THE
ABNEY &
CHAPMAN
FAMILIES OF
By Dwight
Albert Sharpe
Paul Collins Abney was
the great, great grandfather of this writer.
He was born
However,
Abney Family researcher R. Robert Abney, Jr., whose e-mail address is abneyviking@compuserve.com, New Orleans born, now residing in Purvis,
Mississippi) concludes the proper place is probably Hinds County. Paul's parents were Joseph Duncan Abney, born circa 1800,
Now, 1829 was the year before Indians
ceded the land to the advancing march of the settling white people. Andrew Jackson was inaugurated President of
the
Margaret Elvira Fullerton, the great,
great grandmother of this writer, was born
Paul Collins Abney is steeped in
significant European history. His
earliest recorded ancestor is Haldane "the Old," whose title was the
Earl of the Uplands in
Later in the Abney line of descent
appears Sir Thomas Abney of Willesley, who served as Mayor of London circa
1690-1700, and was one of the founders of the Bank of London. Sir Thomas was Paul Collins Abney's 4th
cousin, 4 times removed, and 8 times removed to this writer. He was a leading layman at the
Around 1830,
It is of interest to know that the
Choctaws are still there, concentrated mainly around the
Paul married Margaret on
The
In 1849, this young couple moved to
Saint Helena Parish,
Yellow fever took the lives of some
5,000 people in
Paul and Margaret settled in Homer,
which then was the Angelina County Seat.
Homer is located southeast of
Many of the twelve children borne by
Paul and Margaret had an impact on
James Addison Abney
Nathaniel Searcy Abney John
Edgar Abney
William Albert Abney, Sr.
George Monroe Abney Sarah
Jane Abney
Franklin Pierce Abney Adaline
Juliette Abney
Perry
Collins Abney Emily
Aerphina Abney
It is William Albert Abney, Sr. who
is this writer's great grandfather.
Margaret desired her children to have exposure to the teachings of
Christ, and so she organized a Sunday School meeting
for her 12 children and others in the neighborhood to attend regularly. That effort eventually developed to become
the First Methodist Church of Lufkin in 1882.
Paul C. Abney died
ABOUT
THE CHILDREN OF PAUL C. AND MARGARET F. ABNEY:
James Addison Abney was born
This was the year the first rotary
press was devised and produced by Richard M. Hoe. It was capable of 8,000 newspapers per hour,
and the first use was in the following year at the
Though James Addison Abney was born
a mere ten months following the marriage of his parents, he was actually born
in the seventh month of pregnancy, weighing only three pounds. In a sort of miracle of that day, the baby
survived. He reached a maturity to be
6'2" and weighed as much as 275 pounds.
What would they have thought if they had known he would live to
celebrate his 100th birthday!
In the summer of 1861, at age 15, at
an old time Methodist Camp Meeting at the McEndree Camp Ground, James Addison
Abney followed his father into the
He was so large, even in his early
manhood, that at the age of seventeen, he passed for substantial soldier
material and was inducted into the Confederate Army in the Spring
of 1864 by
It was during this service when he
survived a life threatening accident while on guard duty that he rationalized
his total lack, and, sensing the work of the Holy Spirit on his heart, he
reaffirmed in more mature terms his younger commitment to be a follower of
Jesus Christ. Jim later wrote of the
stark poverty and despair which dominated during those war years when the
Confederate troops in his part of the war were held to very ineffective
progress and usually had very little food or supplies. After the war, he was sent home penniless and
barefooted.
Jim, at age 22, was married
Episcopal clergyman Phillips Brooks
wrote the hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem
in 1868. The House of Representatives
impeached President Andrew Johnson, basically over political differences of
view, but the U.S. Senate failed by 1 vote to get the required 2/3's to
convict. General Ulysses S. Grant was
elected President of the
Jim was a physician, a professional
status he acquired by personal tutoring for a couple of years from Angelina
County's only doctor at that time, a Dr. Manning, followed by his registering
in the medical branch of the Soule University at Galveston in October,
1869. He received a diploma on
Dr. Jim, as his old "Big
Jim" nickname melted away in favor of his new profession, was half owner
one of the earliest drug stores in
Susanna's brother, John W. Davis
(July 26, 1843 - May 1, 1912), was elected Angelina County Sheriff in
1874. Though short of stature, his
determination to do the job was large, and he was effective at arresting the
rowdy who disturbed the peace in the rapidly proliferating saloons. His successful enforcement was a
discouragement for the criminal element to remain active, an element which had
developed in the War years when the men of good citizenship were away, serving
their Confederate cause.
