Alfred Chapman

Alfred Beck Chapman (September 6, 1829 – January 16, 1915) was a Los Angeles real estate attorney and investor. He was one of the founders of the city of Orange, California. Personal Chapman was born on September 6, 1829, in Greensboro, Alabama. His grandfather, Robert Hett Chapman, was born in Orange, New Jersey, studied theology and was a pastor from 1796 to 1812, at which time he became president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill until 1816. His father attended the University of North Carolina. Military Chapman was a Cadet at the Military Academy at West Point, from September 1, 1850, to July 1, 1854, when he was graduated 29th in his class. He was promoted to Brevet Second Lieutenant Of Artillery, July 1, 1854. Serving first in Florida in the early part of the Third Seminole War, 1854-55 during which he was promoted Second Lieutenant, U. S. 3rd Artillery Regiment. On February 15, 1855, he became a Second Lieutenant, U. S. 1st Dragoon Regiment, March 3, 1855, being ordered on frontier duty, at Albuquerque, New Mexico Territory in 1856. There he was on escort duty at both Albuquerque and Camp Moore. At Fort Buchanan, in 1857–1858, he participated in the 1857 Gila Expedition, and engaged Apache, in the Combat on Gila River, N.M., June 27, 1857. While at Fort Buchanan, he also made the first census for the United States of the Pima, Papago and Maricopa peoples of Arizona. Later in 1858 he was sent to Fort Tejon, California, serving there from 1858 into 1859. There he was involved in the Mohave War scouting against the Mohave people, and was engaged in a skirmish at Beall's Crossing of the Colorado River, January 9, 1859. Three days earlier he had been promoted to First Lieutenant, 1st Dragoons and was then sent to Fort Crook, California, serving there 1859-60, and then at Fort Churchill, in Utah Territory (now Nevada) from later 1860 until he resigned, May 14, 1861, following news of the beginning of the American Civil War. Following his resignation Chapman moved to Los Angeles, in Southern California where he took up the practice of law in 1862.