Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders/Volume 3/Winfield S. Chapman
WINFIELD S. CHAPMAN.
Winfield S. Chapman of Portland, is one of the oldest among the native residents here, his birth having occurred in the then village of Portland on the 3d of July, 1850. He is a son of Col. W. W. Chapman, whose biography precedes this. His parents removed to southern Oregon in 1853, but returned to Portland in 1861, so that Winfield S. Chapman largely acquired his early education in the schools of this city, principally in the old Portland Academy, from which he was graduated in 1868.
Following his graduation, he entered the office of the city surveyor as assistant and a year after attaining his majority became chief of that department, which position he filled for two years, when a change in political administration occurred and a democrat was appointed. Turning his attention to the field of journalism in 1878, he founded the Daily Bee, of which he was editor. He made this a popular and successful paper, but in the fall of that year sold out and again became city surveyor, which position he held until 1881. In that year the city council again became democratic, and he once more left the office; but in 1883 was again appointed, so serving until 1884, when he resigned in order to accept the position of superintendent of streets, which he held until the office became elective in 1891, at which time he refused the nomination. During the '70s he devoted several thousand dollars to assisting his father in the projected railroad from Salt Lake to Portland and surveyed a part of the line at his own expense. During the following decade he was the controlling spirit in the installation and operation of the Jefferson street steam ferry, which after long litigation broke the monopoly that had been controlled by the Stark street ferry for many years. He was also the organizer and the main promoter in the construction of the waterworks on the east side of the river, the first system established there, and obtained a franchise for, located and planned the Madison street bridge, but sold the ferry and franchise before the work on the bridge had progressed far.
The panic of 1893 found Mr. Chapman with real estate on his hands to the extent of two hundred thousand dollars, but the decline in the real estate market was so great and so rapid that his entire wealth was swept away. In 1899 he went to Skagway, Alaska, where he edited the Daily Alaskan until his return to Portland to prepare for departure to Cape Nome, whither he went in the spring of 1900 as part owner of an outfit of machinery for mining gold from the beach sands. This enterprise, however, was not successful. In 1904 he accepted the position of district engineer in the office of the city engineer, and has since acted in that capacity. While he has given assiduous attention to the duties of the office, which have been discharged with the utmost fidelity and ability. He is also interested in various private enterprises which are now proving sources of profitable return. In politics he has likewise been an active republican, stanchly advocating the principles of the party.
One of the strongly marked characteristics of Mr. Chapman has been his final love and devotion to his parents, to whom he was especially attentive and helpful in their last years. When young he promised his mother not to marry while she lived, and he kept this promise. On the 21st of December, 1908, he wedded Miss E. E. Crookham of San Francisco, a daughter of Judge J. A. Crookham of Oskaloosa, Iowa. She is a lady of high educational attainments, who was graduated from Mt. Holyoke College, visited England and other countries of Europe a second time in pursuing her studies. For several years she was a successful teacher in the Portland high school, and afterward accepted a position in the city schools of San Francisco, where she lived and experienced the terrors of "the great fire" in that city. While Mr. Chapman has at times met reverses in his business enterprises owing largely to conditions over which he had no control, he has nevertheless done an important part in the upbuilding of the northwest and his service as a public official has been marked by a fidelity that none have questioned.