Sarah Eleanor Grant

Born on 11 Mar 1876 in Cheverie, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Sarah was the second child of Peter Grant and Precilla Glenn.  Before she was a year old her father died and Precilla built a small home next to the homestead in Pictou, NS where Sadie lived for the next eleven years.  This house was just a few hundred feet from the Minas Basin of which Longfellow wrote:  In the Acadian Land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas, Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand Pre lay in the fruitful valley.

When Precilla was six her Uncle Edward introduced her mother to Gilbert Gourley, and this eventually led to her remarriage. Sarah was not happy with the marriage.  When she was twelve she left NS to live with her Aunt and Uncle at 136 DeHart Place in Elizabeth, NJ.   There she attended Cherry Street School and Battin High.  After attending the NJ Teacher Training School she spent two years as teacher-principal at Salem School. In order to be qualified for Principal Sarah took extension courses from Rutgers University.  After two years at Salem School, Sarah moved back to Elizabeth to be near her ailing Aunt and taught seventh grade at Cherry Street School. 

In 1901 Sarah experienced love at first sight when she met Will Chapman on a trip to Glen Island.  They spent the summer going to So concerts, the beach and the theater. Sarah broke off the romance when her Aunt showed displeasure with the intensity of the relationship, but after some time apart they met again and when her Aunt relented they planned their wedding for 29 June 1904.  Although her Aunt passed away on the twentieth it was her wish that the wedding go on. This is a general synopsis of Sadie’s life, she has written her own story.(see appendix) Sarah had two poems written for her over the course of her life.  The first was written when she left Salem School and this second was written by Frances Edgar and John Booth when she retired from the Board of Education.

In eighteen Hundred and Seventy Six
Into this world there came
A lovely little baby
S. Eleanor Grant by name.

She left the land of her birth
NS by name
And came to Elizabeth , NJ
to seek out her fame.

She went to State Normal School
A teacher to become
She succeeded in her aim
She helped even those who were dumb

She intended to teach forever

Continuing to live with her Aunt
But along came a dashing young fellow
Changed her name to Chapman from Grant

He earned his living in insurance
That was his forte, you see
Their “love nest” they built in NY
City slickers they thought they would be.

When a boy and a girl came to bless them
A perfect family
Off to the wilds of the suburbs
Came the Chapman family

They came to Peapack-Gladstone
Over thirty years ago
Where S. Eleanor made a name for herself
In civic affairs you know.

Sarah and Greg 1950

On each committee she has served
She worked with all her might
To the library and the VNA
She’s given all her fight

On the school board she has always stood
For fairness for all concerned
From student, teacher, and principal
The respedt of all she’s earned

So at this dinner party
This group of people came
To thank S. ELEANOR CHAPMAN
For all the things she’s done

P.S. the “S” in the name of this lady?
Believe it or not stands for “Sadie”

        Our best regards
                       Frances and John

Sarah died on 17 Oct 1959 at the age of 83 in Morris Plains, Morris County, NJ and  was buried in the Chapman Plot in Sylvan Lawn Cemetery, Arlington, Hudson County, NJ. 

Sarah Eleanor Grant and William Osborn Chapman were married on 29 Jun 1904 in Manhattan, NY County, NY.  

William Osborn Chapman, Jr.

William Osborn Chapman was born on 14 Jun 1874 in Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey. The youngest of William and Harriet's six children, as a child Will was always splitting his britches.  When this would happen he would come in and bend over a small stool so his mother could sew his pants.  Once he did it while his mother was entertaining guests.  Needless to say, the process was changed.  Will belonged to a baseball team in Jersey City which was described as "little potatoes and hard to beat", there was many a tough fight with the team from Hoboken.

As a young man his family and friends would put on musicals.  These were elaborate entertainments right down to the printed programs.  As he got older he used to play for dancing.

