The Chapman Family

In the Spring of 1820, the future first converts of the Chapman family, 14-year old Welcome Chapman and 12-year old Susan Amelia Risley were still at home with their parents. 

Welcome’s family was then living in Delphi Falls, NY, about 20 miles southwest of where the Durfee family was then living, some 90 miles east of Palmyra. 

His parents, 36-year old Benjamin Chapman and Sibel Amidon Chapman, who had married when each was 18, were then the parents of at least three children, including Welcome, who were ages 6-20, with a few others having died. 

Susan’s parents, 40-year old Elisha Risley and 39-year old Amelia Milly Matson Risley, were fairly well established in Hamilton, Madison, NY, about 25 miles east of Chapmans, southeast of Durfees, with their ten children, ages 1 to 18, Susan being 12.