Abner Chapman, First Schoolteacher & Storekeeper in Union County, Ohio, Early 19th Century Store Ledger & Related Documents 

Ledger with dates from 1803 to about 1852. The typical purchases and payments are recorded (whiskey, cloth, tobacco, more whiskey); also, some labor, such as a payment to Ephraim Higgins for one day's work on the highway.

Abner and Relief (Baldwin) Chapman were natives of Vermont. Abner was born about 1790, and he and his brother, David, came to Ohio on foot in 1810. They first stopped in Franklin County, then moved on to Union County the following year. Abner was a pioneer of Jerome Township. He taught school off and on for many years, sometimes in his home, later in a one-room schoolhouse. He also made his living surveying and keeping a hotel. He served as Justice of the Peace and as Captain in a local militia. He had six children survive to adulthood, one of whom was Harvey. The Civil War letters of Harvey Chapman are in Lot 145 of this auction.

Later in life Abner became a convert to the temperance movement, and destroyed all of his barrels of whiskey. He died in 1864 at the age of 74 years.

Abner also apparently used the ledger to keep his other important papers. A later owner of the book took these out and accumulated them in a folder. They are also the typical scraps torn from an unused part of some other document with a receipt or IOU scribbled on them.

Includes a copy of The History of Union County, Ohio. Chicago: W.H. Beers & Co., 1883. Copyright 1996 of the facsimile reprint by the Union County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Three volumes (Vol. 1, Vol. II, part 1, Vol. II, part 2). There is information on the Chapman family in several places, but largest block is in Vol. II, pt. 1, p. 244. 

Provenance: Descended Directly in the Chapman Family

Pages coming out of the ledger. Receipts as expected.