Samuel Chapin

Samuel Chapin (baptized October 8, 1598 – November 11, 1675) was a prominent early settler of Springfield, Massachusetts.

[1] He served the town as selectman, magistrate and deacon (in the Massachusetts Bay Colony there was little separation between the church and government).

[4] He immigrated to America either with or shortly after William Pynchon, between 1630 and 1635, and became a full member of John Eliot's congregation at Roxbury (later incorporated into the city of Boston).

They settled disputes, heard complaints, admitted inhabitants, regulated highways, bridges, fences, finances, etc., and had a general supervision over all the affairs of the town.

In October 1675 Chief Metacomet (known as "King Philip") visited the Agawam Indians (of the Pocomtuc tribe) residing within the town and incited them to mount an attack on Springfield.

It emphasizes the piety, and perhaps moral rigidity, of the country's religious founders—evident in the sculpted Chapin's proud pose, certain stride, flowing cape and hefty Bible, as well as his assertive use of a walking cane.

Samuel Chapin had many famous direct descendants, including United States Presidents Grover Cleveland[15] and William Howard Taft,[16] Canadian Prime Minister Richard Bedford Bennett,[17] abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe,[18] abolitionists Henry Ward Beecher[19] and John Brown,[20] financier J.P. Morgan,[21] poet and playwright T.S.