Miller created his map in 2017 and presented a copy to the Historical Society during his lecture at the Stone School Museum. It corroborates our own map shown below which notes the locations of artifacts found along the Piscassic River as it flows from Grant Road toward the Lamprey.
There is mention of harvesting hay from the Lamprey marshes in 1635, but there is no record of colonial settlers building their houses here at the First Falls until later. Neither is there any record of conflict between settlers and indigenous during the 1640s, 50s and 60s, when boundaries between Dover and Exeter were being debated and as both towns handed out mill rights on their respective sides of the river. So given the sparse population, it’s possible that the Squamscot stayed in this area until 1672 as has been reported.
The recorded local raids and kidnappings in Newmarket began first in 1675, then 15 years later in 1690 and became much more frequent after 1709 ending in 1724. [1]
Indigenous cultures had a much different perspective regarding land. They had a more custodial relationship with their environment. Land ownership – as the Europeans understood it— was not in their culture. This made it much easier for the colonists to appropriate land – which heretofore had not been owned by anyone.
That difference was apparent in their use of the river. The Squamscots set up weirs in the lower rapids, just where fresh water met salt. Often fish such as salmon would rest there acclimating to that change. With a weir to help collect them, native fishermen could stand on a sort of platform just upstream to spear the fish they needed to survive. They must have been horrified at the construction of colonial dams, impeding the natural pathway of so much water life.
Upriver a ways, on the west bank of the river, old deeds have indicated an Indian burying ground. This is likely where Wentworth Cheswill engaged in his early archaeological exploration. One source indicates a location near the old ballpark in the area of Sliding Rock, off today’s Salmon Street — that would been the area of the NMCo. Company Grove Park. There’s not much information detailing the specific loaction, but it seems to fit the indigenous tradition of burying their dead on the opposite shore from a settlement.
On page 153 of The Tide Turns on the Lamprey, Getchell describes the location of Crommett’s ferry, which linked the two banks of the Lamprey (Salt) River side adjacent to the Dover/Durham land and the Exeter/Newmarket side:
Perhaps the reader will recall that 1672 has been recorded as the date for the departure of the Squamscot Indians from this area… they might (?) have moved inland
from the Falls earlier than that. However, they might indeed have stayed by the Lamprey First falls until 1672.
Though there was a seasonal mill here before then, the actual homes of Newmarket’s first settlers had before this been on the northern neck and down beside the Squamscot. The 1671 ferry grant to Crommett might (?) have been the “last straw” forcing their decision to move…”
Photo at left is of two Native American artifacts found on the banks of the Piscassic River.
The far left axe head was found on the northwest side of Moonlight bridge; the two sculptured rocks on the right acted as a scraping tool and were found by Joe Schanda when rototilling his garden on the northeast side of Crow and Eagles Falls off Grant Road.
Whether or not the ferry linking both sides of the Salt River (downstream of today’s Schanda Park), prompted their departure, the Squamscot tribe eventually settled much further inland—likely a reaction to the growing colonial encroachment on their lands and the daming up of the river as suggested by Richard Schanda in his Joe Dix papers.
Piscassic. Crow and Eagle. Sullivan. Halls Mills. Packers Falls. Wadley’s Falls. Wiswall. These are some of the places where mills once were powered by the rushing waters from the Lamprey or one of its tributaries. In the final leg of its journey, the water passed through here to Lamprey First Falls at the end of the salt water tidal pool. The geology of this particular site—with its fairly narrow river bed, granite outcroppings and significant drop to sea level—must have seemed especially promising for water powered mills. Here was a place where colonial settlers could saw their lumber, grind their grains, and process their fibers with much more efficiency. Peter M. Molloy wrote about colonial dams:
A fall of 10-15 feet was sufficient to power the overshot and breast waterwheels of the period, and the quantity of water needed to operate a mill was not large. In numerous locations the millwright was satisfied to install a wooden headrace or to dig a shallow ditch from the pond upstream of a waterfall to the mill’s wheelpit. At other sites millwrights built small dams to ensure a supply of water during dry periods. Such dams were small affairs of wooden cribs, frames or even branches and tree trunks, seldom exceeding 5 feet in height. Repair and replacement was fairly simple.[2]
The 1800 map of Lamprey River Village shows a mill pond, a grist mill and a sawmill, with a dam which may have been a bit sturdier than the dams that had popped up over a century earlier—much to the dismay of the Squamscots.
