William Frederick Chappell (1836 - 1917), Civil War Soldier

Often, when researching my ancestors, the details of their daily lives are left to my imagination. They hang on a frame made up of what we know, with a few broad strokes providing possibilities based on the times they lived in. We know William Chappell was born around 1800, died in 1870, and was a broom maker who lived through the War of 1812 and the US Civil War but participated in neither. But for him and many others, the colors and details are largely unknown and mostly unknowable.

Not so for two of his sons, John Thompson and William Frederick. For these US Civil War soldiers, detailed accounts of their time in the service and their struggles after the war are well documented, some of it in their own hand, providing a detailed and humbling glimpse into the lives they led.

My great great grandfather, William Frederick Chappell, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on 27 Nov 1836, the second son of William and Margaret Chappell. He volunteered to serve in the US Civil War barely two weeks after it started in 1861, serving until he was honorably discharged in January, 1864. Later that year, in October, he married Emma Lentz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They had nine children together over the next 20 years. He led a hard life after the war, suffering from the lingering effects of the injuries he suffered and the horrific conditions he lived in during the war, not to mention the new injuries sustained in the years after the war. It's incredible to me that he carried on for over 50 years after the war despite several accidents and his continually declining health. He died on 5 March 1917 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of apoplexy, and was buried there in North Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Wed, Mar 7, 1917 – Page 7 · The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

Chappell, Chappelle, Potato, Potahto

The death notice published for William Frederick highlights one of the challenges in researching my ancestors (and really, anyone's ancestors) - how the spelling of surnames changes over time. Sometimes this occurs generationally - a son drops a letter or changes a spelling used by his parents, for example. Sometimes a misspelling gets adopted during a person's life. And sometimes, it seems, nobody actually knows how to spell the name, so every document you find uses a different spelling.

In the case of William Frederick, most official documents - his death certificate, his pension record, etc. - use the spelling Chappell. Census records sometimes use that spelling, or Chappel. His death notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer uses Chappelle - a spelling used often by his son, William Alexander Chappelle, and some of his grandchildren. Other ancestors use even more variations - Chapell, Chapel, Shapel, and others have made appearances. When writing about my ancestors, I'll do my best to use the spelling that they appeared to prefer. In William Frederick's case, that would be Chappell.

Before the War

We don't know much about William Frederick's life before the war. He was a carpenter, and learned a bit about mechanical engineering. There are several affadavits that attest to him being in generally good health before entering the service. We know also that he was unmarried, and living in the Philadelphia area. But, that is pretty much all we know of him in his pre-war years, until late April of 1861, when the US Civil War broke out.

US Civil War¹

William Frederick Chappell served two tours of duty during the US Civil War: one tour of three months, and another of three years.

Company F, Pennsylvania 20th Volunteer Infantry Regiment

Soon after the end of the Mexican-American War, a number of returned soldiers who had served under General Scott formed an association called the "Scott Legion" to preserve their organization for social interaction and friendly discourse, led by Captain William H. Gray. Shortly after the US Civil War broke out, Captain Gray began recruiting at Fifth and Chestnut streets. By Saturday evening, the ranks were full. Men continued to report thru Monday, and when the recruiting was finally done, there was an excess of six hundred men over what could be accepted. The regiment's services were tendered to the Executive of the State and accepted, and it was mustered into the service of the United States as the 20th Regiment by Captain Neill of the regular army. William Frederick Chappell was one of those so recruited, the first of the Chappell brothers to enlist, and was assigned to Company F.

They drilled for two weeks in Philadelphia, and were uniformed in the old United States blue jacket and pants. Afterwards, they moved six miles outside of Philadelphia to Suffolk Park, where they continued drilling for another two weeks. The regiment was ordered to move to Chambersburg to join Patterson's column, and was assigned to the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division.  Over the next few months the regiment served as protection for the main column, moving from Greencastle, to Williamsport on the banks of the Potomac, to Martinsburg and Bunker Hill, and eventually pushed forward to Keyes' Ford. On July 24th, they were ordered back to Philadelphia, where, their terms of service expired, they were mustered out of service.

