When we bought our house in American Fork my mom mentioned she had ancestors who had lived here. I think she even went and visited their graves when she was out here to help us move in. I hadn't thought about it much until I decided I wanted to learn more about AF. I love to know the history of a town so I decided it was time to find out more about where we live. I came across the names of the founders of American Fork, one of them being Stephen Chipman, who is my 4th great grandfather. Then I remembered what my mom had said and started to delve deeper into my ancestors' history here. We spent a family home evening night at the AF cemetery visiting the graves of our relatives.
First up was Stephen Chipman, one of the co-founders of American Fork in 1852, which was originally known as Lake City. You can't see a lot of his grave here, but the side shown talks about how he is of Mayflower ancestry, was a Mormon pioneer and founded AF. Two of the other sides have plaques with his 2 wives and their children's names.
His first wife, Amanda Washburn, my 4th great grandmother, divorced him after he married his second wife because she did not support polygamy. Amanda got remarried but her second husband was excommunicated and run out of town because he believed Joseph Smith's son should have been the next president of the Church. She stayed in AF alone because she couldn't bear to leave her children and grandchildren. I like to think that a lot of Stephen's success had to do with his strongwilled wife Amanda. Before they crossed the plains they were living in Missouri with lots of other Mormons. Three days after their son James was born Governor Boggs issued the extermination order that drove all the Mormons to flee. Amanda fled with a 3 day old!
That 3 day old son was James Chipman, my 3rd great grandfather. He was the 5th of 6th kids to Stephen and Amanda (2 more children died in infancy). We had a hard time finding his grave because it wasn't close to his parent's and the maps were really confusing. This picture is terrible, but it is his grave. It has the names of his 3 wives on it- Sarah Green, Salena Huntsman, and Salena Pusey.
James, like his father, was a polygamist for a short time. His first wife, Sarah Green, is my 3rd great grandmother. They were married in 1859 when she was only 14! He was 20. There isn't much known about her because she died at age 20 shortly after giving birth to her 4th child, Stephen L. Chipman. James' second wife Salena Hunstman raised 3 of Sarah's children, along with 12 children of her own in American Fork. Salena was pregnant with her first child when my grandmother died. She took on those 3 young kids- 1 being newborn Stephen L.- when she was 6 months pregnant with her first! Another awesome woman. James became a very successful entrepreneur. He founded Chipman Mercantile in 1892, which operated for 87 years on Main Street in American Fork until 1979. I was SO disappointed to find out the building was knocked down. James was also the director of several banks, insurance companies, and mining companies. He helped build a lot of American Fork. I just found out that this super cool old mill near us was built by him. When we first moved here it was an antique store and I always meant to stop in. It is currently being renovated into office space. James was Mayor of American Fork and helped open the first public schools in Utah, which were located in AF. In 1896 James became the first State Treasurer of Utah when Utah was finally admitted to the Union as a state.
James and Sarah's fourth child, Stephen L. Chipman, is my great great grandfather. He was raised by his father's second wife, Salena. He is buried by his grandfather Stephen Chipman. We had a picnic between their graves. Is it super weird to have a picnic at a cemetery with your ancestors' graves? There was a beautiful blossoming tree above us that provided some nice shade.
Stephen L was married to Sina Nielsen. It is cool to me that we are Nielsons and I have Nielsen relatives who lived in AF, but the story gets even more interesting. When Sadie was born my grandfather asked if she was named after his great aunt Sadie, whose real name was Sarah. He doesn't remember his great aunt's last name, which is too bad because both Sina and Stephen L had sisters named Sarah. But potentially, he had a great aunt from American Fork, UT name Sadie Nielsen. We had no idea any relatives were named Sadie when we chose that name and we also had no idea we would eventually live in AF. Stephen L. managed the Chipman Mercantile and was director of the Bank of American Fork. He was in the Utah State Legislature and was the first stake president of the Alpine Stake when it was formed in 1901. It took in all the Utah County residents north of Provo and was headquartered in American Fork. In 1938 he was called to be president of the Salt Lake City temple. He was the first SLC temple president who was not a member of the Quorum of the 12. Chipman Hall at BYU is named after Stephen L. I didn't know that when I lived next door to it my freshman year at BYU. Stephen and Sina had 6 living children, one of which was my great-grandma, Karen Lorena Chipman Fletcher.
Karen Lorena Chipman Fletcher was known as Lorena. She is also buried in the AF cemetery, but I forgot to take a picture of her grave. In the photo above you have 4 Chipman generations: Lorena on the left, Stephen L Chipman in the center with James Chipman on the right. Lorena's oldest 2 kids Phyllis and Steve are the children.
Lorena Chipman married Harvey Fletcher, from Provo, Utah in 1908. The first spouse in several generations not from American Fork. The choice of marrying outside of American Fork proved to be significant as Harvey went to graduate school in Chicago and then they raised their children in New York. The picture on the right is Harvey and Lorena on the right side of the photo with Sina Chipman holding their oldest, Phyllis. On Family Search the man standing behind Sina is labeled as William Chipman, who would have been Sina's brother. On Family Search the photo is labeled as having been taken in New York, so Sina and William traveled a long way for that. Harvey was a well-accomplished physicist who invented stereophonic sound and the hearing aid. I grew up hearing about how great he was, but never knew anything about Lorena. Harvey and Lorena had 7 kids, the 5th of which is my grandfather Robert Chipman Fletcher, who is celebrating his 95th birthday this month.
Bob Fletcher married Rosemary Bennett in 1945. They had 8 children and my mom Christine Fletcher John is the 4th. Rosemary died in 2009 and is buried in Salt Lake City, so the direct generations being buried in AF cemetery is over, but who knows? Maybe Daniel and I will live here long enough that we will choose to be buried there.
Here I am with Bob Fletcher, affectionately known as Bobpa to his grandchildren, probably around 1986. Then you have my girls with Bobpa in 2015.
