In the early 1860s Stephen B. Chapman and his family lived on a farm near the town of Black Jack, south of Lawrence, Kansas.
After William C. Quantrill's Lawrence Massacre on August 21, 1863, the family in September moved west, since the guerrillas passed within sight of their farm.
[1] Very quickly the Chapman home started to serve the growing numbers of settlers as a fort during Indian disturbances.
The majority of the county's population lived in log cabins inside Fort Solomon from summer 1864 to spring 1865.
Elisha Hammer took a troop detachment from Salina to visit Ottawa County and begged the Chapmans to leave their dugout.