The fact that the 20th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, among others, were raised for only a three month term says a lot about the government's assessment of the Confederacy: they took them lightly, severely underestimating their capability and commitment to secession. But near the end of William F.'s first tour of duty, the First Battle of Bull Run was fought - a bloody, disorganized mess of a battle that opened eyes on both sides. The Union retreated, routed by the rebel forces. Both sides now knew that they were in for a long, hard fight.

Company P, Pennsylvania 28th Infantry Regiment

William F. did not stay out of the service long. He re-enlisted on 10 Sep 1861, and mustered in on 27 Sep 1861 to the 28th Infantry Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. The 28th Regiment had been raised in June by Colonel John W. Geary, uniformed and equipped at his own expense, with a three year term of service. When fully formed, the regiment consisted of fifteen companies, with fifteen hundred and fifty-one officers and men brought together from various sections of Pennsylvania. William F. was assigned to Company P.

By the time William F. joined the regiment, Colonel Geary had already taken ten companies south to Harper's Ferry, to join a brigade under the command of Major General Nathaniel Banks. It's not clear exactly when William F. and Company P may have joined the rest of the regiment, but it seems likely that he had joined by the time Colonel Geary's forces had repelled attacks by Generals Ashby and Evans in late 1861. He had most certainly joined them by February of 1862, when six men from Company P drowned when their boat capsized while attempting to stretch a rope across the Potomac River.

The 28th enjoyed much success over the coming months, recapturing Bolivar Heights, taking London Heights, holding in check the much larger forces of General A. P. Hill, frustrating rebel forces in Wheatland and pursuing them through Waterford to Leesburg - which they took without opposition, General Hill's forces on the run. They continued on after that, pursuing Hill's army through Virginia, a pursuit marked by long, hard marches, several skirmishes, some larger battles, and a relentless drive forward. In April, in White Plains, VA, the regiment paused to rebuild needed infrastructure: telegraph lines, bridges, railroads. Soldiers guarded the workers from rebels employing guerilla tactics in the forests and hills of the area. It was remarkable that comparatively little sickness occurred in the regiment to this point.

The health of the regiment would not last. Heavy marching and skirmishes through all weather conditions persisted through the summer. Three men died of sun-stroke after a long march. Later, they marched twenty three miles through a rain storm, wading through several heavily swollen creeks. In early September, they left Bull Run to join the Antietam campaign, marching 125 miles in two weeks, in the hottest season of the year. They arrived on the 16th, and the Battle of Antietam began on the 17th. The 28th regiment had 266 casualties. Although William F. was not among them, the severe marches to get there had left him and many others weak and sick, barely able to continue.

In his pension file, he writes that in August or September of 1862, he was "disabled by reason of exposure and severe marching through swamps and creeks and was suffering from general debility the result of colds contracted by exposure and in the line of duty." He was sent to Harpers Ferry when his regiment arrived at Loudoun Heights, VA, after the Battle of Antietam around October of 1862. In applying for his pension, William F. Chappell wrote:

"At the time of Gen. Bank's retreat from the Rappahannock to Chantilly, the weather was stormy, a great deal of rain swelling the streams until in some cases the fording was extremely difficult. The marching was almost continuous and being in wet clothes so much, not being allowed fires, and being chilled, I contracted a severe cold from which I became sick, although I continued with my Regt. from Chantilly or Second Bull Run to South Mountain and Antietam and thence back to Loudon Heights, VA, on the opposite bank of the Shenandoah at Harper's Ferry, and was then I think in November 1862 sent to the Hospital at Harper's Ferry, VA, Wm. Goodman in charge where I was treated by Dr. Goodman, Dr. Longshore, and others whose names I have forgotten. In the following spring I requested to be sent to my Regt. but the surgeon in charge informed me that I was not fit for duty in the field."

