PREFACE REFACE is included in this book not alone because it is customary, but because certain things. should be explained. This book is issued, not as a work of art or literary merit, nor as a result of any overmastering desire to break into the book business, but as a record in which to preserve the salient points of the Sapp genealogy. In the pursuit of knowledge concerning their individual an'cestry the editors collected a vast amount of fact and became in'terested in the broader lines of the history of a family. For almost ten years this process of collection has been going on, some who contributed being still alive while others have passed to the Great Beyond. On account of these deaths among us some of the dates and facts we have are unreplaceable and we have felt it a duty devolving upon us to get it all into permanent form lest some material might be lost. Such a work as this, where the principal sources of information have been traditions and memories collected by correspondence, is bound to contain some errors, omissions and contradictions, but we have endeavored, as far as possible, to rectify and harmonize them. We offer what we have with only 'the thought in mind that we will thus preserve these facts until 'another shall come and build upon this foundation a completed structure. We are including some extra blanks and ask that you shall supplement and continue the information in the book. Where we have made mistakes, correct us; where we have made omissions, supply the deficiency and where you can continue a line, do so on these extra sheets. These sheets will be carefully preserved and at some future date, perhaps, a fuller and more complete history can be gotten out,and the material you send in can be incorporated. The time is coming in America when the blood of our people will be so mixed with all nationalities, that he who can look back to an ancestry reaching to the foundation of our government will have reason to be proud, and this book will be proof in future generations where otherwise there would be no word. Thanks are due all contributors for what they have done, but especially to Mr. Francis Sapp, Danville, Ohio; Dr. J. A. Sapp, Salineville, Ohio, and Miss Bernice A. Sapp, Olympia, Washington, for the cheerful and long continued work which they did. And so with this somewhat extended word we leave the work in your hands trusting that later the whole matter may be worked out with more completeness. J. GOODEN SAPP, Wyanet, Ill. H. W. STANLEY, Wichita, Kansas. INTRODUCTION O record has yet been found of the time the Sapp family came to this country, where they landed, or whence they came. Search has been made but nothing revealed. There has been no dearth of tradition and positive statements on these points however, different branches of the same line advocating widely divergent theories. An oft recurring statement is that the Sapps are of Scotch-Irish origin, another brings them from England, and others are equally positive that Holland is the soil from which they spring. It is, however, rather generally recognized that there is a great physical resemblance between the members of the different branches and doubtless more extended search, through the county records of all the states in which they appear, will confirm in time the ideas of the editors of this work that all are descended from a single ancestor who appeared in the early history of America. However, while we have found nothing definite as to the coun'try from which the Sapps came, a study of the names leads to a strong conclusion that they came from England. The names, without exception, are of English origin and do not show even a trace of the Dutch and but a very little of the Scotch-Irish. It may be that originally the family came from Holland to England during the religious persecutions and that a few generations in England sufficed to remove all the Dutch characteristics. Likewise it is barely possible that they may have been originally English and during the Dissenter troubles in England have moved to Scotland and Ireland and thence to America. Some who claim to have investigated the matter thoroughly seem to find satisfaction in one origin, others in another. We say, frankly, we do not know. But whatever their origin the Sapps have been and are a people respected for their absolute honesty and uprightness. They are not well educated, as a rule, and not mentally brilliant. Very few of them have ever attained prominence in the councils of the state or nation, although there are some notable exceptions, but they are men and women who bear the responsibilities of good citizenship as nobly as the best. They are, however, quite religious, although their creeds vary in the different lines. Certain lines are Catholic, others Baptist, still others Methodist, but very seldom do we find one who prides himself on irreligion or disbelief. In the matter of politics reports indicate that they hang together better here than any where else. They may have come from |