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Title
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Chapman, James
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extracted text
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J AMES
CHAPMAN
1867 - 1944
The following is a l etter rec e ived by the Historica l Society from Mrs. J ames Chapman in r esponse
to a re q ues t for additiona l biogr a phi ca l material on
the Life a nd Ministry of the Rev. J ames Chapman.
Although my husba nd a nd I served in the Detroit
Conference abo ut forty y ea rs, I ha ve been living in
the Cla rk Memori a l Ma nor f or about eight years . I
came h e re beca use I wa nt ed a n apar tment with priva te
ba th, kitchenette , etc. a nd
my
son-in-law, Edwin
c.
Quick i s a l ayma n in Centra l Methodist Church in
Muskegon a nd wa s on the boa rd here.
I a m now 92 years
old a nd do not see very good, had surgery t wo yea rs
a go whi ch took a lo t out of me.
Previ ou s to that I
wa s very a ct ive, s a ng in the choir, rea d to a group
a t a hymn sing every Friday ni ght , wa s secreta ry f or
the Garden Club, had cha r ge of the birthdays, a nd
tri ed to be helpful in ev ery way I c ould.
Rev. Willia m Pellowe wa s born in Engl a nd quite
nea r where my husba nd wa s born , St. Neot, Cornwall
we nt
Englad . We/over th e re in the s ummer of 19)1. The
Pellowe~
and us had a cottage on Lake Huron north of
Port Huron where we s pent s ummers toge t her.
About 70 years ago, I don't remember the year
whe n Mr. Chapman finished in Evanston, Ill.
He
jo i ned the Detroit Confere nce and we were sent to
Hermansville in the U.P.
We h ad never hea rd of the
pl a ce until our na mes were read out.
We went by train
and wh en the tra in pulled in and stopped, we met a
t a l l gentleman, Mr · • Cha rlie Case, who said, "Zacheous
make hast and come down".
Y0 u see my husband i'las shor'"'
a nd he was v ery ha ppy to think they ha d a minis ter
a nd his wi fe at l ast .
The church was buil t in a
lumbering town, no denomination, until i t was turned
over to the Methodist Church.
Mr. Case took us to the
Company Boa rding house for s upper a nd of course I
~sked
about the parsonage a nd he s a id, "We do hot
ha ve one''.
live''•
But I a sked, "Where d id your minis ters
a nd he s a id, "we ha d a studnet a nd a l so a re-
tired mini s ter and they lived in the ba sement of the
church 11 •
but
th~e
The next da y we looked for a house to rent
wa s none ava ila ble so we moved into the
basement. There was a sma ll cook stove, t a ble,cha irs,
and bed, b ook shelves.
The Company brought the out-
side bark from logs Rnd dumped them in the ba c k of
the church so it would not cost us much for fuel. We
were to g et $500 sal a ry for the y ear a nd t here were
three
c ·~ urches,
Powers, Spa ul ding a nd Hermansville.
We ma de t h e d ista nce on our bicyles e nd the roads
were not very good.
The congrega tion wa s made of Presbyt eria ns and
a l l others.
The superintendent of the Sunday School
wa s a very fine l a dy a nd a Ba ptist.
ha ppy there, but gld
But we were very
when we were sent to st. I gnace.
Here, Prentiss Brown was a little boy in our Sunday
School a nd they often t a l ked a bout a bridge across
the straits of Mackinaw.
My
h usband used to go
over to Ma ckinaw Island Sunday afternoons a nd preach.
Our next church wa s i n Owosso.
We ha d to buy
a horse and buggy as the a ppointment wa s Burton.
lf~rtle
1966
Cha pma n
See the othe r biogr aphica l series.
.
._.,(\j'+'f
Jamfs Chapman
By S idney D. Eva
ll\IES CHAPMAN'S life was marked
by three oustanding characteristics :
· His warm, gen ial nature, his ability to
sing and his evangelical preaching. Let
us take them in their reverse order:
His preaching was Christ-centered, as
a ll preaching should be. No one ever
heard him preach when he did not exalt
the living Christ. H is bacl<g round is in
part responsible for his sturdy evangelical note. His Cornish home, with its
quaint little Methodist chapel, provided
the spi ritual pattern of his fa ith and
practice.