During his time in Harper's Ferry, companies L, M, N, O, and his own company P were withdrawn from the 28th and instead formed into the 147th Pennsylvania Volunteers under Colonel Ario Pardee Jr.

Company E, Pennsylvania 147th Infantry Regiment

It took some time for William F. to return to duty, and when he did, he was in bad health, ill suited to heavy marching or combat. He was assigned to work in the commissary, a light duty assignment to which he was better suited. The position may have come with a promotion, as he is listed as a corporal at this time, and according to his pension file, he was also allowed a horse to help him to get around. Eventually, he was appointed acting sergeant of the commissary.

The 147th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment was formed near Harper's Ferry, but soon left that area for Fairfax Court House, arriving just after the Battle of Fredericksburg. They wintered in Staffords Court House, before moving on to join the campaign at Chancellorsville. At Chancellorsville, the regiment incurred some casualties, and was forced to withdraw. It's next major engagement was Gettysburg. William F. most likely didn't travel with the regiment due to his health and assignment to the commissary, hence his exclusion from the memorial plaque.

On 1 July 1863, the regiment arrived at the field along Baltimore Pike, and took position to the right of Round Top. Before daylight it was relieved, and moved with it's division into position on Culp's Hill. When they moved to return to Round Top, they found it had been taken by the rebels.

"The One Hundred and Forty-seventh was formed with the Seventh Ohio on its right, the Fifth Ohio on its left, and an open field, of triangular shape skirted by a low stone-wall running diagonally between the two lines, in its front. The battle opened on that part of the field at daylight, and until ten o'clock A. M., the firing was incessant, fresh ammunition being brought up and distributed to the men as the supply became exhausted. The enemy made repeated charges upon the line, but was as often swept back with fearful slaughter, the men withholding their fire until he was at close range. Finally, broken and dispirited, he was driven, and the ground lost during the absence of the troops on the previous evening, was re-gained."

The next day, they buried their dead, enemy fire passing overhead. After the battle, they retreated to Virginia.

The regiment fought on through the rest of the summer and into winter, moving eventually into Chattanooga, then later to Wauhatchie for the winter. On 29 December, many of the men re-enlisted and returned home on veteran furlough. William F. may also have done this, had he been eligible. But his poor health disqualified him, and so on 1 Jan 1864 in Bridgeport, Alabama, he was honorably discharged, and returned home.

After the War

After returning from the war, William Frederick started a family. On 23 Oct 1864, William married Emma Lentz (b. 1843, d. 1928). Emma was the daughter of William Andrew Lentz and Rebecca Shetsline. The Lentz family came to the US from Beutelsbach, Germany, near Stuttgart, in the mid-1700's, not long before the American Revolutionary War. There's an excellent genealogy that traces the Lentz' back to the mid-1600's; Emma doesn't appear on it, but her father does. Using the German Online Heritage Books, I've been able to trace the family back further still, into the mid-1500's.

William and Emma had nine children together: William, Emma, Charles, Walter, Philip, Florence, Elmer, Lewis, and Clarence. They moved around Philadelphia quite a bit in the ensuing years. In his pension files, he lists several addresses in Philadelphia: N. 2nd Street, Frankford and Norris, Tulip and Dauphin, Otis above Belgrade, Richmond above Norris, and others. This is likely due to his apparent financial troubles ... his disabilities from the war and continued bad luck afterwards left him struggling to work enough to put food on his table for him and his family.

Sun, Dec 11, 1892 – Page 14 · The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America) · Newspapers.com He remained in contact with many of the men he served with. The 28th and 147th held a reunion in 1871. He also joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a fraternal organization for Union soldiers and a forerunner of organizations such as the American Legion. He may have served as an officer in Post 7 in the 1890's.

