Written by Sandy Kinter, from Waterford Genealogical Society E-Newsletter Volume 14 Number 9
Section 20 of Waterford Township is mostly residential. The northern edge of the section is on Highland Road, aka M-59, and is now commercial property. The western side of the section is on Hospital Road, to the east is Airport Road. The southern boundary is Elizabeth Lake Road. Pontiac Lake Road takes the traveler through the middle of the section going east and west. Waterford Center Cemetery, where many of Section 20’s residents are resting, is located on Pontiac Lake Road just a little to the west of the road’s intersection with Airport Road.
At this same intersection, the 1872 plat map of Waterford Township shows School No. 4. The school property is still on the northwest corner of Pontiac Lake and Airport Roads. The building is from the 20th century and no longer a school. It is now owned by a church.
Joseph Warren Chapman
Catharine A. Crawford
The eighty acre farm of J.W. Chapman is located in the southeastern quarter of Section 20, and the northeastern quarter of Section 29. The property is cut in half by Elizabeth Lake Road, which is the southern boundary of Section 20. The 1872 plat map shows the Chapman residence on the north side of Elizabeth Lake Road, in Section 20, which is why the family is included in the Section 20 biographies. In the 1870 census, found on page 591, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan is Joe Chapman, age 47 and his wife Catharine, age 43, both born in New York, daughter Ella S., age 13, born in Michigan, and James Wolley, age 12, born in England, and works on the farm.
Joseph Warren Chapman was born in LeRoy, Genesee County, New York, on 8 June 1823. (1)(2) His parents were Amasa Dodge Chapman and Hannah Aitkin. (2)(3) There were only two sons born of this marriage, Joseph Warren and George Washington Chapman, both named after Revolutionary War generals. (3) Joseph married Catharine A. Crawford, 8 November 1846, in Oakland County, Michigan. (4) In the 1850 census the couple is found on page 164, White Lake Township, Oakland County. After the death of his wife in 1894, Joseph moved to Flint, Michigan were he is residing with his daughter and son-in-law, Hershel and Ella Parker, in the 1900 census. (5) According to the death certificate, Joseph died in Flint on 7 October 1903. (1) He is buried in the Waterford Center Cemetery, Waterford, Michigan. (6) The picture of the tombstone found on the website Find A Grave clearly shows the joint headstone of Joseph and Catharine. The headstone says that Joseph W. Chapman died 7 October 1904 and this year is repeated in the main body of Joseph’s Find A Grave entry. The death year of 1903 is confirmed by Genesee County death records, Volume 3, page 47. (7)
Catharine A. Crawford was the daughter of William and Mary Crawford, born 12 April 1827, in New York. (8) She died 30 September 1894, in Oakland County and is buried in the Waterford Center Cemetery. (6)(8) William Crawford, born in New Jersey, (11) acquired land in Pontiac Township, Oakland County, on 3 January 1831. (9) He died 12 September 1849, in Oakland County, and is buried in the Bigler Cemetery. (10) Mary Crawford, also buried in the Bigler Cemetery, died 1 October 1854. (10) Nothing further could be found about William and Mary Crawford.
The parents of Joseph W. Chapman were Amasa Dodge Chapman and his first wife, Hannah Aitken. (2)(3) Amasa was born 26 October 1796, in Colchester, New London County, Connecticut, the son of Ichabod Chapman and Olive Dodge. (3)(12) He and Hannah Aitken were married in 1822, in New York. (2)(3) Hannah died before 1830 when Amasa married his second wife, Clarissa Webster. (3) After Clarissa’s death Amasa married thirdly, Hannah Loretta Hunt, 2 June 1839. (3) Amasa moved to Michigan in 1839, settling in Pontiac Township. (2) After fifteen years in Michigan, Amasa moved to Kentucky for five years, then returned to Oakland County, where he purchased property in Section 33, Waterford Township. (2) The 1872 plat map of Waterford Township shows the farm of A. Chapman at the intersection of Cooley Lake Road and Cass Elizabeth Road, with the residence on the shores of Elizabeth Lake. Amasa died 1 December 1882, in Waterford Township. (12) He and his third wife, Hannah, are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery, Pontiac, Michigan. (13)
Sources
- Death Certificate, Joseph Warren Chapman; Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950;
Certificates, 1897-1920, Emmet-Huron, 1893-1923, Genesee County, Ancestry,
www.ancestry.com - Portrait and Biographical Album of Oakland County, Michigan, Chapman Bros.,
Chicago, 1891, pages 433-434, Hathitrust Digital Library, www.hathitrust.org - Ichabod Chapman of Colchester, Conn., and His Descendants, Eldon P. Gundry,
1962, pages 5-6, and 11, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - Michigan, County Marriages, 1820-1940; Oakland County, Marriage licenses,
Volume C, 1839-1849, page 415, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - 1900, page 308A, 1st Ward, Flint, Genesee County, Michigan, Ancestry,
www.ancestry.com - Waterford Center Cemetery, Waterford, Michigan, Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com
- Genesee County, Michigan, Death Record, Volume 3, page 47,
Film #1018930, GDS#7622244, Image 51, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950; Registers, 1867-1897, Ingham-Washtenaw,
1893-1899, Oakland County, page 19, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - William Crawford, Oakland County, Michigan, Certificate #3626, Bureau of Land
Management, General Land Office Records, www.glorecords.blm.gov - Bigler Cemetery, Oakland County, Michigan, Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com
- 1850 Mortality Schedule, page 885, Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan,
Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950; Registers, 1867-1897, Oakland-Delta,
1882-1887, Oakland County, page 332, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Oak Hill Cemetery, Pontiac, Michigan, Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com