Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

VEVAY TOWNSHIP AND ITS HISTORY

755

THE CHIAPIN FAMILY, EDEN, VEVAY TOWNSHIP, MICH.
Compiled by F. L. A.
The Chapin family and its part in the history of the conuty is
one that is deserving' of more than passing notice, and that it had
its part in the earlier history of the United States is shown by the
following brief story:
Deacon Samuel Chapin and eight sons settled in Chicopee,
Mass., about the middle of the seventeenth century. Levi
Chapin, one of these sons, was born in Chicopee, April 3, 1787,
where he grew to manhood and became a prominent factor in the
growth of the business interests in his own and adjoining states.
He built the first cotton factory in Chicope)c, and conlstructed tlhe
upper ten locks on the 1Blackstone canal, between Worcester,
Mass. and Providence, R. I. In 818 lie went to Onondaga
county, N. Y., as contractor for publ})ic works in tlhat state and in
Canada. In the fall of 1814 he canme to Vevay Township in
Ingham county, snd settled on the farm since owned by W. H.
Horton, and ran a hotel on the Jackson-Lansing road. He died
January 10, 1867.
Almon Morris Chapin, eliest son of Levi, was born at Chicopee,
November 28, 1810. I-le graduated from the Oniondaga Academy
and the Skaneateles Seminary, and later studied medicine.
After clerking for a while in Rochester, N. Y., lie went into business at Lakeville, Livingston county. On July 8, 1835. he married Jane Pease, of Livonia, N. Y. In Decelmber, 184e, he came
to Michigan and settled on the farm in Vevay TownIship, which
the family still owns. HI-e sen:t his tools and goods b)y water to
Detroit, while lie and his wife and four small children, his brother
Levi, Jr., and sister Charlotte, later MNrs. Carlos Rolfe, drove
through being eighteen days on the journey. They came in a
large covered wagon equipped with both wheels and runners, as
the chances were that they would need one as much as the other
before the trip was ended.
They came through Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Blissfield,
Adrian and Jackson to the Rolfe settlement. They stayed with