The saloons did represent an air of
moral decay, which the Christian community opposed. Dr. Jim, staunch in his Christian commitment
through the
When the Houston East and West
Narrow Gauge Railroad announced plans for its
The railroad officials ultimately
ran their line some six miles away from Homer, apparently a spiteful response
to Homer's bad experience for the railroad officials, and a station was
established in 1882, named
In 1882, Schuyler S. Wheeler, a
Many people in our country who
recognize the name of "
Susanna's failing health motivated
them to relocate in March of 1892 to Lampasses, hopefully to benefit from the
warm mineral springs there thought to have healing properties. She died
After Susanna died, and while still
living in Lampassas, Dr. Jim married the widow, Almonta Bartlett, daughter of
Grandma Heuling, the matriarchal voice at the local
James moved with his family to
James and Susanna bore two sons and
a daughter: Frederick Sherwood Abney, who married Clara Brian, was a banker and
lived in
Other
Children of Paul C. and Margaret F. Abney:
Nathaniel Searcy Abney was born
Hampton Parton (Hamp) Abney was born
Perry Collins Abney married Joe
Northington and resided in
Franklin (Frank) Pierce Abney
married A. A. (Minnie) Arrington
Adaline (Addie) Juliette Abney
married Albert Ross Moore
Emily Aerphina Abney first married
T. Jeff Mosley
Sarah Jane Abney married
Ephrem H. F. McMullen on
John Edgar Abney married Clara
Easter. They bore Montey Abney and Carey
Abney.
Cary Collins Abney is represented in
another spelling as Carry. This writer
has no further information on this person.
George Abney practiced medicine in
Their daughter, Margaret Abney,
married Colonel Walter C. Sanders, whose military career caused them to live in
many locations over the world. Margaret
and Walter bore a son and twin daughters: Raymond Abney Sanders; Nancy Sanders
(who married Charles Grob, a certified public accountant); and Sherry Sanders
(who married Alan Augustine, an architect).
The families of both daughters settled in
William Albert Abney, Sr., born
William served as Postmaster for
The children of William Albert
Abney, Sr., and Martha (Mattie) Jane Dixon were:
Margaret Lavina Abney, who married
Dr. James Herschell Chapman
Dixon Felix Abney, who married Edna
Clark
William (Will) Albert Abney, Jr.,
who married Tempy Wood
Paul C. Abney, who married Ethel
Latimer
James A. Abney, who married Audre
Latimer
William Albert Abney, Sr. died
November 7, 1913. Martha (Mattie)
Jane Dixon Abney died April 27, 1928.
Both are buried in the Knight - Glendale Cemetery of Lufkin.
About the Children of William Albert
Abney, Sr. and Martha Jane Dixon:
Dixon Felix Abney was born
October 16, 1879, and died in a tragic hunting accident at the early age
of 28 on January 1, 1908. A shotgun
accidentally discharged from the hand of his 13-year-old younger brother, Jim,
mortally wounding Dixon in the back of the head. Newspaper accounts of the tragedy reported
that Dixon was probably one of the most popular young men in Lufkin of that
day. Dixon's burial site is the Knight -
Glendale Cemeteries of Lufkin. His wife
was Edna Clark, who later married Dr. John Dawson of Houston, where she spent
the remainder of her life into the 1960's, long after she was widowed a second
time. She was close to this writer's
family in Houston in the 1940's, and my two sisters' wedding social activities
partly took place in Aunt Edna's home.
William (Will) Albert Abney, Jr. was
born March 7, 1884. He was known as
Will. He married Tempy Wood, who was
born November 7, 1888. They bore
two children.
