Owners: until 1833 

In January 1833, the Hewetts sold this lot to Hiram H. Hatch and wife. The price was $400, a reasonable amount for unimproved land. 

The Hewetts had a very early presence in the village but left little in the way of an imprint on Brockport. It was reported in the newspaper that the marriage of John Hewett and “Maria” Thorpe took place here. John Hewett was named as one of several “first class-leaders” of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Beyond that, however, nothing is known about this couple, except that they apparently didn’t remain in this area. 

Hiram Hammond Hatch, an early Brockport shoe dealer and his wife Adelaide built and occupied the house (presently 73 Park Avenue) still extant on what was possibly the northern half of this lot. At some time within twenty years of purchasing the property, it was either divided and the southern half of the lot was sold to Enos Chappell or Hatch bought and resold the neighboring corner lot. 

Hatch and his wife had no children but during their later years, after moving to Rochester, they adopted a daughter, Hattie A. (Adelaide?). In the 1880 Federal Census, Hiram was 75 years old, his wife was 69 years old and daughter Hattie was 20 years old. It was also noted in that census that Hiram suffered from paralysis. The Hatch family never returned to Brockport to live. They are, however, buried in the Brockport Cemetery. 

Owners/builders (?): unknown to 1855 

By 1852, a home had been built on the corner lot of what was then Mechanic and Spring Streets. In their brochure, the Walk! Bike! Action Committee attributes the building of this home to Enos and Martha Chappell. The home’s abstract, however strongly it suggests that this is true, doesn’t include the date of transfer from Hiram Hatch to Enos Chappell. Either gentleman could have built the home. Hatch bought an unimproved lot but when Chappell sold the property, its purchase price had increased from $400 to $1,500 dollars. 

Enos and Martha Chappell, his second wife, married in October of 1854. By the 1860 Federal Census, they were living with Martha’s father, Asa Parker, probably in Asa’s house across the street. Enos’ brother, Guy, lived just down the street and around the corner in his own imposing home at 52 State Street. The Chappell family was well known and well-to-do. Brockport remembers the family with their namesake, Chappell Street. 

Father Ansel Chappell was born in Massachusetts. He was the farmer who famously demonstrated a McCormick reaper, then partnered with William Seymour in manufacturing the first locally built McCormick reapers which were produced by Seymour, Chappell and Company. Ansel and his son Enos became “merchants” rather than farmers. By 1860, Enos was employed as a “traveling agent.” 

Seymour, Chappell and Company existed for a few years, after which it was replaced by the very successful and lucrative Seymour and Morgan Company, which manufactured and sold reapers worldwide. Enos returned to farming. In 1861, he was elected Master of Monroe Lodge #173. In 1866, he was living in this area when he paid a federal excise tax (federal tax collected to pay Civil War debt) on his purchase of a gold watch. By 1870, he had left western New York for Michigan. 

It would be logical to assume that Enos, like so many of his contemporaries, followed the immigrant tide west to new lands and opportunities and that may, indeed, have been the case but 1866 was also the year his father Ansel and brother Thomas became embroiled in a “scheme to defraud” which was reported in none other than The New York Times. Ansel and Thomas were the primary culprits in the so-called “Canton Bank Swindle,” an unsuccessful misadventure to pass off worthless bank notes on unsuspecting individuals. Perhaps Enos was seeking farmland and anonymity alike in Michigan. In any case, neither he nor any members of his immediate family returned to New York. 

Enos Turner Chappell died on his birthday in 1911. The cause of death was paralysis. He was 84 years old. He and other family members are buried in Dowagiac, Cass County, Michigan. 

McDougall and his wife owned this home for a very brief time before selling it and moving to California. Barnett was a pioneering builder and architect in California where he and his three sons, architects all, established successful and lucrative practices. Examples of their works exist today, primarily in San Diego and San Francisco. 

Job Cornell was born in Connecticut. He, his wife Margaret and daughter Elizabeth lived here briefly, leaving no contemporary accounts of their stay in Brockport. The house was sold by Margaret, his widow, after which she probably left the area as no other mention of her or her daughter could be found. 

Owners: 1864 to 1902 

A native of Lockport, Niagara County, Orlo B. Schouten was the only child of Stephen and Clarissa Burch Schouten, who died a short time after his birth. Orlo had nine younger half-brothers and sisters, some of whom lived with him and his family at various times. Jane was the daughter of Dennis and Esther Dowd Thomson, farmers in the Town of Sweden. 

The Schoutens had two children, Willis A. and Clara Esther Schouten Robinson who lived to adulthood but three sons, Orlo D., Clarence H., and Homer E. sadly died as young children. Only their daughter married. Clara graduated from the Brockport Normal School and Cornell University. Her only son, who never married, earned an undergraduate degree and Ph. D. from Harvard and became a professor of philosophy and languages at the University of Kansas; residing in a farming state although far removed from his grandparent’s vocation. Willis, or William as he was sometimes known, lived with his mother in their home at 25 Park Avenue. He worked as a book keeper. His last known employment was as a secretary in the Brockport Wagon Company when he was boarding at the Lark Inn, not long before his untimely death in his late thirties. 

Orlo Schouten was a village grocer and Jane was a milliner. It was rather unusual for village merchants of that time period to not be involved in civic or religious activities, but there are no such contemporary reports for the Schoutens. None of their deaths were reported in obituaries, which might have shed light on their interests and activities. Orlo died in 1889 and his wife died in 1902. He, his wife and four sons are buried in the Brockport Cemetery.