This successful and reliable citizen dwells about two miles east from Melrose, where he has carved from the wilds of the reservation a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which now produces annually excellent yields of fruit, flax, wheat and other crops.
David L. Chapman was born in Ogle County, Illinois, on October 25, 1862, being the son of George and Fannie (Harrington) Chapman. The father was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1829, came to the United States in his eighteenth year and died in 1894. The mother was born in Pennsylvania in 1831 and died in 1896. When David was four years of age the family came to Woodbury County, Iowa, where he was reared on a farm and received his education from the public schools.
When twenty he started for himself, and the next year married. We see him in Dawson County, Montana, freighting, thence he went to North Dakota, later to Nebraska, and soon was in the machine shops at Newcastle, Wyoming, where he wrought for two years. The next journey brought them to Moscow, Idaho, and when the reservation opened Mr. Chapman came and homesteaded his present farm, since which time he has devoted himself industriously to its improvement and culture.
In 1883 Mr. Chapman married Miss Addie daughter of Fred and Eliza Procunier, farmers in South Dakota. Mrs. Chapman was burn in Ogle County, Illinois, in 1864, and has two brothers and one sister, Isaac, Rettie and William. Mr. Chapman has the following brothers and sisters: Levi; Rosella Kocher; Rachel Hawks, deceased; Henry: and Charles. The children born to our subject and his faithful wife are named as follows: Ethel, Charles, Earl, Mabel, Rachel and Clarence, all at home.
Mr. Chapman is a good Republican and is active and influential in the caucuses and conventions. He believes in good schools, good roads and good morals, a very sound trinity of good things. It is of interest that three brothers of his mother, Lorenzo, Wade and John Harrington, and one brother of his father, David Chapman, were all faithful soldiers in the Civil War.
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Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903