THE CHAPMAN FAMILY OF FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP

Narrator: W.W. Chapman of Braymer

Judge J.N. Chapman was born 1846 in Ontario, Canada, the son of Benjamin and Mary (Pepper) Chapman. Benjamin and his wife were both natives of Ireland and had come to America as the land of promise for struggling Irishman. From Canada, as a temporary stopping place, they went to Wisconsin where lands were being opened up for settlement rapidly about 1846-47.

He came to Caldwell County in 1869, where the Waldo family also from Wisconsin had preceded him by a year. He settled in Fairview Township and began working as a "hired hand" for $16.75 a month, which meant food, room and washing. Later, by close economy, he laid up enough to purchase half-interest in a farm (Waldo) which had been bought for $13.00 an acre. In 1919, he sold the farm for $125.00 an acre. During his farm-experience, he passed through all the changes of method of getting a crop which other old-timers have described. When he quit farming in Fairview Township in 1907, he had the latest farm implements on the market, and was known as a wealthy man.

Mr. Chapman was married 1872 to Louisa Waldo (whose paper describes the Waldo life in Fairview township).

Mr. Chapman got his title Judge from serving for eight years as presiding judge of the county court (the only man in the county who served that long).

He spent the last years of his life in his home in Breckenridge.