The first was Dixon F. Abney, born
January 1, 1909, and obviously named after his uncle who died one year
earlier on the same date. Dixon married
Elsie Greve of Nacogdoches. Dixon died
November 25, 1979, and is buried in the Garden of Memories Memorial Park
in Lufkin, beside a grave identified as Mrs. Dixon F. Abney (December 18,
1910 to April 27, 1975) and a grave identified as an Abney infant named
Dixon.
Dixon
F. Abney and Earl Medford established Abney & Medford Hardware in 1946, the
year Paul Abney was born as son of Dixon and Elsie. Paul had two brothers, Dixon F.
Abney, Jr. and William Greve Abney.
All of the three brothers continued in the business of owning and
operating hardware stores. It is of
interest to note that Paul Collins Abney was an actor in the amateur Centennial
play produced in Lufkin in 1982. His
role was to portray his great, great grandfather whose exact name the actor
bore.
The other child of Will and Tempy
Abney was Lillian Margaret Abney.
Lillian, born September 24, 1910, married Earl B. Medford,
June 27, 1937. Lillian and Earl
gave issue to Tempe Lou Medford, who married Jerrell Durham and settled in
Lufkin; and William Earl (Bubba) Medford, who settled in Houston.
William Albert Abney, Jr. died
June 21, 1945. Tempy Wood Abney died
June 18, 1966. Both are buried in
the Knight - Glendale Cemetery of Lufkin.
Paul C. Abney was born 1888 and died
1933. He married Ethel Latimer. He is buried in the Knight - Glendale
Cemetery in Lufkin.
James (Jim) A. Abney and Audre
Latimer Abney bore two daughters, Sara Latimer Abney and Audre Lou Abney. Jim is the younger brother, who at age 13
allowed a shotgun to discharge accidentally from his hand, killing his older
brother, Dixon. Jim operated a hardware
store in Lufkin. He was born
November 18, 1894, and died after a long struggle with cancer on
January 27, 1959. He is buried in
the Knight - Glendale Cemetery of Lufkin.
Audre Lou Abney married Bud Lokey.
Jim, the great uncle of this writer, is remembered as giving me my first
Red Rider BB gun, a handsome piece of mechanism he generously took off the
display racks in his hardware store to give as a special gift one time around
1945.
Margaret (Maggie) Lavina Abney, the
eldest of the five children, was born February 23, 1878. She was the second wife of widower
Dr. James Herschell Chapman, who was 25 years her senior.
In 1878, Thomas Alva Edison patented
the phonograph, recording Mary Had A
Little Lamb on a cylinder wrapped in tin foil. He also formed the Edison Electric Light
Company in New York City. Senator Aaron
A. Sargent of California introduced a women’s suffrage amendment (permitting
women to vote) in the exact words by which it ultimately was adopted after
World War I. The amendment was submitted
every year until adopted.
CHAPMAN LINEAGE:
Dr. James Herschell Chapman had
ancestors documented back to the American Revolution. His grand father was William D. Chapman, who
is the great great grand father of this writer.
William D. Chapman was born 1760 either in Virginia or South Carolina
(conflicting reports are on record).
Benjamin Franklin invented the first bifocal lenses in 1760. Thomas Jefferson, destined to the Presidency
of the
William D. Chapman married Elizabeth
Cowan in Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina in 1785. She was born in South Carolina and died there
in 1846. William D. Chapman was paid as
a private and as a sergeant in Captain Uriah Goodwyn’s Company in the 3rd
Regiment of South Carolina Continental Troops, commanded by Col. William
Thompson. William D. Chapman’s death is
recorded in the Georgia Journal of
Millidgeville, Georgia, evidenced by a notice that in Jones County, Elizabeth
Chapman, Administristratix of the William Chapman Estate, would be selling a
residence on September 3, 1814. His
actual date of death is not known, but must have been between his ability to
father William Hilliard Judson Chapman, born April 17, 1808, and some
reasonable time prior to the 1814 newspaper notice of Elizabeth being his
estate’s Administristratix. The children
of William D. Chapman and Elizabeth Cowan Chapman were:
1. Robert M. Chapman, born 1790 in
Georgia, married October 29, 1834 in Jones County, Georgia to Carolina
Glover. Last Census located him in 1840
in that county, even through the 1830 Census showed him in Butts County.
