762
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
land about two and a half miles northwest of Sugar Grove Station, which he brought under cultivation, and upon which he lived until his death, Sept. 2, 1897. Mr. Chapman was a member of the County Board of Supervisors for several years; also served as Assessor of Sugar Grove and held other town offices. He married Julia Pratt, of Chemung County, N. Y., who died in 1884, and the only representatives of this pioneer family now living are Albert Pratt Chapman and Harriet B. Chapman, both of Sugar Grove, Ill.
MATTHEW T. CHAPMAN, manufacturer, Aurora, a native of Priddy, Somersetshire, England, where he was born Dec. 20, 1844, came to the United States when a boy and grew to manhood in New York. He worked as a blacksmith and machinist at Skeneateles and Auburn, N. Y., for two or three years, and was subsequently in the employ of the Government at Nashville and other points in the South. After the Civil War he returned to New York, and worked at his trade in Seneca Palls and Rochester. For the purpose of constructing the city gas works he came to Aurora, Ill., and that city has become his permanent home. For some time he conducted a gas-fitting, plumbing and machinist business, and still later established the American Well Works Company, of which he was President, with a large and growing business. Various successful devices for sinking deep wells have been perfected by him. Mr. Chapman has been twice married, his first wife having been Miss Mary T. Sperry, and his second Mrs. Helen Leet, of Aurora.
SAMUEL W. CHAPMAN, merchant, Elgin, Ill., born in Wyoming County, N. Y., Sept. 9, 1843, son of Samuel and Margaret (Spittal) Chapman; in 1844 came to Illinois with his parents, who located on a farm in Plato Township, Kane County, and there resided until a few years previous to their death. They both died in Elgin, the father in 1886, and the mother in 1889. The elder Samuel Chapman served in the War of the Rebellion as First Lieutenant of the Plato Cavalry Company, which was attached to the Thirty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry; the members of this company furnished their own horses when they entered the service. The subject of this sketch grew to manhood on the farm and obtained his education in the public schools and Beloit College (Beloit, Wis.) ; later became cashier for the American and United States Express Companies -joint offices at Burlington-and in 1868 removed to Elgin, where for several years he was in the milling business; in 1878 was appointed general agent for the McCormick Harvester Company for Northern Illinois, remaining in that position until 1893, when he established himself in the agricultural implement and carriage business, which he has conducted up to the present time. In 1894 he was appointed by President Cleveland Postmaster of Elgin, holding office four years. Mr. Chapman was married in 1867 to Miss Elvena F. Stone, daughter of Isaac Stone, one of the first settlers of Kane County.
ANSON L. CLARK, M. D., M. A., Elgin, President Bennett Medical College, Chicago, was born in Clarksburg, Mass., Oct. 12, 1836, received his education in the public schools, and at Lombard University, Galesburg, Ill., from which he graduated in 1858, receiving the degree of M. A., in 1867. He was graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute at, Cincinnati in 1861, and was appointed first Assistant Surgeon One Hundred Twenty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, serving as such until the close of the war. In 1862 he had established his home in Elgin, and there resumed his prac-