Map of 1800 Lamprey Village is we beleive an early marketing tool for “Loveren’s Tavern”. When the map was discovered by John Savage in 1906 (his forebears in 1800 lived where the present library now sits) he sketched dotted lines to show where the streets after 1800 would appear. On the left-hand side of this map is the old Dover/Exeter town line, the “Peaked Rock Bridge” the mill pond and the mills at First Falls. The labeling on the road appears to be promoting “Loveren’s Tavern” as other town taverns which fell within the perimeter of the map, do not appear.
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Once the Newmarket Manufacturing Company took over water rights in 1823, the business of dam building passed to them, and early sawmills, gristmills, and an early fulling mill on the lower falls were to be erased.
The NMCo, arrived on the Lamprey bringing a full-fledged cotton textile mill industry backed by Salem merchant capital. Stephen Hanson and Daniel Durell, as agents of the new company, purchased the mill rights, the riverside properties, and much other land as well. When the bridge and dam washout occurred in 1886 (photo left), the NMCo. quickly replaced them the following year. The second dam would survive longer than the company; the date of construction 1887 chiseled into the granite is still visible today. (photo right taken 2009 during river draw down).
A great deal of the practical surveying in the area had been done by Walter Bryant, longtime resident of New Market. The first Mill Agent Hanson hired surveyors Seth Ring Shackford (later to become Judge Shackford of Elm Street), Seth Walker of Durham, and schoolmaster John Smith of Salem to begin work for the NMCo. One of the first things the company did was to assess the power of the Lamprey. Mr. Charles Lynch, Engr. produced for the company a surveyed map (1824) covering the center of “Lamprey River Village,” the Lower or First Falls of the Lamprey, and the course of the river itself upstream to Packer’s Falls. The area around Moat Island, where Valentine Hill had hoped to build a canal in 1655, is delineated. Also included is the surveyed course of the Piscassic River up to its first falls.
The 1824 Lynch map was hanging in Mrs. Garneau’s Main Street store for several years and given by her to the then local librarian May Gordon (1892-1968). The New Market Historical Society received the original map and placed it with the New Hampshire Historical Society where it sits in the State Archives. It measures c. 3’ x 5’ and is paper mounted on cloth. A digitally printed copy of the map in its entirety was donated in 2014 to the Stone School museum by Ralph Jackson in memory of his parents Ralph W. and Margaret Jackson where it is currently on display.
Seth S. Walker (1780-1859) of Durham, who in his earlier years was a shipmaster and became a “practical surveyor” and magistrate, created another map which the New Market Historical Society has also placed in the care of the New Hampshire State Archives. It too was commissioned by the NMCo. Although it is smaller, (26” x 36” also paper on cloth), it delineates the Lamprey River in its upper reaches, including more detailed information of Sullivan’s Falls (the second falls), the rapids above them, and the Packer’s Falls above the rapids.
(photo of Seth Walker’s notebook at the Stone School Museum dated April 23, 1839 “Survey & Levels at Sullivan Falls & Packers Falls beginning at the marked rock at foot of Sullivan Falls. Levels taken by Daniel Palmer & his son Morris as chainmen.)
It states that the survey work was done in May 1824 for Sullivan’s Falls and Privilege and the surveying at Packer’s Falls and Privilege was done in June 1829. A “Memo of levels” taken ]an.13 1824 was included giving the footage of the drop at six different sites along the river. An estimate of the height of “Packer’s Falls Dam above the Apron of the Saw Mill Wheel” is given as 10 or 11 feet. The drop in the 4-6 miles between Packer’s Falls and the “Dam at Lamprey Factories” totals 19.6 feet.
