Plank road, broken leg: Simeon Chapman's 1856 trip

The venerable Simeon B. Chapman (1812-1897), who had settled with his family during 1849 in what became Lucas County's Last Chance community, was in his mid-40s back in June of 1856 when he ran into trouble on the road after a trip back east.

We have no idea where he had been, or why, but he had boarded an evening stage in Keokuk on June 5 for the trek west to Chariton and then via horseback to his home in Union Township, a couple of hours ride beyond.

At the time, a 13-mile stretch of plank road constructed during 1850-51 formed part of the route from Keokuk's city limits northwest to Fairfield, then the major coaching hub of southeast Iowa. Major stage routes branched from Fairfield to Fort Des Moines, Iowa City, Burlington and Keokuk. Travelers to the wild west boarded coaches here for the trip through Chariton to Council Bluffs.

The coach may have belonged to the Western Stage Co., organized two years earlier, but that's not clear. It most likely was a standard "Concord" coach --- designed to carry nine passengers on front, middle and back seats inside the coach and more, when necessary,  on the roof. This coach, with 19 passengers aboard, was heavily loaded --- perhaps too much so. And that plank surface was so notoriously unstable that it was taken up and burned as firewood a couple of years later.

Whatever the case, the coach tipped over, resulting  in the following report in The Keokuk Daily Gate of June 6, 1856, under the headline, "Stage Upset --- Serious Accident."

"The stage upset last night near Mr. Little's on the plank road seven miles from town. There were 19 passengers on board and two were seriously injured.  Mr. S. B. Chapman,  of Lucas County, had his right leg broken near the ankle and Mr. W. D.  Porter, of Birmingham,  has his right leg broken near the ankle and the shoulder blade broken. No others were seriously hurt. Dr. Smith was soon on the ground and Dr. Hughes, of this city, sent for. The patients were taken care of by the stage company and are doing well."

Simeon survived the accident by more than 40 years, but I can't even imagine how inconvenient the trip home to Last Chance with a broken ankle must have been. He and his wife, Jane, are at rest today in the Last Chance Cemetery.

The map at the top here shows the Western Stage Company route through Lucas County in relation to Last Chance, where Simeon and Jane Chapman lived.