VEVAY TOWNSHIP
VEVAY TOWNSHIP
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Chapin Family in early Vevay Township The Chapin family originated in Chicopee, Massachusetts, when Deacon Samuel Chapin, with his eight sons, settled there in the middle of the 17th century. Levi Chapin, the father of Deacon, lived an active life. He built the first cotton factory in Chicopee in 1813, and built the upper ten locks on the Blackstone Canal between Worchester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. In the fall of 1844, he settled on the farm in Vevay. Almon Morris Chapin, the eldest son of Levi, was born in Chicopee in 1810. He graduated from the Onondaga Seminary and Skanealeles Seminary and later studied medicine. In July, 1835, he married Jane Pease of Livonia, New York; in December 1835 he came to Michigan and settled on the farm in Vevay township. He sent his tools and goods by water to Detroit while his wife and four children, his brother Levi, Jr., and sister Charlotte (later Mrs. Carlos Rolfe) came in a covered wagon, which was equipped with both wheels and runners, as either might be needed for the trip. They came through Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Blissfield, Adrian and Jackson to the Rolfe settlement. They stayed with Ira Rolfe the first night, then moved to an empty log cabin. They had just settled in and built a fire when the top logs slid off and the roof fell in. The neighbors rallied and helped repair the house and had a new roof on in two days. After Charlotte’s husband died, she later became the wife of Henry Hawley. When the capitol was located in Lansing, Mr. Chapin transformed his house into a hotel, where he and his wife welcomed many a weary traveler who traveled the almost impassable road to Lansing. The Chapin farm became well-known throughout the county because of J. W. Chapin, the son of Almon Chapin, who developed the largest sugarbush in Michigan. It is said that the Indians made pilgrimages to this part of the county every spring to harvest the maple sap. Their crude methods resulted in syrup that was black and full of leaves and twigs. In 1914, Mr. Chapin was working with a hay fork in his barn which fell and struck him, and death followed instantly. After his death, Mrs. Chapin and son remained on the farm, and in 1918, the city of Lansing bought the woodlot, including the sugarbush, to supply its municipal wood yard, and the wonderful landmark went up in smoke. |
Copyright © 2000 Vevay Township
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