John Chapman

The evidence below strongly suggests that John Chapman and Wilhelmine Hespeler had two marriage ceremonies.

First, see Marriage Notices of Ontario, William D. Reid, Hunterdon House, Lambertville, N.J., 1980, page 349. The extraction is taken from the 26 November, 1849, edition of The Gazette, Hamilton, Canada West. This states:

At Preston, in the Roman Catholic Church, on Saturday, 17th inst., John Chapman, merchant, New Hope, to Wilhelmina Hespeler, of Preston. (Rev. Mr. Holzer).

There are one or two problems with the above. Rev. Mr. Holzer was at least to a degree an itinerant priest who probably regularly served his congregation at Guelph. There was not a physical church building per se at Preston at the time, services being held in available homes or halls, but the point need not be belaboured.

Also, and this from the text of the notice is entirely arguable, New Hope became such with the establishment of a post office there on May 6, 1851. Hitherto, it was known as Bergeyville, though there was never a post office under that name (see Floreen Carter's Ghost and Post Offices of Ontario, 1986.) New Hope became Hespeler in 1858.

Which brings us to the other, undated, marriage ceremony. And for this, please see The Marriage Registers of Upper Canada / Canada West, Wellington District, Vol. 9, part 1, 1840-1852, compiled by Dan Walker & Fawne Stratford-Devai, Global Heritage Press, 2000, page 81.

This presents us with a list of marriages performed by Rev'd Frederick W. Bindemann, Minister of the United Lutheran & German Reformed Protestant Church at Greenbush (Berlin, now Kitchener), between October 1, 1849, and January 1, 1850. Other than this, the marriages are shown as undated.

Near the end of the list, we find:

John Chapman, 25, Merchant of New Hope, Waterloo, to Wilhelmine Hespeler, 24. By licence. Rev. Bindemann.

That there were two marriages for the couple may strike the reader as unusual, and was, though certainly not unheard of. There is some evidence that at least some members of the Hespeler family were dedicated Lutherans. We must believe John Chapman to have been a dedicated Roman Catholic, especially when we note the separate burials for John and his two Hespeler wives, woman who were sisters.

The date of marriage shown here is that which appears in Reid's extraction from the Hamilton Gazette, namely November 17th, 1849. Was the Lutheran marriage ceremony as performed by Fredrick Bindemann held on the same day? For the moment, this is unknown.

Beyond this, and not to suggest that Bindemann couldn't deliver an impressive marriage ceremony, but he was known betimes to be terse. It is said that on occasion his idea of a marriage ceremony amounted to:

You want each other? You got each other. Two dollars.

An independent record of the marriage of John Chapman and Ferdinande Hespeler Muehleisen has yet to be found. The Waterloo Historical Society publishes an annual volume of their proceedings and historical articles. The 1938 edition of the Waterloo Historical Society tells that John and Ferdinande were married in Berlin (now Kitchener) on 16 June, 1853.