But even as he grew his family and maintained an active social life, it is clear that his health was continually declining. He is described after the war as being about 5 feet 6 inches in height, and weighing between 100 and 110 pounds. Often, he is described as being in poor health and emaciated. It is clear that he struggled in his daily life. He writes in his pension file:

"After reaching home, I was not able to do anything, until April 1865 I started a small produce store on 2nd St. above Brown, but being sick a good part of the time, and not able to hire any one I gave the business up, after I think some six or eight months."

After giving up the produce store, he went on to try several jobs: he sold Patent Pump through New Jersey; sold wines, liquors, and vinegar cider through Philadelphia; canvassed for the sale of books, and other articles. He writes, "but I lost so much time on account of bad health that I made but a precarious living." Around 1869 he become a bartender for his father in-law's place. And for at least one summer, in 1883, he and his wife rented out a cottage on the corner of Atlantic and Georgia in Atlantic City, NJ:

Sat, Jun 16, 1883 – Page 5 · The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

Later, he worked at a mill, and stuck with that job for 12-13 years. After, he obtained a job at Keystone Wall Paper Co. where he was severely injured, as described in an 1892 affadavit:

"on or about the 22nd day of September 1885, at the Keystone Wallpaper Co. Hancock & Putname St, Phila., PA, he incurred injury of right leg in the following manner. Was caught between the door and post of elevator, crushing and breaking the bone of right thigh in two places and the shortening of leg one inch."

Wed, Sep 23, 1885 – Page 3 · The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

The process of applying for a pension looks to have been tedious. It required personal accounts, and affadavits from commanding officers, doctors, neighbors, clergymen. His pension file has a ton of such affadavits. One, by William F. Stewart in 1890, writes of William "at that time [in 1873] he was suffering with chronic complaints of the bowels and kidneys and an apparent bronchial affection which was very noticeable in his voice he was very much emaciated and apparently physically weak at that time." Other affadavits confirm this throughout the late 1800's. William Vandegrift, EP Brownell, William H. Remer, Hutchinson J Stackhouse, and others who knew him before the war describe his poor health, specifically mentioning his chronic diarrhea. Likely, the detailed affidavits were needed because earlier pension applications had been rejected due to vagueness and a failure to mention specific ailments. His employer at Keystone Wall Paper Company remarked in one affidavit that William F. frequently missed work due to poor health. He stated that he retained William F. more for his mechanical knowledge than for his ability to put in a full day's work. Eventually, he was approved for a pension of $8 per month - at this writing, that is the equivalent of less than $230 per month.

William F. applied several times for an increase in pension. Each application included a set of doctor's notes. Normally, they attributed his weakness and inability to work to poor nutrition due to chronic diarrhea - and although left unsaid, also due to living near the poverty line. Each one described a laundry list of ailments: indications of rheumatism and heart failure, chronic diarrhea, disease of lungs, right leg crushed, frequent disability on account of pain, and frequent attacks of lumbago and neuralgia. Generally, his efforts resulted in no increase.

Occasionally, though, a request was granted. On the paperwork for one such increase in 1905, wherein his pension was increased to $10, I noticed that his list of ailments was growing. Poor sight and senile debility are perhaps to be expected, but there was something else wholly unexpected: three broken ribs. It took some research, but I finally discovered the cause.

On August 17, 1891, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "William Frederick Chappell ... had three broken ribs in the Egg Harbor City accident." The "Egg Harbor City accident" may seem vague now, but I quickly learned that it must refer to a train collision that occurred two days before, on the night of August 15². The Camden Daily Courier described the collision: "By the collision of two trains on the Reading Railroad's Atlantic City road at Egg Harbor last night, a number of people were severely injured and both trains wrecked. The collision was between the six o'clock express from Camden and a freight from Atlantic City, the locomotives crashing into each other head on. There is little doubt but that the accident was caused by the refusal of the air brakes to work." The article goes on to describe people jumping off the train and the actual train wreck, in horrifying detail. William didn't appear on the injury list in that article, but was noted the following day in the article cited above. With the severity of the accident and the generally poor health of William, it's incredible that he didn't fare much worse!³

