Last updated 5 Aug 2021

Jane's father was Lawrence Safford Chamberlain (born McMeekin). Lawrence was the biological son of Ben McMeekin but through a divorce and subsequent remarriage he was raised as a Chamberlain.

Lawrence Safford Chamberlain (McMeekin) was born in 1873 in Topeka, Kansas where his family (the Saffords) had been living since the 1840s. Lawrence later moved to Coronado around 1905 and was Mayor of the small coastal island town in the 1920s.

 Lawrence was a doctor whose first wife died in Childbirth. After losing his wife and infant daughter he moved to Tijuana Mexico and then to Coronado. He was very ill with Tuberculosis and bereft over losing his young family. He said he went out west to die. Fortunately for us he didn't die - he met and married Mabel Power, had a daughter (Jane) and lived until 1965!  

Lawrence was Mayor of Coronado from 1918 to 1924. What an amazing time! The Del Coronado hotel was in its heyday (construction was complete in 1888) attracting royalty, celebrities and the elite of its time. The Chamberlains lived an upper class lifestyle, with a beautiful home on C street.

Lawrence was the biological son of Benjamin McMeekin and Jenny Marie Safford. Their marriage dissolved early on and Lawrence and his sister Essie were adopted by Jennie's second husband, P.C. Chamberlain. 

Benjamin was born in Kentucky in 1850 but moved west to Kansas in 1860 where he worked as a fur trader, Indian translator and sometimes hotelier with his father H.D. McMeekin. 

Benjamin was born in Kentucky but shortly thereafter the family moved to the new Kansas territory in 1850. They are listed among the early settlers of Leavenworth. 

What incredible memories from Ben...!

Colonel Hayden Duncan "H.D." McMeekin was  born in Kentucky in 1822. He moved to the Kansas frontier in 1850 where he established himself in local politics, siding with the pro-slavery movement to prevent Kansas from becoming a free state. He also was the proprietor of several Hotels in Topeka, including the Tefft house.

H.D. also founded the town of Indianola, Kansas but eventually moved on to Topeka.

H.D.'s parents were Charles Makin and Elizabeth Duncan. 

Mary Jane Lawrence was born in 1827 in Kentucky to John Lawrence and Nancy Wilson, both of Maryland.

Jennie Marie Safford, mother of Lawrence Safford Chamberlain and first wife of Benjamin McMeekin, came from a prominent family that also arrived in Kansas in the 1840s from Vermont. We have some wonderful letters from her son Ernest that tell us about their life growing up in the 1870s in Topeka.

Surviving letters from Ernest Chamberlain share what their life was like in Topeka in the 1870s.

Jennie Marie Safford was a prominent and influential woman in Topeka in the late 1800s. She died in 1921.

Jennie's father, Jacob Safford, was a Justice on the Kansas Supreme Court, lawyer and prominent member of Topeka society and sat on the Board of Directors for the Santa Fe Railroad. He was born in Vermont in 1827 and came to Topeka in the late 1860s. 

The town of Saffordville, Kansas is named after him. 

Jacob Safford was the son of Jacob Johnson Safford and Jane Ruth Child. The Child family had been among the earliest settlers in America in the 1600s. 

Jacob Safford was married to Esther Coon. This family line had also been a complete  mystery to me when I started researching our ancestry but again, thanks to DNA, we have been able to identify Esther's ancestors.

Learn more about the history of the Child, Coon and Johnson families here.