We also see on Seth Walker’s plan a Road laid out June 15, 1824 running north of Sullivan’s Falls and around the dam there. Those falls were where Gen. John Sullivan (1740-1795) of Durham had six mills, including a corn mill, a saw mill, fulling mill and scythe mill. Sullivan was a lawyer and was undoubtedly New Hampshire’s best known Revolutionary War soldier.
The NMCo. continued its management of the Lamprey River through many years of its history, relying first on water power, and later on steam and then electricity. They managed falls further up the river as far as Mendums Pond and Pawtuckaway, sending agents to change the gate levels on upriver dams in seasons of flooding.
Early mills were nothing like what NMCo built. They were makeshift structures that were often destroyed by freshets. Being an early boundary between Exeter and Dover and an ideal place for mills, during the 1640s both towns granted mill rights to several different people. Its many falls had been running saw mills and grist mills since the early 17th century.
1647: The town of Dover made grants of land to Elders Nutter and Starbuck for mill rights at Lamprey First Falls.
1649: Exeter granted sawmill rights to George Barlow, Francis Swain and others.
August 7, 1652: The town of Dover granted to Valentine Hill the right to build a sawmill at Lamprey Falls. He also had mills at Oyster River. Hill had indentured Scotsmen who worked in his mills.
1655: Valentine Hill’s mill “works” had been erected at high water mark below “Lamper Eel Riuer falls.” He also had a mill on the Oyster River—and he hatched an idea. In 1655, he was given “free liberty to Cutt through our Comans for drawing Part of the water of Lamperelle River into Oyster River for the supply of his mill.” This was in effect a grant to allow a canal to be built between the Lamprey and Oyster Rivers, so that Mr. Hill could get better water flow into his Oyster River mill. While this was never completed, the beginnings of it can be seen from Rte. 108, about halfway to Durham. On maps there are references to “the moat” and “moat island.”
1675: Peter Coffin inherited the right to “Lamper-Eel River Neck”from Edward Starbuck; he built a mill at Lamprey River Falls.
While much of the local commerce was done by water, cartways and paths had evolved as well. Wherever these paths crossed rivers, ferry services sprang up. But bridges were a consideration as well:
“On 19 May 1644, Exeter voted to build a bridge over the Lamprey. There were references to such a bridge in 1652, 1653, 1657, and 1667—part of boundary discussions between Exeter and Dover. These first bridges were sometimes booms or floating bridges. [3]
1647: Dover then laid claim to the northern boundary of the river at this point. Both towns were fined by the provincial court for failure to keep up a bridge over the Lamprey River. Exeter was fined 30 shillings, Dover 5 pounds. (Nellie Palmer George)
1652: There was a reference to a “bredge” at “Lamperell River.”
1671: Crommet’s Ferry was approved – likely at the narrows of the Salt River, according to historian Sylvia F. Getchell.
1712: Dover voted 25 pounds for building a boom over Lamprey River at Picked Rock.
1721: A standing bridge was destroyed by spring flooding.
1722: Dover asked whether the rebuilding might be financed by the Province. (This was denied!)
1721 to 1723: In response to the bridge washout, the town licensed Phillip Crummet to run a ferry below the Falls at the rate of 2 pence for each person and sixpence for a man and a horse. 
Historian Nellie Palmer George set the Ferry landing at where No. 2 Mill is now. This Ferry Raft ran only at high tide avoiding the rocks in the river.
1723: The bridge-building committee decided that part of the solution would be a better site. Since then, the bridge across the Lamprey has been in its present location—at Picked Rock (which is now under this bridge).
1887: After the spring freshet washed out the old bridge over the Lamprey River at Main Street, a new bridge cost the town $12,217.20. It was constructed by the Iron Bridge Company in Conn. and was designed for horse and cart traffic.
1910: (Photo in 1910 of the old Iron Bridge constructed 1887 for horse traffic)
1931 - In July a town crew under the supervision of Road Agent Lewis Walker repaired the old Iron Bridge on Main Street at a cost of slightly over $2,000. The town could not afford the $18,000 over estimated cost to replace the old timbers and struts with an entirely new bridge. Lewis and his men replaced one lane at a time, allowing for one-way traffic to continue in and out of town.