2. Elizabeth Chapman, born 1793 in
Georgia, married in Georgia a Mr. Daniels of Muscogee County, Georgia.
3. Harriett Chapman, born 1796 in Georgia,
married the Rev. Mr. Jackson.
4. Mary Chapman, born 1797 in Georgia,
married Henry Cunyus, a farmer, who had been born in Houston County,
Georgia.
5. Salina Chapman, born 1802 in Georgia,
married a Mr. Allen in Muscogee County, Georgia.
6. A daughter was born in 1805, who apparently died in childbirth.
7. William Hilliard Judson Chapman was the
father of our Dr. James Herschell Chapman.
William Hilliard Judson Chapman was
born April 17, 1808, the year that Congress prohibited the further importation
of African slaves. James Madison was
elected President, and Napoleon was consolidating his dominance in Europe. Beethoven composed his famous Fifth Symphony (No. 5 in C Minor) and Pastoral Symphony (No. 6 in F Minor). The earliest periodical in the legal
profession, the American Law Journal
was founded by John Elkin Hall in Baltimore, Maryland. It published until 1917. The first Bible Society was established in
Philadelphia, its first president being the Rev. Mr. William White. That year was the first recorded duel between
two U.S. Congressmen, George W. Campbell (Tennessee) and Barent Gardenier (New
York). Gardenier was seriously wounded,
but he recovered.
William Hilliard Judson Chapman
married Temperance Honor Jordan in 1830.
Temperance was born in Georgia in 1812 and died in Randolph County,
Georgia in 1860. William married Rosa
Bell in 1860. Rosa was born in Cuthbert,
Georgia in 1802. William died September
10, 1884 in Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia. William was recorded in the census of 1850 a
farmer in Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia.
The 1860 Census found him in that same location as a mechanic. The 1880 Census found him still in Randolph
Country and married to Rosa. Cuthbert is
about 60 miles south of Columbus, Georgia in the southwest corner of the state.
William Hilliard Judson Chapman and
Temperance Honor Jordan gave birth to 14 children half of whom died in
infancy. The seven who survived were:
1. Mary Ann Chapman, born in Georgia in
1834. She married September 18, 1854 (?)
in Randolph County, Georgia, a Mr. Andrew J. Morris.
2. Temperance Chapman was born in 1834 in
Georgia. Apparently she never married,
and the 1900 Census of Miller County, Georgia found her in the home of her
sister, Sarah Catherine (Kitty) Chapman and her brother-in-law, Council Allen
Sheffield.
3. William Paine
Chapman, born 1838.
He became a physician, and was known as Dr. Will Chapman as he lived and
served his patients in Angelina County, Texas.
He married Dora C. Chapman (born in Georgia, 1847). Dr. Will Chapman was listed in the 1880
Census of Tyler County, Texas.
4. Sarah Catherine (Kitty) Chapman, born
1847. She Married Allen Sheffield,
believed to be an attorney.
5. Robert Duncan Chapman, born December 8,
1839, Houston County, Georgia, was destined later to appear with his brother,
James Herschell Chapman, in Angelina County, Texas.
6. Elizabeth
Chapman, born 1850.
7. James Herschell Chapman, born in 1854,
Randolph Country, Georgia. He is
the grand father of this writer. The
Republican Party was formed this year in Jackson, Michigan, primarily to oppose
slavery. The first U. S. Oil corporation
was formed, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company.
David Livingstone was in his second year crossing the African continent
of a 4-year trek. The U.S. signed the
Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan, declaring peace, friendship and commerce. And Charles Lewis Tiffany, jeweler,
established Tiffany and Company in New York City.
