Katie J. (McNulty) Chapin (1847-1903)

Katie J. Chapin, née McNulty, was born in 1847. Her connection to the Chapins was her marriage in 1867 to Lucinda’s son, Oscar. They had six children, of which five survived into adulthood: Lewis, Alice, Willie, Mary, Laura, and Oscar. 

Katie's letters often have to do with the current state of their crops and urging family members to come visit. At one point, Katie beseeched her sister-in-law, Marcia Christy, to move out west to Minneapolis, Kansas, citing cheap land as a reason to come settle. As is a pattern emerging from many of the authors of the letters, Katie also often urged Dorcas to come visit.

While there is no letter from Marcia to Katie stating that she and her husband would move at her behest, Marcia has several letters in the collection written from the towns of Ritsman and Coal Creek in Kansas. The former no longer appears to exist according to maps and the closing of its post office in 1881, per the Kansas Historical Society.

Katie passed away at the age of 55 in the year 1903.