William Osborn Chapman and Sarah Eleanor Grant  were married on 29 Jun 1904 in Manhattan, New York. William and Sarah met while on a boat to Glen Island.  A romance soon developed, however, Sarah's aunt was jealous and put an end to the relationship.  Will took a tirp to Europe about this time.  On his return he acquired a former employers Insurance Brokerage business, the Hardenbergh office in New York.  During his free time he would go riding on his horse Don Pedro.  One afternoon he galloped home to Arlington and rushed onto his mother saying "I've seen her, I've seen her."  Sarah saw William as well and arranged to meet him at the Newark Publick Library.  They decided at that time that they would marry.  Sarah's aunt relented and gave her blessing.

Don Pedro was a beautiful, but fractious, animal.  One afternoon while riding with Harry DuBois he took fright and ran, throwing Will. He was laid up for sixteen weeks with compound fractures of his leg.  He recovered in time for his wedding which was performed by Rev. David M. Burrell.

On the day of his wedding Will’s St. Bernard, Prince, had to be shot.  He had run over some glass while chasing a chicken and developed lockjaw.  In their first few years of marriage Will and Sarah fixed up a large house in Rutherford NJ.  They opened Audobon House as a first class boarding house.  They soon had a number of residents and good help including chef Fred and his wife as chambermaid. Their first child Grant was born in this house. Unfortunately, the business went into bankruptcy.

For a short time they moved in with Will's sister Millicent, and then moved to Tucker House in Bellvue where daughter Millicent was born.  In 1922 they bought a little house in Peapack.  Will was working as a special agent for the Alliance Insurance Company North America and in that capacity travelled from one end of New Jersey to the other

Will died on 16 Jan 1938 at the age of 63 in Peapack, Somerset, New Jersey. Will loved the house in Peapack, but it didn't improve his health which had been delicate for some time.   For five years he was a very sick man and on the sixteenth of January 1938 he passed on . He was buried on 18 Jan 1938 at Sylvan Lawn Cemetery in Arlington, Hudson, New Jersey.  Will was buried in the plot that he and his brothers bought when their sister Fanny's husband died in 1901.

Besides Millie, Will and Sadie had one son.....

a. Grant Chapman was born on 14 Dec 1908 in Arlington NJ.

Will and Grant

Grant Chapman and Rose Seymour Anderson (3 May 1909 Bernardsville NJ – 16 Jan 2002 Morristown, NJ.) were married on 18 Jul 1933 in Bernardsville, New Jersey. 

“Mom married our dad, Grant Chapman in a small garden wedding.  Our parents had three kids; Lois, Bob & myself.  After each was born, mom would go right back to work.  Mom was born here on the Bernardsville Mountain on the Millicent Fenwick Estate.  As a child, mom came to St. Bernard’s Church by horse and buggy.  They were hard times; mom lost her dad at the age of nine and went to live with her uncle John on Long Island.  At the age of 13 mom's mother remarried and mom moved back home to help.  During the summers as a teenager, mom babysat for a neighbor's family earning $2.50 a week.  Dropping out of high school, mom went to work full time for NJ Bell." She died on 16 Jan 2002 at the age of 92 in Morristown, Middlesex, New Jersey.

Rose and Children

"Rose A. Chapman died Wednesday at Morristown Memorial Hospital after a short illness.  She was 92.  Born in Bernards, she lived in Bedminster and Florham Park before moving to Gladstone six weeks ago....Mrs. Chapman was a telephone operator for New Jersey Bell in Peapack and Morristown for more than 41 years, retiring in 1974....She was a member of St. Bernard’s Episcopal Church, Bernardsville, and a member of the Telephone Pioneers of America...."   (Obituary , Courier News & Daily Record Morristown NJ 18 Jan 2002)

Grant died on 14 Sep 1968 at the age of 59 in Florham Park, Morris, New Jersey. He is buried at Sylvan Lawn Cemetery in Arlington, Hudson, New Jersey.