He died on 5 March 1917 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of apoplexy, and was buried there in North Cedar Hill Cemetery, a historic cemetery in the Frankford section of Philadelphia. I visited there in 2017. The cemetery is very old, and hasn't fared well over the years. A number of stones have fallen or sit at odd angles. Understandable, perhaps: the stones dated back into the 1800s. I managed to obtain a map showing where William F. and various members of his family are located. I found the spot, but sadly there are no markers for his wife or other family that I could find. The lone marker I could find is barely legible, age having taken a harsh toll on it. Although I can't be certain, I believe that this marker is his - you can make out the C easily in the picture, and although it's not easy to tell in the picture, in person it looked to me like the rest of the name is there. Given the hard life that William F. had, it's maybe fitting that his stone has had a hard life as well.

The Children of William Frederick and Emma

William Frederick and Emma had nine children together:

• William Alexander Chappell, born 1865, died 1935, married Emma Henry
• Emma R Chappell, born 1866, died after 1940, married William Corbett Eldridge
• Charles L Chappell, born 1868, died 1870
• Walter Chappell, born 1870, died 1872
• Philip Miller Chappell, born 1872, died before 1940?, married Katherine Kirn
• Florence Chappell, born 1873, died 1916, married Robert Grant Rinedollar
• Elmer Chappell, born 1875, died 1881
• Lewis O Chappell, born 1880, died before 1898
• Clarence William Chappell, born 1884, died 1956

Margaret Willett (ca. 1808 - 1876)

Margaret Willett, the wife of William Chappell and my 3x great-grandmother, was born somewhere around 1808. She married William on 18 March 1832 at the Old St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and had at least five children. She lived the majority of her life in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, moving with her husband to Hunterdon County, New Jersey for a few years in the 1860's before moving to N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After her husband died, she moved in with her son, William Frederick Chappell, and his family. She died on 5 July 1876, her passage marked by a one line note in the Philadelphia Inquirer. And, like her husband, she was buried in American Mechanics Cemetery on July 9, 1876, in a plot owned by John H Chappell.

Margaret's life before she married William is somewhat of a mystery. Birth records for that period are hard to come by, and census records prior to 1850 list only the head of household and so they are of little help. Church records can be useful for that time period, but without other corroborating records it can be hard to definitively tie any particular record to a particular person, especially if there are multiple people with the same or a similar name, as is the case here: there are a lot of Willett's. There have been some genealogies written over the years that cover the period that Margaret and her parents lived, but none that I've found so far include this Margaret Willett.

A Bit of Willett History

Willett Coat of Arms at the
Fort Anne Museum in
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

The first Willett to come to the New World was Thomas Willett, sometime before 1643. He was an English soldier in the employ of the West India Company, and participated in Kieft's War, an effort by the Dutch to drive out the Native American population. He died in 1647, leaving two sons, William (b. 1643) and Thomas (b. 1645).

Beyond William and Thomas, the Willett genealogy becomes very complex and muddled. Although William had no known offspring, Thomas (b. 1645) had a large number of children, and each of them had a large number of children, and so on. The names William, Thomas, John, Sarah, Margaret, and others were all used and sometimes reused in every Willett family. And although many genealogies have been written about parts of the Willett family, often times there is conflicting, erroneous data with no source records to aid in resolution. So tho it is clear that my Margaret must have descended from Thomas (b. 1645), the line of parentage is not at all clear.

Regardless of the difficulties in tracing Margaret's (or my own) relationship to them, there are a few Willet's of historical significance that should be mentioned. By the time of the American War of Independence, there were a lot of Willett's inhabiting New York and Pennsylvania. Some Willett's chose to be Loyalists, remaining loyal to the British crown and in some cases withdrawing to Nova Scotia, Canada. The Coat of Arms on this page was donated by a descendant of one such loyalist. Other Willett's, including those I mention below, were Patriots that helped to secure American independence and afterwards, to govern the newborn country.

