A. L. CHAPMAN
BLACKSMITH
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: GOSNEY, DOOLEY, HORN, LAIN, FORMAN, BURRIS, PROCTOR, LAMPKIN
owns a fine orchard property of fifteen acres on the Homestead road, about one mile west of Santa Clara. This orchard is in a high state of cultivation and shows great care and constant attention on the part of its owner. It comprises apricot, pear, prune, peach, plum, and cherry trees. There is also a small vineyard on the place, which furnishes a choice variety of table grapes, such as the Verdal, Black Hamburg, Mission, and Tokay.
Mr. Chapman dates his birth in Cumberland County, Kentucky, August 23, 1814. He is the son of Asa and Sallie (Gosney) Chapman. He was reared to a farm life, leaving the old home at the age of eighteen years. He received such an education as was afforded by the common schools, which were conducted in the typical log-cabin school-house of that period. As before stated, he left home when eighteen years of age, and went to Fayette County, Kentucky, where he entered upon an apprenticeship as a blacksmith. He remained there until 1833, when he went to Monroe County, Missouri, where he worked at his trade as a journeyman for four years, establishing a shop of his own in 1837. This business he successfully conducted until 1850, when he caught the contagious gold fever, which caused him to sell out his shop and start overland for California. The journey was made with ox teams, which was the prescribed mode of overland travel in that day. Upon reaching California, he stopped at the mines for a short time, but, not meeting with the success for which he had hoped, he went to Stockton, and there established a blacksmith shop, in which venture he was successful. In the fall of 1851 he left his shop in the charge of a competent man, and returned East, by the steamship line, and joined his family in Missouri. With his family, in the following year, he again made the overland trip. Upon his arrival at Stockton he continued the business of blacksmithing, and also established a freighting line of teams to the mines. These enterprises were conducted with success until 1855, in which year he established a general merchandise store in Volcano, Amador County, continuing in the mercantile business until 1858, when he made Solano County his home. There he entered into the combined occupations of farming and blacksmithing, following them until 1884, when he took possession of his Santa Clara estate.
Mr. Chapman is an intelligent and energetic man, one who, for more than fifty years, has been engaged in active mechanical and business pursuits, which justly entitle him to the rest and quiet to be obtained at the comfortable home in which he is settled. He is a member of the Christian Church Society of San Jose, and is also a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, being a Master, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar.
In 1837 Mr.
Chapman wedded Miss Catharine Dooley, a daughter of Job Dooley, a native of
Kentucky, but a resident of Monroe County, Missouri. From this marriage two
children were born: Sarah Frances and Lucy I. The former is the wife of Charles
Horn, a native of Vermont, but now a resident of California, and the latter is
the wife of Thomas Lain; an attorney at law and a resident of San Jose. Mr.
Chapman's second marriage was in wedding Mrs. Eliza Ann (Forman) Burris, a
former resident of Missouri. From this marriage two children are living: Martha
Amanda, the wife of Thomas Proctor, of Los Gatos, and Susan D., the wife of
Henry Lampkin, an attorney at law of San Jose.
Pen Pictures From The
Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated.
- Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Pg. 573-574
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT