A Statue of Deacon Samuel Chapin

In 1881 a descendant, a congressman, commissioned master sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens to produce a work memorializing Deacon Samuel Chapin. The piece "...emphasizes the piety, and perhaps the rigidity, of the country's religious founders..." Its eight feet of intimidating pride and assurance of divine approbation is location in Merrick Park, Springfield, MA. Photo courtesy of  http://farm5.statisflickr.com

Hannah and Benajah Stockwells’ son Ebenezer (1778) married a much older widow, Abi Holbrook Lee (1764). Abi was the great-great granddaughter of another Puritan superstar, Deacon Samuel Chapin. Born in Devon, England, he became a selectman and a commissioner (magistrate) in Springfield, Massachusetts. He also was a mainstay of the local church. These colonists had not yet realized that religion and government, like oil and water, should not even attempt to mix.

Around 1800 Ebenezer Stockwell bought a house in Highgate, Vermont and moved his family into this recently established enclave of Loyalists and Lutheran German immigrants. He became the “principal agent, or foreman” for Ira, a brother of Ethan Allen.