Biography Charles Champie, Texas Pioneer

By Sigrid Nord-Champie


Charles Edouard Champie was born Charles Edouard 
Deland dit Champigny on February 8, 1833 in St. 
Gregoire Le Grand, Quebec, which is near Montreal.
The family name was Deslandes (pronounced duh-lahnd)
but they occasionally went by Champigny, which was 
the town in France where the family originated (these 
names were common in Quebec and are called "dit" names).
Charles was baptized on February 9 at St. Athenase parish.
He had four brothers and a sister. He came with his 
family to the U.S. in 1847, when he was fourteen or 
fifteen. The family changed their name, dropping 
Deslandes and americanizing Champigny to Shampy 
or Shampay. The family lived first in Vermont, then 
moved to New York State. The story goes that 
Charles's parents, Charles and Lorana, refused to 
allow him to marry the woman he loved. In rebellion, 
he ran away and joined the Army. He enlisted at 
Rochester, New York on September 22, 1854. His name 
was changed to Champie, forever seperating his 
descendants from the rest of the family, who kept the 
name Shampay. He was assigned to Company C, 1st 
regiment of the U.S. Infantry on December 11 of that 
year, at Ft. Columbus, New York. His rank was Private. 
According to his military records, he had hazel eyes, 
was five feet, six inches tall, weighed 165 lbs., and 
had brown hair and a dark complexion. He was sent to 
Texas to fight in the Indian Wars. He served in many 
forts all over Texas. In 1855, while at Ft. Clark, 
he fell out of a tree while doing extra duty cutting 
wood. He hurt his hip and side, so badly that he 
collected an invalid pension later on, swearing to 
be two-thirds disabled. The story goes that while 
stationed at Ft. McKavett, which is in present 
day Menard County, he stole a ripe melon from the 
fields of the farmer that grew fruits and 
vegetables for the fort. The Pennsylvania Dutch 
farmer, Samuel Shellenberger, complained to the 
commander, and Charles was ordered to go and 
repay him for what he stole. While there, Charles 
met Samuel's young daughter Elizabeth, and love 
bloomed. He was honorably discharged on September 
22, 1859 at the camp on Little Wichita, and he and 
Elizabeth were married on August 9th of that year 
in San Antonio; she was only 14. Elizabeth gave birth 
to their first child, Charles, on September 26, 1860. 
The next year, Texas seceded from the Union and joined 
the Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War. The 
Champies had two more children during the War, George C. 
in '62 and Alfred F. in '64. In the next year, 1865, 
Abraham Lincoln was assasinated, the war finally ended, 
Texas returned to the Union, and slavery was utterly 
abolished in the U.S. (although the Champies never owned 
slaves, some of their neighbors had). In the following 
years, the Champies proceeded to have eleven more children: 
George C., Alfred F., Louis, Lorana, Clara, Joseph, 
Henry, Martha, James, then Dovie and Adeline, who died 
as infants, Samuel, and finally Max. They lived in 
various places around Texas, but they kept returning to 
Menard county. Charles raised livestock, and eventually he 
took over his father-in-law's farm. It was located at 
the headwaters of the San Saba River, and he named 
it Champie Springs. He also ran a general store 
there in the 1870's.  In 1883, Fort McKavett was 
abandoned, and the Champies, who had returned from 
Kendall County in 1885, were one of the first 
families to move in to it and create a town there. 
It soon became the village of Ft. McKavett. 
In 1888, Charles and Elizabeth's son Joseph came 
down with a fever and died. He was only fifteen. 
In October 1899, Charles had a stroke. It left him 
unable to walk and he could barely use his arms. 
He died three years later, on Independence day, 1903, 
at the age of seventy, and was buried at the cemetery 
in Ft. McKavett, near his children Adeline and Joseph.
Elizabeth outlived her husband by some thirty years,
dying in 1934 at age 89. She is buried with her
husband at Ft. McKavett.