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Chapman (1880), Liberty Township biographies
merchant, North Liberty; b. 25 Feb. 1832, Darke Co., Ohio, son of Josiah and Martha Miller, natives of Somerset Co., Pa. (p. 728). Came to this county in spring 1855 with $75; taught school three months the following winter for $105; bought and sold a sequence of farms at stated prices (95 acres $1,000 → $1,687.50; 100 acres in Sec. 8 $1,100 → $1,800; 160 acres in Sec. 5 $2,100 → $4,100) (p. 728). In 1865 entered the mercantile business with a stock invoiced at $9,000 — the narrative’s “large dry-goods establishment” he continues (pp. 720, 728). Offices, at pointer here (government leg carries officeholding whole): elected Justice of the Peace in 1857, three successive terms; elected Township Trustee in 1869, seven years; Postmaster, “appointed by President Lincoln” — all as printed (p. 728). M. 1855 Mary Rupel, daughter of John and Anna (Loring) Rupel; six children, four living, named (p. 728). [PROFILE] Carrying fact: the town’s dominant post-1865 merchant and its longest Chapman-documented officeholder in one person — a founder-size business profile whose offices are cross-pointed, not duplicated.