Lucius P. Chapin papers
DePauw University
DC 2027

Lucius P. Chapin Papers

Size: 0.40 linear feet

Restrictions: none

Accession: UM92-50

Provenance: Donor

Processed by: Joan Stevens, February 25, 1994

Biographical Sketch

Lucius P. Chapin was born in Maysville, Ky., March 4, 1832, and came to Putnam County with his parents at an early age. They located on a farm near Putnamville.

He entered Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in 1871, but did not graduate. He was mayor of Greencastle (1876-1880). After several years in Indianapolis, he returned to Greencastle and was in the retail grocery business at 24 E. Washington Street. He was then appointed postmaster of Greencastle (1898-1902). He practiced law in Greencastle for several years.

Lucius P. Chapin was mustered into service at the beginning of the Civil War and served three years as a member of Company M of the Fourth Indiana Cavalry. He was an active member of the Greencastle Post of Grand Army Republic. He served over fifty years as an elder of the Presbyterian church in Greenastle.

He was the husband of Alice R. Chapin [who probably preceded him in death, as she was not mentioned in the survivor list of his obituary], father of Lucius R., Mary Alice and Hannah Lee and possibly another son (mentioned in a 1907 letter written by Mrs. Lucius P. Chapin and referred to as "our angel boy in Forest Hill"). Other survivors were four sisters, Ruth E., Anna, Ella and Mary Chapin. A brother, John, probably preceded him in death.

Lucius P. Chapin's sister, Anna, ran a rooming house at 202 S. Indiana Street. Local residents sometimes "took meals" there including the Lucius P. Chapin family and their friends and neighbors, the J. O. Cammack family.

The 1895 Greencastle City Directory lists the Lucius P. Chapin family at 203 S. Vine Street, in 1901 they were listed at 308 S. Jackson Street and the Cammacks at 309 S. Jackson Street.

Collection Statement

The collection includes family correspondence 1874-1927 (with most of it dating from 1906-1909). This group mainly consists of letters to and from Lucius P. and Alice R. Chapin and their daughter, Hannah Lee. Also included are other family papers, business papers, Putnam County Historical Society clippings in a small book and a speech given at a Putnam County Historical Society meeting.

DC 2027

folder 1: Correspondence to 1889

folder 2: 1890-1904

folder 3: 1905

folder 4: 1906 Jan. 1 to June 5

folder 5: 1906 June 6 to Dec. 31

folder 6: 1907

folder 7: 1908-1919

folder 8: 1920-

folder 9: Other family papers

folder 10: Business Papers

folder 11: Putnam County Historical Society

Book with clippings and speech

[dpu.inv\Chapin, Lucius P.]