Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/559

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REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND


great-grandfather of Mrs. Chapman, was graduated at Yale College in 1759. A prominent lawyer and a judge, he served a number of years as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and in 1777 was a commissary for forwarding stores. His fine old colonial man- sion is still standing at Feeding Hills, Mass. His mother was sister to Colonel Timothy Dwight, grandfather of President Timotiiy Dwight, of Yale College.

Mrs. Chapman, under her maiden name, Mary A. Wright, was graduated from the Fitchburg High School at an early age, afterward attending the Maplewood Institute in Pittstieid, Mass.

On September 13, 1864, she married James L. Chapman, son of Daniel Chapman, who was then engaged in manufacturing in Fitchburg in company with Mr. Wright, her father. He is now retired.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Chapman are: Walter Butler (who died in infancy), Josephine Wright, (ieorge Daiuel (deceased), and Louis Raymond. Josephine AV right Chapman is an architect. Inheriting from her maternal grand- father a talent for designing and for using tools, after receiving her education in the Fitchburg public schools, she came to Boston, and, en- tering the office of Mr. C. H. Blackall, fitted herself for her profession, in which she is now engaged. She resides in Boston. She de- signed the Worcester Woman's Club House; "The Craigie," a students' dormitory at Cam- bridge; the New England States Building at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo; the Episcopal church in Leominster; and many other public buildings and private resi- dences.

George D. Chapman was connected for a number of years with the Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology, being an instructor after his graduation. Later ami at the time of his death he was supervising engineer of the New York Ship Building Company at Cam- den, N.J. He was a young man of great prom- ise. Louis Raymond ('hapman, a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard College, and Boston LTniversity, is a practising lawyer in Boston.

Mrs. Chapman was one of the first meml)ers of the Fitchburg Woman's Club, was a direc- tor and chairman of the science section and superintendent of the household school for three years, when that work brought the club into prominence. She contributed to the Fitchburg Evening Mail an article u])on the svibject of town impi'ovement, an e(lition of which was published Ijy the clul) for charitable work.

Mrs. ('hapman was treasurer for two years of the Children's Home in Fitchburg. She is a charter member of the George Washmgton Memorial Association. At two of the annual meetings held in Washington, D.C., she was a delegate fi-om this State, and was one of the vice-chairmen representing Ma.ssachusetts. She was the third State Regent of the Daugh- ters of the Revolution of Massachusetts, and is ex-'ice-President -general of the National Society of the D. R. She was chairman of its patriotic work at the time they erected a mon- vunent at Valley Forge, and she was ])resent at the dedication and unveiling of this monu- ment, which took i)lace October 19, 1901 (Coi'iiwallis day). She went to Washington, D.C., with tiie other general officers, and ad- dressed the Senate and House committee on military affairs in behalf of tiie'^biil to make Valley Forge a National Park.

On June 17, 1901, the Massachusetts State Society, Daughters of the Revolution, held its celebration of the battle of Bunker Hill with exercises in the New England States Building at the Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. Mrs. Chapman presiiled and made the address on that occasion.

Mrs. Chapman is a member of Dorothy Q. Chapter of Boston. In 1902 she was the nominee of the State Society for the office of President-general of the National Society. She is an honorary member of the Martha Washington Chapter, D. R., of Boston, and Honorary Regent of the Betsy Ross Chapter, I). R., of Fitchburg. She is a, member of the Woman's Charity Club of Boston and its Second Vice-President, a member of the Peter Faneuil Chapter, D. R., of Allston, and of the Floral Emblem Society, Boston, and has also just become a memlier of the Boston Women's Educational and Industrial Union.