Biography - Pleasant Chapman
HON. PLEASANT T. CHAPMAN, President of the First National Bank of Vienna, was born on a farm eight miles north of Vienna, Johnson County, ILL., October 8, 1854. His father, Daniel C. Chapman, was born three miles from Vienna. His father, Daniel Chapman, was born in Onondaga County, N. Y., and going back one generation further, his father, Daniel Chapman, was born in England. This English progenitor of the Chapman family in the United States came to America at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and served in that war seven years, on the side of the Colonists. He came to Illinois about 1818, and was one of the first settlers in Bloomfleld Township, in which he secured a tract of Government land, cleared a farm, and lived upon that farm until his death. The maiden name of his wife was Lucretia Finch. The grandfather of Hon. Pleasant T. Chapman came to Illinois with his parents when quite a young man, and secured a tract of Government land in Bloomfield Township, which he farmed. He was a well-educated man, and though not regularly admitted to the Bar, was a kind of legal counselor for his neighbors, and in many other ways was a most useful citizen. He lived all his life upon his farm, and married Miss Elizabeth Depoister.
Daniel C. Chapman, tlie father of our subject, waa reared and educated in Johnson County, ILL., and when a young man taught several terms of school. After his marriage he settled in Tunnel Hill Township, where he had purchased eighty acres of land, and where he pursued a successful career as a farmer. At different limes afterward he added to his landed possessions, until at the time of his death, which took place in 1889, he owned four hundred acres. His wife was Mary Rose, born in Grantsburg, and the daughter of Pleasant Rose, and she now occupies the home farm. She reared eight children, as follows; Pleasant T., James C., Daniel L., Sidney A. (now deceased), Mary E. Benson, Ida C. Whittenberg, Estella B. and Charles A. The father of these children was formerly a Whig, but has been a Republican since the formation of that party, and was a soldier in the Mexican War. He served three terms as Sheriff of the county, the extent of his political services to his State.
Hon. Pleasant T. Chapman secured his early education in the public schools, and his advanced education at McKendree College, where he graduated in the Class of '76, and then taught four terms of school, during which time he studied law in the office of Judge H. H. Horner, of Lebanon, and of Hon. A. G. Damron, of Vienna. In 1878 he was admitted to the Bar, and in 1879 began the practice of his profession. In 1882 he was married to May Copeland, by whom he has three children, Ward, Marian and Ralph. He cast his first Presidential vote for Garfield in 1880, and has ever since been a stanch and true Republican. He has served two terms as County Superintendent of Schools, and two terms of four years each as County Judge, and in 1890 waa elected to the State Senate, in which body he voted with the Republicans in that memorable session of 1890-91. He first engaged in banking in 1882, conducting a private bank from that time until 1890, when the First National Bank of Vienna was organized, and he elected President. He is Secretary of the Chapman Store Company, which transacts an extensive mercantile business, and is also President of the Vienna Lumber Company, and the owner of several farms, and is largely interested in farming and stock-raising. To this multiplicity of enterprises he gives his personal attention, and in addition is engaged in the practice of law. He is a member of Vienna Lodge No. 150, A. F. & A. M.; of Vienna Chapter No. 67, R. A. M.; of Cairo Commandery No. 13, K. T,, and of Vienna Lodge No. 248, K. of P. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Chapman is one of the most active and most public-spirited men of his county.
Extracted 13 May 2002 by Rick Girtman from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 375-376.
