Little is known of Jacob Chapman. A check of the IGI, the Ancestral File, and RootsWeb finds numerous men of that name and the approximate time period, but fails to identify our man to the exclusion of all others.We would guess
that he was born about 1800, probably in the North-eastern United States
but neither the time, place, nor parentage is certain.
He was an early convert to the Church for he participated
in Zion' Camp in 1834. We assume he served faithfully, for he was called to the First Quorum
of Seventy and ordained a Seventy when that quorum was organized in 1835.
He received an Elder's License in 1836 which probably
indicated that he was called to a mission where that certificate gave him
legal authority to preach.
Less well known than Zion's Camp was the Kirtland
Camp of 1838 in which the faithful of Kirtland and more especially the
faithful Seventy migrated en masse from Kirtland, Ohio to Missouri.
Jacob Chapman participated in that march. The thought was that a traveling
body could care for one another; further that if the Seventy settled in
one locale, the quorum could be more efficiently managed.
Unfortunately, the Kirtland Camp walked squarely
into the midst of the Missouri Persecutions and, like so many others, Jacob
Chapman was expelled from the state. Backman and Cook state that Chapman
returned to Kirtland instead of joining the body of the saints in Illinois.
Whether he remained active in the Church and moved west with the saints
is not known. I find no indication that he did or did not. Likewise, details of his
later life and his death are not known. Family details are also missing.
Can anyone help Grampa Bill with this?