J a mes Chapman was born on March 26,
1867, in the village of St. Neot in Cornwall, England. He was one of the many
men to receive the baptism of Wesleyan
fervor and fait h in a Cornish village,
still redolent with the Wesleys' personal
touch, to fi nd a place in Michigan Methodism, and especially in the ministry of
the Detroit Conference.
J ames Chapman was a true spiritual
descendant of J ohn Wes ley, and, without doubt a n indirect product of John
Wesley's preaching. I n his Journal, Mr.
Wesley recorded of Thursday, December
20, 1788,-"We came to the vi llage of St.
Neot where a large congregation greeted
us. The people seemed ripe for the
promises; so I preached 6n our Lord's
words to the leper: 'I w ill; be thou
clean'." The m essage and influence of
that and other visits of John Wesley to
the village of St. Neot could not fail to
produce results in rapturous conversion
of many people a nd among them without
doubt the forebears of our brother, and
so established a r elig ious life in the community which has never lost its power.
In the second place, the glow of
Methodist music burned brightly in the
soul of James Chapman. Not only was
he a true Disciple of J ohn Wesley, but
he was equally a son of Charles Wesley.
The Bible and the Methodist Hymnal
were his cons tant guide and inspiration.
He sang with a true musical voice and
an equally true Methodist intonation.
He loved t h'e great hymn s of the church
and lt new how to sing t hem. It can be
said that he sang his way while at Garrett where h e received his t heological
tr~ining. He will always be remembered
as one who served many years as a member of the Det1·oit Conference Male
Quartette. Not long ago he sang in a
ministerial quartette in Florida. James
Chapman's life was richly attuned to the
two foundationa l and traditional practices of Methodism the evangelistic note
and the singing faith.
In the third instance, all who knew
our brother will best remember him for
his genial nature. It was not a religious
suavity, but the g low of an inner radiance. He was good natured because he
was God-natured. His fait h knew no
doubt nor his heart fear. If h e were with
us today, he would call upon us to believe
in God happily, n1lt solemnly.
J
James Chapman cam e into t he Detroit
Confer ence on trial in 1895, the Conference being at Ann Arbor. Hermansville, on the Marquette District, was h is
first charge. Eleven years later I fol- '
lowed him and found that all appointees
to the Charge were judged by the standard set by James Chapman. He subsequently served at St. Ignace, Owosso
(Asbury), Saginaw (Ames), North
Branch, Detroit (Eas t Gmnd Boulevard),
Bay City (Mad ison Avenue), Bad Axe,
Detroit (Woodmere, Campbell Avenue)
and Clawson. He took the retired relation in 1935.
t:"w'
be.Jiel
v· - • .
•
;)
,.-/ rMvRTLE C. CHAPMAN, 91, widow of
Rev. James Chapman of the Detro it Conference, died at M. J. Clark Memorial
Home in Grand Rapids, May 6. She was
born December 9, 1874, in Evart, the
daughter of Oscar H. a nd Mary Gibson
Carus and on June 20, 1893, married Mr.
Chapman at Ironwood. For over 40
yea rs the Chapmans served parishes in
the De troit Conference including St.
Ignace, Owosso, Saginaw, Bay City and
Detroit. During these years Mrs. Chapman was active in missionar y work, the
former Epworth League, choir work and
children's Sunday school activities. Following retirement th e Chapmans had
lived in Detroit and at their cottage on
Lake Hu ron. After Mr. Chapman's
death in 1944, Mrs. Chapman spent winters in Lakeland and Daytona Beach,
Florida. She became a resident of M. J.
Clark Memorial Home Manor on June
14, 1957, and immediately became active
in the various programs. Funeral services were held at the Home Chapel, May
9, with Rev. Park H. Newcombe in
charge. Committal was in the cemetery
at Troy wit h Rev. J ames Deeg, officiating. Survivors include two daughters,
Mrs. Lois Quick of Muskegon and Mrs.
