Grinnell – Chapin Genealogical Material

Introduction:
This collection consists of Grinnell and Chapin family genealogical data 1480 to about 1920. Except for Chapin land deeds papers in the collection were written late 1890s to 1926.

Quantity: two small archives boxes.

Provenance:
Provenance of the bulk of the papers in unknown. They might have been compiled in the early 1900s for application to such organizations as DAR and Society of Mayflower Descendents and later donated to the college by Mary Grinnell Mears’ family. Members of the Grinnell family, many very distantly related to J. B. Grinnell, donated some genealogical charges and biographical notes.

Biographical Notes:
Grinnell, Iowa was founded in March 1854 by Josiah Bushnell Grinnell (1821-1891) who chose a site which surveys indicated would be the junction of two railroads. Grinnell was a minister, trustee and benefactor of Iowa College (later renamed Grinnell College), helped organize the Republican party in Iowa, was a Representative to the Iowa legislature and later to the U. S. House (1863), was active in agricultural development and railroad building. He and his wife, Julia Chapin, were both descended from old New England families; their daughter, Mary Grinnell Mears, may have assembled some of these papers.
Genealogical charts in this collection trace part of the Grinnell family from Pierre Grenelle, born about 1480 in France. A descendent, Matthew, born 1602, became a Protestant and moved to Newport, R.I., in 1630, beginning the American line of the family. Matthew’s son married a granddaughter of John and Priscilla Alden. Other charts trace various branches of the Chapin family from about 1576 to Mary Grinnell’s birth about 1857.

Scope and Content:
The collection consists of genealogical charts 1480 0 1919. Correspondence ca. 1898-1908, 32 portraits, some unidentified, copies of cemetery inscriptions, Family Association publications for the Chapin (4 books, 1862, 1908, 1908, 1927) and Alden (1 book, 1916) families, sixty Chapin family deeds and documents from Massachusetts 1674-1851, and a 114-page handwritten notebook by E. F. G. of Stockbridge, 1848, family history of Chapin ancestors Dudley, Woodbridge, Jones, and Eliot.

The papers have detailed information about a few branches of the family, little or no information on other branches. The researcher might consult U.S. Library of Congress, Genealogies in the Library of Congress to identify more complete sources.

Suggested citation: Grinnell-Chapin papers, Grinnell College Libraries, Department of Special Collections, Grinnell, Iowa. Ms.01.05.