1953 - Approved by a court order, the town held a Special Town Meeting seeking to appropriate $20,000 to replace the old iron bridge with a steel and concrete span over the river as well as straighten out the curved approach from town. The selctmen, chaired by Arthur Beauchesne had estimates that the new bridge
would cost $40,000. The Federal Government would spend $20,000 through NH State Highway grants, with Newmaket spending $20,000 to make up the difference. This action was brought about by the fact that the old iron bridge could not safely continue to carry today’s traffic. It was way past its usefulness. A recent accident had taken the life of a Sanford, ME man whose truck plunged thrrough a guardrail into the river adjacent to the bridge. Those attending the Special Town Meeting approved the fund 111 to 4. A new bridge was so ordered. (photo of the old iron bridge)
2009: Lamprey River Bridge was officially dedicated as The Newmarket Veterans Memorial Bridge.
Looking upstream, the house by the river in the 1800 map was in Newmarket; but the back yard and barn were in the town of Durham. It was labeled “D. Chapman.”
It had been known previously as the Young house. The name “Esq. Young” appears on an earlier map, but neither his first name nor lineage is known. It is most probable that the old homestead belonged to Revolutionary War Veteran Major William Young. He sold the property of 100 acres in 1790 to Deacon David Chapman, also a Newmarket veteran of the American Revolution. In the 1800 map Major Young’s house is shown near the end of Chapman’s Wharf on the waterfront. David Chapman sold or gave the property to his son Daniel Chapman (also a Deacon).
In 1799 although Daniel was only about 16 years old, he served as both tax collector and constable for the town. Apparently, that was more than enough, because he never again served in public office. One can fully image the resentment and blowback of adults being taxed/ served papers/ or even arrested by a 16 year old —no wonder he quit!
In 1805 Daniel (1783-1815) married Nancy Smith (b. 1785). She was the daughter of John Moody Smith, and the great-granddaughter of the late Lt. Col. Joseph Smith of Lubberland who had once owned this property. (Colonel Smith at one time owned all the property across the river along the northeast coast of the Bay.)
They had not been married ten years when Daniel Chapman died in April 1815. He died young, at age 32. As he left no will, it fell to his widow to administer the estate. Feeling ill prepared for the role, Nancy petitioned the court to allow her father-in-law David Chapman to perform those duties. The petition was granted on Nov. 15, 1815; unfortunately, David died the following year. Nancy went back to court on Jan 19, 1818, requesting that the court award guardianship of her and Daniel’s four minor children—all under the age of 14 (ages 8, 6, 3, and 16 months] to Mr. Benjamin Loveren[4], as she was unable to provide financial support. That request was granted by the court as Mr. Loveren was an attorney who was handling Daniel’s father David Chapman’s estate as well.[5]
In March 1825, Lovering petitioned the court for permission to sell the Chapman property to cover the cost of caring for the minor children; the petition was granted. At the public auction the property listed a dwelling and barn on a parcel of land measuring 90 acres bordered on the east by the Lamprey River, on the north by the Piscassic river, and on the south by the Newmarket Manufacturing Company. The NMCo. grabbed this property and so extended its holdings in Lamprey River Village.
Benjamin Lovering (Loveren) was born in 1753. An early settler in Lamprey River Village, he was an active and prominent citizen who served on the school committee and as town auditor, assessor, and selectman. He was also a justice of the peace. At the time of Nancy Chapman’s request, Mr. Lovering was the owner of the old Col. Joseph Smith property (later known as the George Kittredge house—Site No. 9). The property included a large tract of land, and Lovering planted extensive apple orchards in that part of town. (Today’s Tasker Lane was once a cart path through “Lovering’s Orchard.”) The old garrison housed “Loveren’s Tavern”, where he hosted early investors and agents of the Newmarket Manufacturing Company. Not long after their arrival in town, Lovering sold the entire property to NMCo.
