Sonoma-El Dorado-Trinity County CA Archives Biographies.....Chapman, La Fayette 1826 - 
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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.


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