Ruth E . May of Caro; two sons, Lloyd
C. and James W . Chapman of Detroit;
and several grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
Preachers' Wives I
~ve
JriJ
To the Editor:
Known
lj:
I ~. 'It(.
Thoughts on the above came to m e
after reading the article relative to the
death of Rev. J ames Chapma n.
The
writer, Rev. Sidney D. E va, knew full
well th e historical background for such
a consecrated
life.
I knew James Chapman (Jimmey)
back in 1888 when he was a member of
Ironwood First Methodist Church and
a local preacher . He dug Iron Ore
six clays of the week (and h e was a
good miner) and on Sundays spen.t his
t ime preaching the gospel in the neighboring mining and lumbering camps,
then comin~:;· into existence, such places
as J esseville, Bessemer, Wakefield, Sidnaw, Ewen, Kenton, Hur ley, Gile, Saxon,
etc. He was among the most prominent
of the local preachers who gave their
time f r eely t o those folk until they wer e
able to support r egular minis ters of
their own. J ames Cha,pman's singing
a bili ty added much to his success in this
work.
does not kn ow some of these he could
ask some laymen. But I has ten to sa
t hat a vast . m:~jority of these ladies, a~~
I hav:e known many of th em whose presen ce m the parsonage a nd in .the Chu rch
has be~n a means of inspit·ation to all
I . h ave ,h ear_·d many say, she is out:
pteacher s Wife and is an angel not only
queen 1 of· · the
<Parsonage b u t · w l1ose
.
queen y spn·Jt radiates ·:in the Church
~n.d f~rtuna~e is the preacher who is
temfotced Wi th such a n oble soul. Such
a worthy l~d~ was Mrs. Chapman and
muc~ credit I S due her for her bushands success.- William 0
T
.
Ironwood.
·
rez~se,
But a deci&ion and determination to
enter the regular minis try was largel y
because of al!other power, vital force,
not mentioned in the former article,
which deserves much credit . When
Jimmey and Myrtle (Miss Myrtle
Carus), became acquainted she was a
good-looking, sweet-temper ed Chl·istian
g irl quite popular in all the activities
of Ironwood First, Epworth L eague,
prayer me:.ting, class meet!ng, Sunday
school, etc. This acquaintance quickly
developed into a real love affair. At
tlJiS time th ey no doubt could h ave been
married and settled down to a nice
h ome life a nd been very useful in th e
service of the church a nd the commun- ·
ity; but they chose to postpone this
pl ea s ure for several year s until .Tnno - went to sch ool and college to complete
a course of study that eventually qualified him to be ordained into the Methodist Church. Through all the years .of
s r vice that same vital force of love
and devotion as queen of the parsonage
and mother of a family has 1been an ins piration not only to him bu t to the people whom he served w ith her hel p for
hi s people were her people a nd his God
was her God.
Now to enlarge a ..little on the title
of t hi s article. During by 65 year s of
connection with the Metl1odist Church
and of ove1· 50 years as a licensed local
p reach er , I have known many preachers' '
wives, a few who thought it not only
theil· business to manage t he parsonage
but who thought they b ad a perfect
right and were well qualifi ed to manage
the church. Some good m en h ave been
handicapped and much of their w_ork
neutralized ."because" !
I h ope the time will come when not
only t he preacher but his wife will stand
before the powers that b e at ,t he OrdiIIation service and promi se t hat there
are some things s he will do and sOme
things she will not do. If the Bishop
MRS. JAM~S CHAPMAN, who spent
the s~mmet· m Detroit, has returned to
het· wmteJ· home at 702 West Hancock
L~keland, Florida. Mrs. Chapman is th~
WtdO\~ of Rev. James ChaP.'}l~n of the
Detroit Conference. if f'l f
t'\·•./1-
J!'8
Rev. J ames Cha pman had a b r othe r, Rev. Jos eph Chapman
who a lso se rved not ably in our Co nfe r enc e .
J a me s and Myrtl e Ca rus ha d 4 c hildr en: Lloy d, James,
Ruth and Lois.
Chapman, James