Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Chapman, C. C. February 10, 1876 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 27, 2009, 1:41 am

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     C. C. CHAPMAN, one of Portland's self-made men, has been closely 
identified with movements for the benefit of the city and state and his 
journalistic activities have brought him widespread prominence. For twelve 
years he has issued the Oregon Voter, a "magazine of citizenship -— for busy 
men and women."

     A native of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Mr. Chapman was born February 10, 
1876, and is a son of Leslie Arthur Isaac and Emme (Keyes) Chapman, were both 
of Revolutionary stock. He lost his father in 1876 and afterward lived in a 
number of places with various members of the family, attending school 
intermittently. When a small child he sold newspapers in Chicago and at the 
age of thirteen became water boy in a lumber yard, rubber stamp peddler and 
office boy. Between the ages of fourteen and nineteen he was employed in 
various capacities in a lumber office and in 1895 became a newspaper reporter 
for the Chicago Associated Press, of which he was made night editor when a 
young man of twenty-one. In 1899 he became city editor of the Chicago Daily 
News, of which he was later political editor, and acted in that capacity until 
1902, covering many national assignments as a staff correspondent. Because of 
failing health he was sent to the west and spent six months in mountain 
climbing in Colorado. For eighteen months he traveled throughout the west, 
working on various newspapers, and on January 1, 1904, located in Portland, 
Oregon. He established the Chapman Advertising Agency and successfully 
conducted the business for six years, handling over one million dollars worth 
of advertising accounts in the Pacific northwest during that period. In 1910 
he disposed of the agency and in July of that year became executive secretary 
of the Portland Commercial Club, the predecessor of the present Chamber of 
Commerce. Mr. Chapman had charge of the public affairs department of the club 
and this was the only salaried public position ever held by him. In January, 
1915, he tendered his resignation and founded the Oregon Voter, of which he 
has since been the editor and sole owner. It has been characterized by the 
Oregon supreme court as "a magazine printed weekly in Portland, Oregon, and 
devoted to the advancement of every material interest that tends to promote 
the general welfare of the state." The Oregon Voter varies in size from thirty-
two to sixty-four pages containing meaty information, fearless analysis and 
snappy comment on the following subjects: taxation, labor, business, land 
settlement, reclamation, good roads, port development, maritime commerce, 
railroads, agricultural development, public utilities, water power, timber, 
public expenditures, statistics, manufacturers, finance, state government, 
legislation, county and municipal affairs and public schools. The magazine 
also features political gossip, smiles, character sketches and sidelights. Its 
editorials are noted for their vigor and timeliness as well as for their 
literary excellence. The Oregon Voter has steadily grown in power and 
usefulness, becoming both the leader and the mirror of public opinion, and 
enjoys a wide circulation.

     Mr. Chapman had few opportunities to attend school during his boyhood and 
is self-educated. He specialized in the study of history, economics, the 
classical languages and mathematics. On these subjects he is thoroughly 
informed and is regarded as an expert statistician. A gifted orator, he has 
addressed many Chautauqua audiences and since 1894 has been a platform speaker 
in local and national campaigns for various purposes. As a newspaper man he 
covered two republican and two democratic national conventions and nineteen 
sessions of the state legislature. Following the assassination of President 
McKinley, Mr. Chapman was in charge of the staff of newspaper writers and 
artists at Buffalo. He rode on the funeral train and was at the trial of the 
assassin. In the presidential campaign of 1900 he accompanied Theodore 
Roosevelt and William J. Bryan on special trains as a correspondent and his 
newspaper work has taken him to nearly every state in the Union. He is one of 
the few persons who have made a tour of each county in Oregon and has devoted 
much thought and study to problems affecting the welfare and progress of this 
great commonwealth.

     As the father of the gasoline and automobile tax Mr. Chapman devised a 
means of providing the state with sufficient means for the building of its 
fine system of public highways. He formed the Oregon Road & Development 
Association, becoming chairman of its executive committee, and is president of 
this association. Of the Capital Highway Association he is also the executive 
head and was formerly vice president and secretary of the Oregon Development 
League, with which he is still identified. He is vice president for Oregon of 
the Northwest Development Association, and as the first vice president of the 
Oregon irrigation congress he issued the call for its first meeting. This 
congress he also represented in the capacity of president and was vice 
president of the Oregon drainage commission, secretary of the western states 
water power conference, and acted as chairman of the subcommittees on public 
lands of the national conservation congress. Mr. Chapman is state immigration 
commissioner and is serving on the Oregon child welfare code commission. In 
the organization of the Oregon Social Hygiene Society he took a prominent part 
and is one of its ex-directors. He is president of the Oregon Tax Association 
and a director of the Oregon Tuberculosis Association and the Oregon 
Prisoners' Aid Society. Formerly he was a director of the Oregon Civic League, 
the Oregon Pure Bred Live Stock Association and the State Chamber of Commerce 
and is still identified with these organizations. He is secretary of the 
Pacific Coast Advertising Men's Association and an ex-vice president of the 
Oregon State Press Association. His name also appears on the membership rolls 
of the Willamette Valley Press Association, the Oregon Newspaper Conference, 
the National Editorial Association, the Sons of the American Revolution, the 
American Social Hygiene Association, the National Tax Association, the 
national council of the National Economic League, the American Political 
Science Association, the American Academy of Political & Social Science, the 
National Voters League, the National Association for Constitutional 
Government, the Peoples Legislative League, Oregon Council of the Boy Scouts 
of America, the Roosevelt Club of Oregon, and the United States Chamber of 
Commerce.

     Mr. Chapman's local affiliations are with the Portland Chamber of 
Commerce, of which he was secretary and a director; the Merchants & 
Manufacturers Association; the Greater Portland Association; the Community 
Chest; the Portland Art Association; the Young Men's Christian Association; 
the Progressive Business Men's Club; the Social Workers Club; the Laurelhurst 
and Hunt Clubs; the Press Club, of which he is a director and an ex-president; 
the Advertising Club, of which he became a charter member and president; the 
City Club, of which he was a director at one time the Rose Festival 
Association, and the Royal Rosarians. Of the last named organization he was 
formerly president and secretary, issuing the call for its first meeting, and 
acted as publicity chairman of the first Rose Festival in Portland. He managed 
the campaigns for the Interstate bridge bond election, the Columbia highway 
bond election, the Portland Auditorium bond election and both state highway 
bond elections, in 1917 and 1920. During the World war he was chairman of the 
state tour for the first Liberty loan and managed the state campaign for the 
second Liberty loan. He was state chairman of the first Red Cross membership 
drive, in which Oregon made the highest record in proportion to its 
population, and is still connected with the society.

     At Portland in 1922 Mr. Chapman was united in marriage to Miss Eva 
Stanton.  A lover of books, “the ever-burning lamps of accumulated wisdom,” 
Mr. Chapman owns one of the best private collections in Portland and spends 
many enjoyable and profitable hours in his library. His activities have 
touched the general interests of society to their betterment and fortunate 
indeed is the city which can point to men of his type as its exemplars.


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 764-766

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