Lillias Burdette Chapin (1864-1920)

From the Raleigh Daily Tribune, March 7, 1897.

  Hailing from Harnett County in North Carolina, Lillias Burdette Chapin is one in a long line of unusually named men who peopled the North Carolina legislature from the late 19th into the mid 20th century. A one-term representative from the above-mentioned county, Chapin was an attorney and farmer who had served as county examiner until his election to the legislature. Born on January 21, 1864, in Beaufort County, North Carolina, Lillias Burdette Chapin was the son of Dr. Ansil Burdette Chapin (1832-1911) and the former Argent Elizabeth Thompson. 

  Little is known of Chapin's early years, excepting his enrollment at the University of North Carolina in the early 1880s. He studied law from 1886-1887 and afterward was admitted to the state bar. He would remove to Harnett County around 1888 and began his political career at the local level, winning election as Harnett County examiner, a post he would hold until being elected to the legislature. Chapin married in June 1888 to Fannie McKay (1861-1938), to who he was wed until his death. The couple would have three children, Neill McKay (1889-1961), Francis Burdette (1890-1968), and Isabelle "Belle" McKay Chapin Beckwith (1892-1949).

  Elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in November 1896 "by a majority of 105 votes", Chapin's near decade long residency in Harnett County was profiled in the March 7, 1897 edition of the Raleigh Daily Tribune, which described him as:

"He is a gentleman who has bright possibilities before him should he take care to take advantage of them. He is one who has the rare knack of winning friends; and what's more, he knows how to keep them. To such men success is easy to reach."

  Lillias Chapin's single term in the legislature extended from 1897-99 and during this session chaired the committee on Federal Relations and also served on the committees on Enrolled Bills, the Judiciary, Immigration, Military Affairs, and Private Bills. Nothing could be found on Chapin's life after the conclusion of his term, excepting notice of his death in Lillington, North Carolina sometime in 1920, when he would have been around 55 years of age. A burial location for Chapin remains unknown at this time, but most likely is at the Summerville Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Lillington, the resting place of his wife Fannie.