Alameda County
Biographies
MELVIN C. CHAPMAN
MELVIN C. CHAPMAN. The position of prominence accorded
Melvin C. Chapman in the professional, social and political life of
Oakland is the legitimate return for many years spent in an earnest effort to
advance the interests of the city in every possible avenue. A successful
lawyer, and especially prominent in criminal cases, either on the defense or
prosecution, it is said that in this class of work he has no superior if an
equal in the state. An able legislator, he has exerted a marked influence in
the upbuilding of the interests of this section. At the same time his fine
personality and many admirable traits of character have won for him a large
circle of friends in and about his adopted city, as well as in various other
localities of the state.
Mr. Chapman owes to a
long line of honorable ancestry many of the characteristics which have made his
own life a success. He belongs to one of the few American families who have
carefully kept the records of their ancestry, from the time of the emigration
of the first of the name, Robert Chapman, from his English home, and
settlement in Saybrook, Conn., in 1637. The homestead of this first American is
still in possession of those of the name. The ancestry had been English for
generations, members of the family serving under Cromwell against the king.
Throughout the years in which the family has flourished in this country the
name has become known in the various commercial, professional and political
avenues of the nation, ministers, merchants, lawyers and legislators giving the
strength of their convictions to the upbuilding forces. They have as well been
named among the patriots, being widely represented in the Revolutionary war,
the War of 1812, and the Civil war. In time one of the name located in
Illinois, and in Westfield of that state, September 5, 1850, Melvin C. Chapman
was born. Until he was nineteen years old he remained in that location, when he
came to California, since making this state his home. He early became dependent
upon his own resources, and in 1872 began the study of law, shortly afterward
making his home in Oakland. In 1884, in the meantime having abandoned his legal
research and taken it up later, he was admitted to the bar, entering upon his
practice in Oakland. He has made a success of his work, and in addition to
building up a large and lucrative general practice he is now acting as attorney
for several important corporations.
A Republican in
politics, he early became associated with the political life of the city, and
in 1888 was elected by a three-fourths vote to the state legislature. An
evidence of the ability which he displayed in the discharge of duty in this
position was the appreciation shown by his constituents in the offer of a
unanimous nomination for a second term. This, however, he declined, and in 1891
was elected mayor of Oakland by the largest majority ever given a Republican
candidate for that office. The year previous Mr. Chapman had made,
perhaps, the greatest sacrifice of his life in his refusal to accept the
nomination for Congress over the Hon. Joseph McKenna, who had been so
interested in his duties in Congress as to neglect his candidacy for renomination. With the generosity which has ever
characterized the methods of Mr. Chapman, and the loyalty and patriotism
which were his as a birthright, he declined the nomination in favor of the man
whose devotion to public duty had outweighed his own personal interests.
The marriage of Mr.
Chapman united him with Lillian M., a daughter of W. W. Childs,
of Oakland, and of this union has been born one son, Melvin C., Jr.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
05 January 2015.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 322-325.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Marie Hassard.
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