Children
issued by William Hilliard Judson Chapman and Rosa Bell Chapman were:
1. John Chapman,
born in
2. Anna Chapman,
born in
3. Judson C. Chapman was born in
1870. He reportedly gave issue to a
daughter, Lorena Chapman, who married a Mr. Young.
The first wife of Dr. James
Herschell Chapman was Minola Manning Chapman, born September 5, 1862, and
died June 5, 1896, being buried in Homer Cemetery, just south of the Homer
Community in Angelina County. Homer was
originally named Angelina, and was begun before the 1850's. Dr. Chapman is listed as one of the early
five doctors practicing in Homer when it was still the County Seat. Dr. J. H. Chapman is listed as one of three
investors May 12, 1882, to start the newspaper, The Banner, which was the second publication in Homer. He was an advertiser in the issue of
March 2, 1883. His third wife,
Josephine T. Chapman, lived 1868 to 1959, and she is buried along side him in
the Knight - Glendale Cemetery of Lufkin.
Dr. James Herschell Chapman and
Minola Manning bore three children: Jamie William, born July 25, 1880, in
Texas, died June, 1978, Plainview, Texas; Bertie (or Berdie), born 1882; and
Harmon, born in 1884. Dr. Chapman
apparently bore no children with his third wife, Josephine T. Chapman. He was age 55 when Mattie, his second wife,
died in 1909, so not fathering more children is understandable.
The second wife of Dr. James
Herschell Chapman was Margaret (Maggie) Lavina Abney Chapman is the grandmother
of this writer. As noted earlier he had
two of his brothers, Dr. William Paine (Will) Chapman and Captain Robert (Bob)
D. Chapman, who also migrated from Georgia, ultimately to Angelina County. It is not known if they came together, but
they were all present by the turn of the century in Angelina County. Dr. Will Chapman, as noted earlier, did
appear in the Tyler County, Texas 1880 Census.
Both doctors practiced medicine in Angelina County for most of their
careers. This writer's mother believed
her father, James Herschell Chapman, came to Texas at age 16, which would have
been 1869.
There is family "folk
lore" to the effect that James Herschell Chapman owned East Texas land for
a while, selling it at agricultural or woodland rates. Some years later, on January 10, 1901, the
first great Texas oil well discovery, Spindle Top, was situated on that same
land, just south of Beaumont, Texas, so the story goes. It would be interesting to determine through
land deeds if that is true, or if it merely be typical genealogical
evangelastic reporting?
Robert Duncan Chapman, brother of
James Herschell Chapman, was born in Georgia, and was living in Georgia when
the Civil War erupted in 1861. We do
have information that his Confederate Army experience was serving as a Captain
of Company E, 55th Georgia Volunteers.
After the war, he ran a store in Georgia. He later came to Tyler County in East Texas,
and opened a store in 1872. When the
Texas and New Orleans Railroad was built north from Beaumont, and the southeast
Angelina County community, Huntington, was on the line, Robert established
himself in Huntington. He was
Huntington's first Postmaster, taking the job in July 23, 1900 as it
initially opened. Robert is regarded by
some as "the father of Huntington."
He was the first to build a store in Huntington; a mammoth general
store.
On June 18, 1900, E. A. Blount
of Nacognoches and W. J. Townsend, Sr. of Lufkin, established the
town site of Huntington on that railroad line by filing with the Angelina
County Court a plot plan showing the location of its lots and blocks. On Saturday, June 22, they conducted a
public auction of these town lots. Among
the successful bidders were Capt. Robert D. Chapman and Dr. James Herschell
Chapman.
Robert's store was described in the Lufkin Weekly Tribune in 1902 as having
an "immense stock of everything you can think of, from a handle to a full
stock of goods of any description. He is
also in connection with his son, at the head of the Huntington Piling and Tie
Company. In connection with his
mercantile business, he also has an undertaking establishment."
Robert Duncan Chapman married
Eugenia Alice McNeil November 21, 1867 in Cuthbert, Randolph County,
Georgia. Eugenia was born August 10,
1845 in Harris County, Georgia, the daughter of William W. McNeil and Martha
Goodson. Eugenia died June 22, 1906 in
Houston, Texas (coincidentally “Harris” County as well) and is buried in
Nacognoches, Texas. She died while a
resident at Boyd’s Sanitarium in Houston.
