Welcome Chapman

Welcome Chapman (July 24, 1805 – December 9, 1893) was an early leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints born in Readsboro, Vermont. Chapman was the leader of the Latter-day Saint settlers in Manti, Utah, from 1854 to 1862, and helped broker peace between the settlers and Chief Wakara's tribe. four miles down the river from fellow leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader Brigham Young. He apprenticed as a stonemason in his early teens, but because his parents deemed him "sickly," they found him a position as cook on a fishing boat. He worked both in the North Atlantic and on Lake Champlain. The time at sea reportedly improved his health. but more likely Jackson County and then Far West, Missouri. Amelia was six months' pregnant when a mob gave the Chapmans and their Latter-day Saint neighbors a few hours to clear out before their homes would be burned. They remained in the area long enough for Amelia to carry the baby, a son, to full term. He was born two weeks after the Hawn's Mill Massacre. where they built a home in Nauvoo along the banks of the Mississippi River and Chapman cut stone for the Nauvoo Temple.

Chapman was part of the Maid of Iowa expedition sent in support of Joseph Smith when an armed company of men from Missouri were sent to kidnap him.

Mobs drove them from Nauvoo in 1846, when they fled with most other Nauvoo residents across the river to Iowa, and then on to what later became known as Winter Quarters, an unsettled area along the Missouri River in present-day eastern Nebraska. There, Amelia gave birth to another daughter in October 1846. Two months earlier, Brigham Young divided the Winter Quarters settlement into two "grand divisions" presided over by himself and Heber C. Kimball, respectively. Each division had two subdivisions presided over by a foreman. Chapman was foreman of the fourth subdivision, with Hosea Stout serving as its clerk. In the summer of 1848, the Chapmans crossed the plains with their six surviving children to what later became Utah Territory. They arrived in November 1849 and endured a harsh winter with little shelter. Chapman was part of the first militia of Manti and used his stone cutting skills to help construct the first fort. He was also among the first group of selectmen. On July 8, 1854, the High Council installed Chapman as the colony leader, replacing Isaac Morley, who had been "called to Salt Lake." The next day, the settlers unanimously approved him as their leader. Later that month, on July 27, a stake was organized and Chapman was chosen as its president. That same day Walkara joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by baptism (or rebaptized) in Manti's City Creek, along with 120 other members of his tribe (103 males, 17 females). When the Chapmans first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Amelia turned most of the housework over to her 12- and 14-year-old daughters while she focused on weaving linsey-woolsey cloth, which the young community badly needed. Contemporary accounts consider Amelia an excellent cook and housekeeper and an authority on herbal medicine. She served as a practical doctor and nurse to "neighbors for many miles around" and as a midwife. She assisted in the births of some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. B.H. Roberts believed it was the peace that ensued that enabled Arapeen to accompany Brigham Young on an expedition to present-day Idaho, where Young made peace with the Bannocks.

In Manti, Chapman practiced plural marriage. He married Ann Mackey on October 5, 1855, and Catherine Stainer on March 5, 1856. He had a large family with each of these women, in addition to the family he had with Amelia. (He also possibly married two women who left him shortly thereafter.

After serving as the leader in Manti for eight years, Brigham Young called him to Salt Lake City to cut stone for the Salt Lake Temple, where Chapman often worked with a son at his side. At one point he worked alongside seven of them. He helped build the temple, "from the bottom to the top," through at least 1880, including during times the church could not pay. He earned supplemental income in Salt Lake City by cutting and hauling wood to Fort Douglas, where he sold it to the soldiers.

In either late November or early December 1893, at the age of 88, Chapman reportedly rode a horse bareback for three miles to build a chimney on the house of his third wife, Catherine. Chilled through after building the chimney and riding home again through the cold, he developed pneumonia. He died soon after in Fountain Green, Utah on December 9, 1893, and was buried in Manti.