Mary Elizabeth Chapman

1816 - 1893  (77 years)

• Name	Mary Elizabeth Chapman
  Birth	7 Oct 1816	Cayuga County, NY
  Gender	Female
  Death	17 Oct 1893	Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN
  Burial	La Porte County, IN
  	Burial: Sauktown Cemetery La Porte County, Indiana, USA Inscription on one side: DROLLINGER Gabriel Drollinger Died Dec. 16, 1887, Aged 77Y's, 5M, 7D. Mary E. Wife of G. Drollinger Died Oct. 7, 1893, Aged 77Y's Inscription on presumed opposite side: Children. Amanda Mar. 10, 1844. 10 Mo. Charles Sept. 6, 1849, 5 Y'rs, Clementine, July 15, 1852, 17 Y'rs, 5M, 20D. John M. June 28, 1865. 14 Y'rs, 6M, 22D. Martha M. Mar. 25, 1886, 49Y's, 10M, 18D.
  Person ID	I2923	Drollinger Genealogy
  Last Modified	15 Mar 2021

  
  

  Father	Samuel Chapman,   b. 29 Apr 1763, Pomfret, Windham, CT d. Abt 1825, Cayuga, NY (Age 61 years)
  Mother	Polly Searls   d. 17 May 1848, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN
  Family ID	F967	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Gabriel Drollinger,   b. 13 Jul 1810, Guilford, Orange, NC d. 18 Dec 1887, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN (Age 77 years)
  Marriage	27 Apr 1834	Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN   [1]
  Children	1. Clementine Drollinger,   b. 25 Jan 1835, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 15 Jul 1852, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN (Age 17 years)   2. Martha Matilda Drollinger,   b. 7 May 1836, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 25 May 1886, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN (Age 50 years)   3. Mary E. "Polly" Drollinger,   b. 24 Jun 1838, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 31 Dec 1930, La Porte County, IN (Age 92 years)   4. Josephine A. Drollinger,   b. 2 Feb 1840, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 30 Jun 1927, Ft. Scott, Bourbon, KS (Age 87 years)   5. Amanda Drollinger,   b. May 1843, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 10 Mar 1844, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN (Age ~ 0 years)   6. Charles Drollinger,   b. 1844, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 6 Sep 1849, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN (Age 5 years)   7. Joseph Chapman Drollinger,   b. 12 Aug 1846, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 25 Apr 1925, Wichita, Sedgwick, KS (Age 78 years)   8. Jared Franklin Drollinger,   b. 10 May 1848, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 23 Apr 1927, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN (Age 78 years)   9. John M. Drollinger,   b. 6 Dec 1850, La Porte County, IN d. 28 Jun 1865, La Porte County, IN (Age 14 years)   10. Dr. Erastus Manford Drollinger,   b. 6 Jun 1853, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 2 Oct 1913, South Bend, St. Joseph, IN (Age 60 years)   11. Noah Quinby Drollinger,   b. 16 Apr 1855, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 18 Jul 1934, St. Joseph County, IN (Age 79 years)   12. Dr. Schuyler Colfax Drollinger,   b. Oct 1856, La Porte County, IN d. 27 Jul 1927, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (Age ~ 70 years)   13. George Washington Drollinger,   b. 21 Dec 1858, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN d. 28 Jul 1943, Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN (Age 84 years)
  Family ID	F950	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	2 Feb 2020

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 7 Oct 1816 - Cayuga County, NY Marriage - 27 Apr 1834 - Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN Death - 17 Oct 1893 - Wills Twp, La Porte County, IN Burial - - La Porte County, IN  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Headstones

  Sauktown Cemetery

  
  

