William W. Chapman

William Williams Chapman (August 11, 1808 – October 18, 1892) was an American politician and lawyer in Oregon and Iowa. He was born and raised in Virginia. He served as a United States Attorney in Iowa when it was part of the Michigan and Wisconsin territories, and then represented the Iowa Territory in the United States House of Representatives. He later immigrated to the Oregon Country, where he served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature.

After settling in Portland, he helped to found The Oregonian newspaper and promoted economic interests in the city. He also was involved with building Canyon Road near Portland, and fought in the Rogue River War in Oregon. In later years, he served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly and promoted the expansion of railroads from Portland. Chapman Square, a park in downtown Portland, is named for him and was built on land he sold to the city.

William Chapman was born in Clarksburg, Virginia, (now West Virginia) on August 11, 1808. His father died when William was fourteen, at which time he left home to earn his own way. He was educated in the public schools, and then took a job as a court clerk, while studying law on his own time. In 1832, after reading law, he earned his law license and began practice in Middletown.

Chapman married Margaret F. Ingraham (daughter of Arthur B. Ingram) in 1832, and had seven children with her. They moved to Macomb, Illinois in 1833, then to what is now Burlington, Iowa (then part of Michigan Territory) in 1835, where they were among the first settlers. The next year he became a prosecuting attorney, and was then appointed by United States President Andrew Jackson as United States Attorney for the Michigan Territory.

In 1836, the Wisconsin Territory was formed from the western section of the Michigan Territory. Chapman became the first United States Attorney for the District of Wisconsin when it was created. He was elected as colonel of the militia in 1836 after moving to what is now Dubuque, Iowa. Then in 1838, the Iowa Territory was carved from the Wisconsin Territory.

Chapman was elected as Iowa Territory's first non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives. A Democrat, he served from September 10, 1838, to October 27, 1840, spanning portions of the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Congresses. While in Congress he introduced legislation for a pre-emption law, the first to do so in Congress. His efforts secured for Iowa the land grant of 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) for the support of common schools, and a congressional report on Iowa's boundary dispute with Missouri that was favorable to Iowa.

After his term expired, Chapman returned to Iowa, relocating in 1843 to Agency City in Wapello County. In 1844, he served as a delegate to Iowa's Constitutional Convention, which was held in Iowa City and led to the entry of Iowa into the Union as the 29th state in 1846. Chapman left Iowa in 1847, traveling the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Country.

He left in May and arrived in November of what was still the unorganized Oregon Country. At this time the region was under the jurisdiction of the United States after the settling of the Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain the previous year. In Oregon, Chapman settled first in what was then Marysville, and is now Corvallis, in the Willamette Valley. In 1848, he relocated to Salem, where he learned of the California Gold Rush while at court at Knox Butte. Chapman went to California for a brief time and had some success in the gold fields before returning in 1849 to Oregon, which had become the Oregon Territory in 1848.