Marinus Willett

Marinus Willett was the great grandson of Thomas Willett (1645), born 31 July 1740 in Jamaica, New York. He served in the French and Indian War, and took part in the disastrous (for the British) expedition of General James Abercrombie to Fort Ticonderoga in 1758. He joined the Sons of Liberty, and when the US Revolutionary War broke out, joined the Continental Army with a commission of Captain. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and in 1778 joined General Washington's main army. After the war, he continued serving in the military for a number of years, and eventually was elected the 48th Mayor of New York City. Willett Street in Manhattan's lower east side is named for him.

Augustine Willett

Augustine Willett, a cousin of Marinus Willett, also served during the US Revolutionary War. At the outbreak of the war, Augustine took the oath of allegiance and raised an army at his own expense, which served in many battles including the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth. He remained involved in military affairs after the war, holding many positions including as a Captain of the Bucks County Dragoons in 1793. He also served in the Whiskey Insurrection in 1794. His time in the Dragoons and particularly his service in the Whiskey Insurrection are of particular note to me: Thomas Chappell, the father of Margaret's husband William Chappell, also served as a Dragoon (though in Philadelphia, not Bucks County), and served in the Whiskey Insurrection. Alas, though Augustine has a daughter, Margaret, she was born sometime between 1700 and 1799, too soon to be William's wife. But a granddaughter or a niece? Maybe.

The Children of William and Margaret

William and Margaret had several children together:

• John Thompson Chappell, born 1831, died 1915, married Angeline Scull
• William Frederick Chappell, born 1836, died 1917, married Emma Lentz
• Emma Chappell, born 1839, died 1866, married Willard Ward
• Charles L Chappell, born about 1842, died 1866
• Margaret Chappell, born 1845, died 1862
• Noah Chappell (maybe), born about 1849, died after 1860

Three of their children - John Thompson, William Frederick, and Charles L - served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

William Chappell (1800 - 1870)

One of the first things I learned about my ancestry is that there are a lot of William Chappell's! There are 13 of them that I've found so far, going back to the year 1800. For this post, I'm going to focus on the oldest that I've found so far, born in about 1800.

William Chappell, my 3x great-grandfather, was born about 1800 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Thomas Chappell and Mary Walton (though there are some discrepancies in the records - more on that in another post). He married Margaret Willett on 18 March 1832 at the Old St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and had at least five children. On censuses in 1850 and 1860, he is listed as a farmer, though Philadelphia City Guides after 1865 list him as a broom maker. Broom making appears to have been a family trade - two brothers and a nephew were also broom makers. He died on 5 May 1870 from chronic diarrhea, marked with a simple death notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

William lived most of his life in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. He appears to have been a horse owner, from an ad that ran in the Philadelphia Public Ledger in 1839. The property on the Bristol Turnpike mentioned in the ad was apparently sold in 1859 to Charles Walton of the Byberry Waltons (a topic for another post) for $865. William and Margaret moved then to Kingwood, New Jersey, to live with his brother Thomas for a time. Sometime before 1865, they moved to a place on North 2nd Street in Philadelphia, where he lived the remainder of his life. He was buried in American Mechanics Cemetery, where he would be to this day if they hadn't turned the cemetery into low income housing.

American Mechanics Cemetery

American Mechanics Cemetery was a cemetery founded in the mid-19th century in a then-rural area of Philadelphia, at 22nd and Diamond Streets. After the Civil War, urban sprawl reclaimed the rural areas outside the city, including the area around American Mechanics Cemetery and other nearby cemeteries. One hundred years later, the cemetery had been neglected and fallen into serious disrepair, and was considered no longer suitable for a final, eternal resting place. So in 1950, the Cemetery Association voted to sell it to the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

PHA bid out the relocation, and the bodies were to be removed and reinterred to Philadelphia Memorial Park in Frazer, Chester. When they started building the Raymond Rosen Housing Project though, they found that not all the remains had been moved, not by a long shot. As more bodies were found, they were moved to a mass grave at Lawnview Cemetery in Rockledge. Even years later, after the Raymond Rosen towers were torn down and a playground and school were in their place, more bodies were found. The poor handling of the graves speaks to the corruption of the era when it came to handling cemeteries that stood in the way of "progress."

