My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES W. CHAPMAN has been promoted steadily during the past quarter of a century which he has passed in the employ of the Catasauqua & Fogelsville Railroad, with which he now occupies the place of Supervisor and Trainmaster. Until 1891 he was Superintendent of the road, but at that time, when the Philadelphia & Reading Company took charge of it, the office of Superintendent was abolished, but his duties are the same, though he has been given another title. Mr. Chapman is President of the School Board of Catasauqua, and has been very active in educational work, and in everything relating to the prosperity of the city.

A native of Carbon County, Mr. Chapman was born in Mauch Chunk, June 29, 1836, being a son of Joseph H. and Martha (Wooley) Chapman, natives of New London, Conn., and Philadelphia, the mother being of English descent. The father in youth learned the carpenter’s trade, and settled in Pennsylvania before his marriage. He was later employed by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and was Superintendent of one department or another during the remainder of his life. He was most of the time Superintendent of the Canal Department at Mauch Chunk, which place he held at the time of his death, in 1889, at the age of eighty, two years. Mrs. Chapman died in 1887, at the age of sixty-nine years. Of their five children, the eldest, Major Lancford, enlisted during the late war as Captain of Company E, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, was promoted to be Major of the regiment, and was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville. Mary, whose home is in Des Moines, Iowa, is the wife of Butler Worthington. Willard was killed by falling off a train on the Catasauqua & Fogelsville Railroad. Grace, the youngest of the family, is Mrs. John S. Shaffer, of Homestead, Pa. Charles W., of this sketch, was reared at Mauch Chunk, and obtained his primary education in the schools of his native city. In 1853-54 the Lehigh Valley Railroad was built, and our subject’s eldest brother, Lancford, was in charge of a corps of engineers, and Charles W. entered the employ of the same company, learning surveying. In 1856 he came to Catasauqua, assisting an engineer in the building of the Catasauqua & Fogelsville Railroad, the original line being only nine miles in length, and extending only as far as Chapman, which station was named for C. W. and his brother. After the road was completed, they opened a lumber and grain business at Chapman, where they continued for about a year. In the year 1858 our subject went on the survey of the Northern Pennsylvania & Delaware line from Freemansburg to Water Gap, by way of Easton, and the following year went with contractors to superintend the building of the Cabin John Bridge on the Washington Aqueduct. This was an important piece of work, the immense stone arch being the largest erected at that time, and probably still has that distinction. This is a part of the Washington Aqueduct, which conducts the water from the Potomac River into Washington City. In 1860 Mr. Chapman returned to Mauch Chunk, being in the employ of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.

In July, 1861, Mr. Chapman enlisted in Company E, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, being mustered in at Philadelphia as Second Lieutenant. He was sent to Virginia, doing duty along the Potomac, and was afterward in the Quartermaster’s department. Promoted in time to be First Lieutenant and Assistant Quartermaster, he was later made Lieutenant in charge of the ambulance corps during the last year of his service. He was First Lieutenant of Company G, under Colonel Geary, afterward Governor of Pennsylvania, and with his regiment took part in the Virginia campaign, including the battle of Gettysburg, being afterwards transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and participating in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, after which he went on the Georgia campaign. After having served for over three years he was mustered out at Atlanta, in August, 1864.

In 1865 our subject returned to the employ of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company at Mauch Chunk, and in the fall of that year went with the engineering corps to Broad Top as Superintendent of the Broad Top Coal & Iron Company, and in the two following years opened up several mines. In July, 1867, coming to Catasauqua, he was made Superintendent and Engineer of the Catasauqua & Fogelsville Railroad, holding the same until August, 1893. In November, 1890, the Philadelphia & Reading Company purchased the controlling interest of the Catasauqua & Fogelsville Railroad, with whom he holds a like position. This road was built by the Crane Iron Company and the Thomas Iron Company, the former disposing of its interests in 1890 to the Philadelphia & Reading Company, while the latter still retain their interest. The first steel rails, which were placed in 1871, cost $125 per ton, while the last were only $30 per ton. The Catasauqua & Fogelsville road is the main tine between Catasauqua and Rittenhouse Gap, a distance of about twenty miles, and the branch running from Trexlertown to Lichty is five and a-half miles. The main branch between Crane and Walner is three miles and a-half in length, the line from Wetezel to Gehman is one and seven-tenths miles, this being built over the Lehigh or South Mountain. Rittenhouse Point is on top of the Lehigh or South Mountain, one thousand feet above tide water, and for five miles the grade is one hundred and twenty-five feet to the mile.

November 13, 1860, Mr. Chapman married Miss Anne, daughter of William Philips, both natives of Wales. The father was engaged in the foundry of the Crane Iron Company, and died in this city. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman have two children, Lancford F., of this place, a civil engineer, and Edwin, a mechanic in the Ordnance Department of the Bethlehem Iron Company, where he is now employed in working on the large steel guns for the Government. Mr. Chapman has been President, of the School Board for a number of years, and has been a member of the same for nearly a quarter of a century. Until he resigned he was for several years borough engineer, and is a stanch Republican in politics. Socially he is a member of the Free & Accepted Masons, and when living in Mauch Chunk joined the Royal Arch Masons. Mrs. Chapman is a faithful and consistent member of the Presbyterian Church.