Sonoma-El Dorado-Trinity County CA Archives Biographies.....Chapman, La Fayette 1826 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 3, 2006, 3:55 am Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. (1880) Chapman, La Fayette. Was born in Exeter, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, June 10, 1826, where he was educated. Here he served his apprenticeship to the trade of a cabinet-maker, and in 1847 commenced a furniture manufactory in his native city under the style of D. B. & L. Chapman, which he continued to manage until March 4, 1849, at which date he sailed from Boston in the ship "Charlotte", via Cape Horn, and, after touching at Rio de Janiero and Valparaiso, arrived at San Francisco on September 15th of that year. Having brought with him an open boat, on arrival, Chapman, with two others, set sail in their little craft for the Sacramento river. On arriving at the end of their voyage, they purchased an ox-team at Sacramento City, and conveyed their baggage to Hangtown, now Placerville, and made their first essay in mining which was prosecuted for one year. In the fall of the year 1850 Mr Chapman opened a general store in Weaverville, Trinity county, doing a trade there until the autumn of the following year, when he returned to San Francisco, and eventually made his home there and in Alameda county. On July 1, 1853, we find the subject of our sketch in Petaluma. Here he commenced farming about two miles from the then rising town, but only harvested one crop, and then moved into the corporation limits and opened the first furniture store in Sonoma county. This business he continued until 1857; his store having been destroyed by the falling of a building during the previous year. In 1857 he once more undertook the control of a farm, an occupation he followed for ten years, when he again went into the furniture trade in Petaluma, continuing there until 1871, in which year his establishment was destroyed by fire. In 1872 he moved to his present home, six miles from Santa Rosa, on Mark West creek, where he owns one thousand and eighty acres of valuable grazing and farming land. Mr Chapman married at Petaluma, November 26, 1854, Fannie Carpenter, a native of England, and have four children, George, Lizzie, Abbie and Frank. Additional Comments: Santa Rosa Township Extracted from: HISTORY —OF- SONOMA COUNTY, -INCLUDING ITS— Geology, Topooraphy, Mountains, Valleys and Streams; —TOGETHER WITH— A Full and Particular Record of the Spanish Grants; Its Early History and Settlement, Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources; the Names of Original Spanish and American Pioneers; a full Political History, Comprising the Tabular Statements of Elections and Office-holders since the Formation of the County; Separate Histories of each Township, Showing the Advancement of Grape and Grain Growing Interests, and Pisciculture; ALSO, INCIDENTS OF PIONEER LIFE; THE RAISING OF THE BEAR FLAG; AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN; —AND OF ITS— Cities, Towns, Churches, Schools, Secret Societies, Etc., Etc. ILLUSTRATED. SAN FRANCISCO: ALLEY, BOWEN & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1880. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sonoma/bios/chapman938nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 3.5 Kb