Benjamin Lovering was also one of the founders of the new Congregational Church on Water Street. Lovering/Loveren later moved to Newfields, where he died in 1841. He had always adhered to the tenets of temperance and anti-slavery. While it’s unknown how much influence and interaction there was between Lovering and his wards, those two virtues were instilled in young Warren and Daniel Chapman before they headed out west.
At the time of their father Daniel’s death, Olive was 8, John 6, Warren 3, and Daniel, Jr. 16 months old—all born in town. In the 1820 Census Nancy Chapman is listed as the only adult with 1 girl and 3 boys residing in the same household. The location is not listed.
Olive H. Chapman (27 Nov 1807- 15 Oct 1849) was born, died, and buried in Newmarket. She married Francis P. Channell in 1826. They had six children.
John Moody Chapman (06 Sep 1809 – 29 Sep 1849) born in Newmarket, died in Dover NH. He married a Mary Chapman (1808-1877) they had three daughters.
Warren Chapman (24 Jul 1812 – 19 Oct 1891 d. St. Joseph, Michigan),
Daniel Chapman, Jr. (11 Aug 1814 – 07 Feb 1891 d. St. Joseph, Michigan)
Both Warren and Daniel were pioneers who became judges in St. Joseph Michigan. Both voiced strong opposition to slavery, and both died in 1891. Their obituaries were re-published in The Newmarket Advertiser: Warren’s had come from the Daily Palladium;
Daniel’s from the St. Joseph Herald:
“Daniel as a boy was engaged in the cotton manufacturing and soon became an overseer of weaving at Exeter NH and at Lowell, Mass. In 1840 he moved to St. Joseph and in the gold rush of ’49 went to California via Panama.
He returned to St. Joseph in 1851 and engaged in the sawmill business. In 1855 he worked in Chicago in dry-goods and returned to St. Joseph in 1860. From 1865-1869 he was the “War Supervisor” with the Morrison dry-goods Company. He was elected to office of Probate Judge for Berrien County a position he held for 8 years.
Daniel was an anti-slavery advocate, a true friend of temperance, and trade protectionist. He left two daughters Mrs. Robert Stratton and a Miss Minnie Chapman, both of whom cared for him during his prolonged illness. He was also survived by a brother, The Hon. Warren Chapman two years his senior, also a resident of St. Joseph”.
Warren’s obituary was reprinted from the Daily Palladium.
“Warren arrived in St. Joseph two years after his brother. His death was the result of years of failing health and a paralytic stroke.
Born in Newmarket in 1812, he came to St. Joseph as a pioneer in 1842 where he engaged in the mercantile business for several years. Being involved in the lumber and milling trade he soon advanced in the business to handling large amounts of lands, and he became widely known as the leading real estate dealer in this section of the country. He took a prominent role in state and county politics and was very pronounced in his anti-slavery views. He was elected state senator from this district in the 1850s and also held the office of Register of Deeds for Berrien County. He was a strong temperance advocate.
He lost his wife seventeen years ago, since which time he has resided with his daughter, Mrs. George Smith. An only son, August W. Chapman was killed in the war — a gallant soldier, the St. Joseph G.A.R. named the Post in his honor, the A.W. Chapman Post.
Mr. Chapman was one of the foremost members of the Masons, Occidental Lodge, A F and A M for many years, and when he died the Masons laid him to rest with the honors he loved so well.
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[1] For more information about Indian raids, see https://www.newmarketnhhistoricalsociety.org/military/militia/newmarket-settlers-taken-captive-by-indians/
[2] Peter M. Molloy, “Nineteenth-Century Hydropower”
[3] From Sylvia Fitts Getchell, The Tide Turns on the Lamprey, p.155
[4] The spelling in court documents of “Loveren” is most likely the phonetic spelling of Lovering.
[5] Several years later, Benjamin Loveren became guardian for Matilda Gill, the orphaned daughter of poor intemperate Moses Gill—who died while under the fiscal guardianship of Deacon Paul Chapman (See Site No. 7 for more details). Perhaps Mr. Loveren was guardian to other orphaned youngsters too.