The Beaubiens - Blanchet - Bourassa - Frigon Families: A Maple Hill Legacy

Some readers will recall that forty years ago, I wrote a local history column for The Alma Signal Enterprise and The St. Marys Star newspapers.   The column was called "Notes from Moundview Farm" and was dedicated to recording the history of Maple Hill, Wabaunsee County, Kansas and its people.   Between 1972 and 1978, I wrote some 50 feature stories and enjoyed the work immensely.

In a career move, my family and I left Maple Hill and began moving a great deal as I worked developing history museums in Kansas, Idaho, Wisconsin, Oregon and Indiana over the next 28 years.   I'm sure the two papers would have continued to publish articles had I written, but I was simply too busy with my family and career to continue.

One of the stories I always wanted and intended to write, was history related to the Beaubien - Blanchet - Bourassa and Frigon Families who were among the earliest settlers along Mill Creek in what became Maple Hill Township.  I began corresponding with members of the family, gathered a number of historic photos from them, continued to do research when I had the opportunity, but somehow I never seemed to have the time necessary.

I also knew that the information was too voluminous to include in one article and would require several, so one thing and another prevented me from attempting the task.   Now, with old age creeping up on me, I feel that I must go forward with what I have or simply give up.    I wish I could "fill in all the blanks" but it just won't be possible.    These family members I first corresponded with in the early 1970s are all dead, many without descendants.  My paternal grandmother, Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark, who knew Mary C. (Blanchet) Beaubien, her children and grandchildren, is also deceased.   My mother passed away in 2011 at 89 and is no longer available to help with details.  So while this article may not attain the professional standards to which I should be held accountable, I'll do the very best I'm able to do.

This is a photograph of Mary C. (Blanchet) Beaubien with her great grandchildren, Bill and Ed Chapman.  Bill was several years younger than Ed and had a remarkable resemblance to his father, Edmund B. Chapman, Sr. while Bill resembled his mother's Sams family members.   The photo was taken in front of the Beaubien Hotel, which was a hotel and boarding house owned and operated by Mary C. (Blanchet) Beaubien.  She had it built in 1887 just across the road and to the north of the Rock Island Railway Depot at Maple Hill.  The lumber was cut on her farm along the banks of Mill Creek south of Maple Hill.  We "old timers" will remember the farm as that of Frank and Mattie (Dailey) McClelland, which was passed on to their children, Don and Hattie McClelland, and today belongs to Jerry and Carol (Arnold) Dinnen.   The logs were then sawed into dimension and finish lumber at the Blyton Mill, which was located on the south banks of Mill Creek near where the KH 30 bridge crosses Mill Creek on the way to Maple Hill.  Hotel customers could easily walk from the depot to the hotel for lodging and meals.   Bill Chapman looks to be about six in this photo which would make the year 1926 or 1927.    Mary C. (Blanchet) Beaubien died in 1929 at the age of 90.

I want to begin with some notes of appreciation.   Ed and Bill Chapman were young men who grew up in and around Maple Hill.   They were the children of Edmund Beaubien Chapman, Sr. and his wife Alberta (Sams) Chapman, the grandchildren of William W. and Mary Florence (Beaubien) Chapman and the great grandchildren of Edmund Augustin and Mary C. (Blanchet) Beaubien.  Both men were college educated.   Ed and his wife, Mary Ann (Stewart) Chapman, were well known in Kansas where he was a journalist, and served as secretary and special assistant to Governor Edward F. Arn, the 32nd Governor of Kansas, during the early 1950s.   They then moved to Texas and finally New Mexico, owning title companies in both states. Ed's brother, William Sams "Bill" Chapman, was a life-long journalist and businessman who wrote for Kansas Newspapers and later moved to Bastrop, Louisiana where he was an owner and co-publisher of The Bastrop Enterprise.  Bill was a pioneer in the use of computers in the newspaper industry.  Ed Chapman died in 2002 and Bill Chapman in 2009.  Ed is buried with his parents, Ed and Alberta (Sams) Chapman in the Old Stone Church Cemetery.  Both were very helpful in sharing family information and photographs.

Secondly, I want to thank Janet McCracken, the great great granddaughter of Edmund Augustin and Mary C. (Blanchet) Beaubien, for providing photographs and information.  Edmund and Mary C. (Blanchet) Beaubien had a son, Hector Edmond Beaubien, who was the father of four children.   One of those four was daughter Nell Beaubien Nichols, who was without a doubt, an internationally known pioneer in women's journalism, as well as the author and editor of dozens of articles, books and cookbooks for such companies as Better Homes and Gardens, Capper Publications, Double Day and Company, The Farm Journal Corporation, and many others.   Nell Beaubien Nichols, who earned a Master's Degree from the University of Wisconsin, was at first an authority on the nutritional properties of soy beans when no one else was even studying them.  She went on to write over 40 cookbooks and become one of the most well-known food authors and editors in America.   Her long and illustrious career spanned more than 60 years.

At the present time, I am planning to write about these pioneer families in 10 articles or fewer.   It always amazes me how much information and history there is about our early Maple Hill Families, when there isn't a single descendant living in the community today.    With those words, I shall bring this introductory article to a close.    I'm hopeful you, gentle readers, will enjoy the history of the Beaubien - Blanchet - Bourassa and Frigon Families.