the Umpqua
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river, footed it across the country, swimming all the rivers and BlounhH ou the way to Marysville, now Cjrvallis. Came to the State a Free Soil Wliijf and an earnest supporter of common schools. Helped to organize and haa been ever since a consistent and energetic worker in the R<>puhlioan party. He has filled many offices of trust and honor, notal)ly that of (\)iinty Clerk of Benton county, to which office he was elected in 18(;4, and continuously re-elected to the present time. His present term will make tweuty years o f active service in the same position. While attending to the dutit^s of his office he has given much time and attention to advancing the interests o f the State at large as well as the local interests of the county in which he resides, particularly the improvement of Yaquina harbor and the railroad connection therewith. He was the first President of the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad Company, and gave many years' time and much money to that enterprise, now so near completion. Mr. Wilson is a clear type of the sturdy pioneer of Oregon, and in the annals of the State the future his- torian will often refer to his name and deeds in recording its early hist )ry .
COL. W. W. CHAPMAN
Was born at Clarksburg, Va., August 8, 18l)8, and now resides at Portland, Oregon. His father, who was a millwright, and of the Pennsylvania Dutch Quaker cast of people, died in 1821, leaving a family of three sons, John B., Warner W. and Wm. W., who was then thirteen years of age. Those who have known either of the three men will readily recognize the marked family characteristic of all for energy and integrity. Having been admitted to the bar as an attorney-at-law, the subject of this sketch was married in 1882 to Margaret Fee, eighth child and fourth daughter of Col. Arthur Inghram who had several times sat in the House of Delegates of the Virginia Legis- lature. Mrs. Chapman is still living and enjoys good health. Soon after his marriage Colonel Chapman moved westward, first to Ohio, then to Illi- nois and then to Burlington, in Iowa Territory. He was TJ. S. Attorney under President Jackson, for Wisconsin, when it comprised Iowa and Illi- nois. He was the first Territorial Delegate in Congress from Iow;i. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of Iowa, under which she was admitted into the Union. By his efibrts the judiciary wius made elective, which was the second, if not the first, State of the Union which adopted that mode. He was several times a member of the Iowa Legislature. When a delegate to Congress he sat at a desk with the noted Tom Corwin; and he caused the appointment to West Point of a young man named (Gardner, who afterwards took an active part as a general in the Confederate army. He was a schoolmate with Stonewall Jackson, the great Southern leader; and also of the late Daniel Waldo, of "Waldo hills," in Marion county in that State. In 1847 Col. Chapman and family immigrated to Oregon, where he has since resided. Early in 1849, while in California in quest «)r gold, he met General Joseph Lane, who was on his way, as (xovernor, to organize the new Territorial Government of Oregon. He, with about one hundred other Or- egonians who had spent the winter in the California mountainn hunting gold, returned with General Lane to Oregon, iu the old bark Jeanette.
