The Town of Chaplin is named for Deacon Benjamin Chaplin (1719-1795). He was a wealthy landowner who bequeathed the funds to establish an ecclesiastical society and construct a meeting house for his community, which would be incorporated as a town in 1822. Before his death, Chaplin sold a plot of land to his son-in-law, Ephraim Perkins (1745-1813), a veteran of the French and Indian War. Chaplin’s Congregational meeting house would be built on a half-acre of this parcel in 1815. Perkins, who had moved to Becket, Massachusetts, upon his marriage to Mary Chaplin in 1771, later gave the rest of his land in Chaplin to his son, Ephraim Perkins, Jr. (1773-1851). On that land the younger Ephraim built the house that stands at 28 Chaplin Street. According to Part III of The Family of John Perkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts (1889), by George A. Perkins, Ephraim Perkins married Lucy Merrick on January 1, 1800 and “They resided five years in Mansfield, Conn. [Chaplin was then part of Mandfield], removing in 1805, to Trenton, Oneida Co., New York.” In 1840 they moved to Wisconcin. The Perkins House in Chaplin, the oldest on Chaplin Street, has changed hands many times over the years. The property also has an historic horse barn.
You must be logged in to post a comment.