• Notes

  Mrs. Mary Drollinger, aged seventy-seven years, wife of Gabriel Drollinger, died 7 October 1893, at the home of her daughter Josephine Drollinger in LaPorte. Mary Elizabeth Chapman was born in Steuben county, N.Y., 8 October 1816. She, with her widowed mother and brothers, moved to Hancock county in April 1831, and was married to Gabriel Drollinger, 27 April 1834. The brave young couple soon determined to try their fortunes in the then wild west and so removed to LaPorte county in 1833. Here they lived and reared a family of thirteen children, five girls and eight boys, of whom two girls and six boys still survive. Will of Mary E. Drollinger names Jared and Noah Q. as executors, sons Joseph C., Erastus M. Shuyler C., George W., grandson Gabriel P. Tennis, daughters Polly Hostettler and Josephine A. Drollinger. Whether Mary had a controlling nature all her life or just wanted to exert her influence from the grave, she was very explicit in how her estate was to be distributed. In a will dated 27 March 1888 she mades the following provisions, (emphasis added): · Polly, $25 to be paid after 5 years without interest. · Josephine, $100 to be paid within 5 years without interest · Joseph, $5.00 to be paid 1 year after death with no interest. · Erastus, $400 to be paid within 5 years without interest. · Schuyler, $400 to be paid within 5 years without interest. · George, $400 to be paid within 5 years without interest. · Gabriel Tennis, $300 within 5 years without interest. · All the rest including real estate to Jared and Noah (Quinby) except for wearing apparel and "articles of Virtu" to Polly and Josephine. Two and a half years later Mary added a codicil that disinherited Erastus in favor his wife, her "beloved daughter-in-law, Mary Alice Drollinger." Jared may have wished his father had left a will, but his mother's will created more of a problem for those left to execute her wishes. What was Mary thinking? Perhaps it was not a matter of control, but a petty "get even" attitude that sometimes develops in the elderly. Of course, other scenarios are possible: Polly's husband was very successful, so Mary could have decided she didn't need much. Josephine was also well provided for. Was Joseph being punished for living so far away? Were Erastus and Schuyler maybe being rewarded for becoming doctors like her brother? Did Erastus somehow offend Mary-he was not the doctor who received payment for her final illness. Whatever the reasons, this document created a rift in the family that is alluded to in the final settlement. Jared and Noah Quinby Drollinger, executors, reported that they had promptly inventoried the personal property after their mother's demise 10 October 1893, and had sold it. They recapitulated the terms of the will and then told the court that other than the residuary devisees (that would be Jared and Quinby), the heirs "took steps with a view to the contest of the will, and very considerable was said that it continued in that situation for about two years, during which time, the undersigned made no report and took no steps to the settlement of said estate, having in view the policy of waiting until it was determined whether there would be a contest of the will. That while the undersigned did not feel that they were under moral or legal obligations to recognize the claims of the other heirs, still it was considered the better policy to avoid expensive litigation, if it were possible to do so and conferences were had with a view to the settlement and adjustment of the trouble between the heirs growing out of what some claimed was the unnaturalness and inequalities of the will." The solution to this dilemma gave each heir $400, the highest individual amount Mary had designated, leaving Jared and Quinby with the remaining real estate, on which Gabriel and Mary lived all but the first few years of their married lives. The 1892 township map illustrates the relation of the lands of Drollingers, Hostetlers and other relatives to the cemetery. Joseph Hostetler is listed as the owner of the piece of land the cemetery occupies in 1892. A visit to the cemetery just prior to Memorial Day, 2002, came upon local residents preparing for the annual tradition of decorating the graves in the small but still active cemetery. A worker from a monument company was setting a new stone, a woman was wiping off tables in the little building that serves as a gathering place for mourners before and after a burial, and her husband was mowing the grass. Little has changed in the immediate cemetery surroundings since Mary and Gabriel were buried just two miles from their old home place. It is still quiet and bucolic with the roads running straight as a yardstick either north and south or east and west. Coming out of the cemetery lane turning right, the road runs due west directly to the LaPorte courthouse. Of course, as the miles are eaten up by the rental car, and the outskirts of town become visible, so does the large Wal-Mart and other intrusions of the 21st century. But out at the cemetery all is as it has been since Gabriel first crossed into the county around 1830. Kay Germain Ingalls

  
  

• Sources

  [S146] Obituary Notice.