Robert Duncan Chapman was shown in
the census of 1840 as a one year old in the home of his parents in Houston
County, Georgia. In 1850 the census
found him in Randolph County, Georgia.
The 1860 Census of Randolph County, Georgia listed him as a clerk and
living in the home of his parents. The
1870 census found him in Cotton Hill, Clay County, Georgia as a dry goods
merchant, age 30, with his wife, Eugenia, age 22, married with no children. The 1880 census found him in Jefferson
County, Texas, married with three children.
The 1910 Census found him in Dallas, Texas as the head of household with
his daughter, Martha, and two grandchildren, Robert Leon Sonfield and George
McNeill Sonfield.
Robert Duncan Chapman published A Georgia Solder in the Civil War in
1929 when he was 91 years old and living in Houston, Texas. In it, he states that he left Cuthbert,
Georgia in 1871 for Texas, with his wife and son. They traveled across Georgia, Alabama and
Louisiana to Morgans Point, Louisiana, where they took the Whitney Steamer, a
sea-going vessel, to Galveston. From
there, they took the Stonewall River Steamer for Sabine Pass, and later went up
the Neches River to Woodville, Tyler County, Texas, where they settled and lived
some years, Robert laboring as a farmer, then as a lumberman. Then Robert
became a traveling salesman for a Galveston firm, the Wallis Landes
Company. He served them about 18
years. During these traveling years, he
lived in Woodville, Mineola and Nacognoches, where his family was mostly raised. After leaving that work is when he spent time
described in Angelina County from 1900 to 1905.
His book goes on to say he moved to
Dallas in 1905 for several years, including being recorded in the 1910 census
there. For three of the years in Dallas,
he was in charge of the entrance gate to the Dallas State Fair. Then he returned to Nacognoches till
1912. It was then that he moved to
Houston, Texas. He claims that he was a
sitting bailiff for about 11 years for the Harris County Grand Juries at
Houston, Texas, which would have been from about age 80 to 91! Robert claims to have been a professing
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South for more than 80 years.
The children of Robert Duncan
Chapman and Eugenia Alice McNeill were:
1. William McNeill Chapman, born December
25, 1870 in Cuthbert, Georgia, and left Georgia in 1871 with his parents, bound
for Texas. He married Laura Blount
October 10, 1894. She was born December
16, 1877 in San Augustine, Texas; died July 29, 1896. They bore two daughters, who died in
infancy. William remarried, wife name
now unknown, and they gave issue to a daughter, Mattie Chapman. William was a Lieutenant in Company B, 2nd
Texas Regiment in the Spanish American War.
A war companion, George King, married William’s sister, Lollie Dee
Chapman.
2. Martha Carrie (Mattie) Chapman, born
January 18, 1874, Woodville, Tyler County, Texas, married Leon Sonfield in
Nacognoches, Texas on June 1, 1892. Leon
was born April 21, 1865 in Memphis, Tennessee, son of Henry Sonfield and Rose
or Rachel Kornic. Leon died December 15,
1934 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mattie
married a second time, which was to Charles Manning Desel, June 13, 1912, in
Dallas, Texas which means she must have divorced from Leon Sonfield at some
unknown date. Charles and Mattie resided
in Dallas at the 1929 publishing date of her father’s civil war soldier book at
815 Wenetka Street, just a few blocks from where this writer lives today. There are no Desel’s listed in the 1996
Dallas Phone Book.
3. Lollie Dee Chapman was born April 7,
1879 in Woodville, Tyler County, Texas.
She married George Smith King of Nacogdoches. He was born in 1876 in Rusk County, Texas.
They moved to Houston, where he was a prominent lawyer.
