Background on Samuel Chapin and William R. Sessions
Samuel Chapin was born in the former South Wilbraham, Massachusetts (now Hampden) on January 31, 1841. Chapin was the eldest of five children of Ralph Sumner Chapin and Harriet Newell Cady. The Chapin family had been farmers since Samuel's great-grandather, Abner Chapin, had come to South Wilbraham from Chicopee around 1748. Samuel volunteered for the Union Army at age 21 and served in the 46th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry for nine months, participating in a few battles along the way at Kingston, Whitehall, Goldsboro, and Newbern. After the war, Samuel Chapin followed the roots of his family and became a farmer in South Wilbraham. He married Arianna Marston Guptill at the age of 34 on October 13, 1875, which produced a daughter, Edna Gertrude, one year later. Samuel Chapin passed away in Hampden on July 22, 1883, at the age of 42 due to bronchial consumption, and is buried in the Chapin family plot in Hampden.
William Robert Sessions was born on December 3, 1835, also in South Wilbraham, as the only son of William Vyne Sessions and Lydia Ames. Sessions was 27 when he enlisted with the Wilbraham contingency in the 46th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was captured by the Confederates and spent nearly three weeks in captivity at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. After the war, William Sessions lived a prolific life, serving as a Selectman, Moderator, Assessor, School Committee member, Justice of the Peace, Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, State Representative, State Senator, and Trustee of Massachusetts Agricultural College. Married four times, Sessions lived most of his life at his family farm in Hampden, built by Robert Sessions of Boston Tea Party fame. After his retirement, Sessions lived in Springfield, where he died on January 29, 1914, at the age of 78. He is buried at the Old Cemetery in Hampden.