Chapman, Silas
Silas Chapman (June 9, 1813 - December 14, 1899) was active publisher of Midwest maps from roughly 1850 to the mid-1870s. Chapman was born in Southampton, Massachusetts and as a young Man attended New York University. In 1841 he moved to Prairieville (Waukesha) Wisconsin where he worked in academia as a local principle then as a schoolmaster in Milwaukee. Around 1843 his turned his attentions to publishing and briefly partnered with printer Philetus C. Hale until striking out independently in 1850. It was in this period - post 1850 - that his most important maps were published. From roughly 1850 to 1870, Chapman published a series of important wall and pocket format maps of the Midwest focusing specifically on the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. Upon his retirement the Chapman firm was acquired by Dyer and Pasmore, who continued to update and republish his maps into the 1880s.
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