Lollie
Dee encouraged her father to write a book about his Civil War experiences. Such book was published, and a copy was
possessed by my Mother, Martha Dixon Sharpe, but, alas, she lost it. However, in 1996, this writer’s good fortune
was smiled upon by Robert L. Sonfield, Jr., Executive Director of the Chapman
Family Association, when he provided me with a republished copy. Such is good providence! George Smith King had been a fellow soldier in
the Spanish American War with Lollie’s brother, William, and it is presumed that
William brought George into Lollie’s acquaintance. George earned his law degree
at the University of Texas. He served as
District Attorney in Nacognoches County until he moved to Houston in 1905. George died August 27, 1965 in Houston,
Texas. Lollie died May 17, 1955 in
Houston, Texas. Their children were
Carrie Eugenia (Geane) King, born February 21, 1903; and Lollie Dee King, born
September 21, 1908.
William Paine Chapman, another
Texas-bound brother of James Herschell Chapman, was born in 1838, Georgia. This was the year Samuel Morse introduced his
famous Morse Code.
Charles A. Spencer, a New York scientist, made America’s first
microscope. The Trail of Tears was the
beginning of forced marches of Cherokee Indians for removal from Georgia to
Oklahoma, the U.S. Government enforcing the 1835 Treaty of New Schota. And the Boston schools were the first in the
nation to authorize music instruction in its curriculum, at the advocacy of
Lowell Mason, who was appointed superintendent of music, an unpaid
position.
William Paine Chapman married Dora
C. Chapman, who had been born in Georgia in 1847. The 1880 census placed them in Tyler County,
Texas, with his occupation as a physician.
Later, they moved to Angelina County, where most of his career was
pursued. He was known as Dr. Will
Chapman.
The children of William Paine
Chapman and Dora C. Chapman were William, born 1862; and Mary H. born 1868 in
both Georgia; Lee J., born 1871; Hattie, born 1874; and James Chapman, born
1878 all three born in Texas.
Margaret (Maggie) Lavina Abney
Chapman, the grandmother of this writer and her husband, Dr. James Herschell
Chapman, bore two children. Martha Dixon Chapman, born
Martha is the mother of this
writer. My middle name, Albert, is
immediately from my Uncle Herschell Albert Chapman, but it also goes back to my
great grand father, William Albert Abney, Sr.
Herschell Chapman was married to Gertrude L. (maiden or previous name
not known), a
Dr. James Herschell Chapman was
listed as a charter member in 1906 for the Angelina County Medical
Society.
Maggie died
Martha Jane Dixon Abney was widowed
in 1913, and Dr. James Herschell Abney soon moved out from the house. He had been much older than his wife, Maggie,
actually being only one year younger than his mother-in-law, Martha Jane Dixon
Abney. Family oral tradition reported
that he felt it more appropriate to move out, as it did not reflect the proper
appearances for an unmarried man and woman to be domiciled together. She continued to raise his children in her
home, Herschell and Martha. After he
married the third and last time, to a woman named Josephine, his contacts with
the Abney family became somewhat detached, or, at least, a continuing
relationship has not been identified by this writer. James is buried beside her. She is identified as Josephine T. Chapman,
born 1868, died 1959.
OTHER
CHAPMAN’s
Jiles R. Chapman is identified at a
grave site in the Kelty's Cemetery in
Angelina County
Marriage records carries the entry of a Mr. J.
M. Chapman marrying Sarah Ann Houston on
CONTINUING
WITH THE CHAPMAN’s MAIN LINE
Martha Dixon Chapman was born
Martha had a high school teacher of
science named Mr. Blevins. It is of
interest to know that he also taught her son, this writer, in
Martha attended the
Dwight Alfred Sharpe, of
Dwight Alfred Sharpe’s father, Harry
Seth Sharpe, had migrated to
Dwight was President of his High
School graduating Class, Business Manager of the School Annual, Salutatorian of
his class, Vice President of the Literary Society, and lettered two years on
the track team. He attended for one year
the University of Kentucky (which had been his mother’s family’s “homeland”),
then graduated from the University of Texas in 1925 and from Austin Theological
Presbyterian Seminary in 1926, and spent his career serving as pastor of
churches in this order: Laredo (1926), Little Rock (Arkansas - 1929), Ballinger
(1935), Houston (1941), Sweetwater (1951), Dallas (1954), San Antonio (1958),
Ruidoso (New Mexico-1963), and finally at Houston (1965) again. In several of these cities, he was a member of Rotary
International.
