Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 3.djvu/229

Rh Colonel Chapman was a Mason and enjoyed the highest regard of his brethren of that fraternity. A few weeks before his death the school board of Portland named one of the new public schools in his honor in recognition of his efforts to advance the cause of education. Progress and patriotism might well be termed the keynote of his character. There are few men who have labored so unselfishly and untiringly for the public good. His strong analytical mind enabled him to understand every phase of a question, and his remarkable sagacity enabled him to look beyond and beneath the surface and recognize the true condition of affairs and the possible outcome for the future. His comprehensive understanding of every public question therefore was a most effective feature in his work for the public good, and in his life his public and private acts ever balanced up with the principles of truth and honor.

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.