The poor handling of the graves has made finding the final resting place of your ancestors extremely difficult; there are really no records of who went where, or where their new plots are, that is if they weren't relocated to a mass grave.

There are records from their original burial tho. The Chester County Historical Society came into possession of a bunch of boxes of original records. If you think you have a relative that was buried there, you might at least be able to get a little more information. The record here for William, for example, gave me a big clue about the rest of William's siblings. For a long time, William Chappell (1800) wasn't just the oldest William Chappell in my family tree, he was the oldest Chappell. This record gave me a hint about the rest of his family - the plot was owned by John H Chappell, who is not one of William's children or any other relation that I had come across at that time. I've since learned that he is William's oldest brother; this record was an early clue about William's own ancestry.

References:

• A Journey Into the Past blog
• Find A Grave entry for American Mechanics Cemetery
• Old Images of Philadelphia

The 1860 Census

The 1860 census that William appears on has presented a few mysteries, a few of which have been cleared up but one that still remains.

The first mystery - and one that initially kept me from even accepting this record as being for "my" William - was this: what is he doing in Hunterdon County, NJ? Every other record I had found to that point showed him living in Pennsylvania, and I had records from both before and after 1860. But, combined with what I now know about his property sale from "Byberry Waltons : an account of four English brothers, Nathaniel & Thomas & Daniel & William Walton", moving to NJ at that time makes a bit of sense.

But who he moved in with is the second mystery - who is Thomas Chappell? I had assumed it must be a brother, but, as with the cemetery record, I had no real concrete evidence of that. I have since learned it was in fact his older brother, but I'll talk about that when I write about William's father, Thomas Chappell.

Finally, who is Noah? He is grouped with other children of William, so presumably he is a child of William. But, there's no other record of him that I've been able to locate. Someday, hopefully, I'll be able to uncover who he really is, but for now, he remains a mystery.

A bonus mystery on this census is, who is the 25 year old William? He may be William's (1800) child, but I think it is more likely that he is a child of Thomas, because of where he is in the list, and the fact that he was born in NJ. Sadly, it has been tough to piece together much information about Thomas to this point.

The Children of William and Margaret

William and Margaret had several children together:

• John Thompson Chappell, born 1831, died 1915, married Angeline Scull
• William Frederick Chappell, born 1836, died 1917, married Emma Lentz
• Emma Chappell, born 1839, died 1866, married Willard Ward
• Charles L Chappell, born about 1842, died 1866
• Margaret Chappell, born 1845, died 1862
• Noah Chappell (maybe), born about 1849, died after 1860

Three of their children - John Thompson, William Frederick, and Charles L - served in the Union Army during the Civil War. I hope to tell their stories soon.

Welcome to ChappellGenes

Up until I took a DNA test, I thought I knew a decent amount about my ancestry. I knew I had some bits of German, French, Swedish, and miscellaneous others, and I knew of a few great aunts and uncles and some second cousins, and I had a story or two of older ancestors. Then I took a DNA test. I found a second cousin I didn't know and a huge amount of ancestors I had no idea about: from Civil War soldiers to scribes, train engineers to broom makers. Founders of counties, owners of important real estate, Huguenots, shop keepers, jewelers, and bartenders. The more ancestors I find, the more there is to find.

The more I dig into my ancestry, the bigger my family tree gets, the more I realize I don't want it to just sit around collecting digital dust in a tree somewhere. There are stories to be told, and I want to try to tell them. Out here, in my own little corner of the interwebs. I hope to post about some of the more interesting people, and about some of the things I've learned about along the way. I hope you enjoy it.