Martha Dixon Chapman Sharpe and
Dwight Alfred Sharpe bore three children:
Martha, Elizabeth and D. A.
The eldest is Martha de Noailles
Sharpe, born September 7, 1927, in
Martha Lynne (goes by Lynne) , who was born
Nancy Lea, who was born
Both Nancy and Lynne are graduates
of the
The second child of Martha and
Dwight Sharpe was Elizabeth Ann Sharpe, born
Mark Andrew
Jumper, born
Peter Sharpe Jumper (born
Katherine (Kathy) Elizabeth Jumper,
born
Carol Anne Jumper, born
The third child of Martha and Dwight
Sharpe was this writer, Dwight Albert Sharpe, born
Suzanne, born
Dwight Albert Sharpe (D. A.)
and Suzanne Margaret Boggess met in New Orleans on June 17, 1962, and married
September 30, 1962 at the Canal Street Presbyterian Church.. He worked in
The three children of D. A. and
Suzanne B. Sharpe are Taylor Marcus Sharpe, born
Dwight Alfred and Martha Dixon
Chapman Sharpe retired to
Martha died
A
MATTER OF SATISFACTION:
The matter of self satisfaction for
Pastor Dwight Sharpe was that all of his three children became Christians, they
all married Christians, he was privileged to baptize all but one of his nine
grand children (Nancy Lea Ehlers Reeves), and all of those which had reached an
age of accountability by the time of his death had made Christian commitments,
including those married by that time, doing so with spouses who were
Christians. He lived to see his first
great grand child, Matthew Scott Reeves, son of Nancy Lea Ehlers Reeves and
Kevin Grady Reeves. This writer cannot
help but see God's hand on this family through many, many generations of
commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessings that brings from generation
to generation.
AMEN
D. A. Sharpe
Dwight
Albert Sharpe
dasharpe@aol.com E-Mail Address
SOURCES of information for this paper:
Personal
interview with Paul S. Abney,
Personal
interview in
Personal
interview in
Personal
interview in
Handwritten
notes of Martha Dixon Chapman Sharpe describing her family, mother of this
writer.
Personal interviews with Martha de Noailles Sharpe Ehlers, sister
of this writer.
Land of the Little Angel, A
History of Angelina Country,
History and Descriptions of
Angelina County, Texas,
compiled & published by R. W. Haltom, Editor of The Leader,
Cemetery Records, Angelina
County, Texas, Vol I
& Vol II, 1969-1981, Lufkin Genealogical and Historical Society, 107 E.
Lufkin Ave., 75901.
Angelina
County, Texas Marriage Records, 1846-1897,
compiled by Helen Swenson, 1981.
Abney, compilation of John Hensell,
Line of descent of a branch of
the Abney family from the founding of the ancestral home at Wyvelslie, in
Derbyshire, England in 1300 to the birth of Hamp Parton Abney, III at Dallas,
Texas, U.S.A., February 30, 1930
by Hamp Parton Abney, Christmas, 1930.
This is a private publication, a copy of which this writer received from
Mr. Fred S. Abney.
An Abridged Autobiography of
Some of the Many Incidents and Experiences of James A. Abney, M.D., Confederate
Veteran, Brownwood,
Texas, June, 1928.
A
A
Church History bulletin for the
A
souvenir program of the "
Dr.
Jim, an undated biographical manuscript of Dr. James Addison Abney, written
by his son, DeWitt F. Abney, such copy received by this writer from
Mr. Fred S. Abney, of Dallas, Texas.
Old Glory, the 1919 High School Annual of
A Georgia Soldier in the Civil War,
Robert Duncan Chapman, Houston, Texas, 1929, reprinted by Charles P. Young
Company, Houston, Texas, 1994, for distribution by Robert L. Sonfield, Jr, 770
South Post Oak Lane, #435, Houston, Texas 77056-1913.
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document contains about 52,400 characters or about 10,300 words