Grayson County TXGenWeb

Dallas Morning News
December 17, 1888

Denison, Tex., Dec. 16. -- W. M. Chapman, editor and proprietor of the Denison Evening Journal, died at his home in this city last evening, after an illness of several months. His remains will be interred in Oakwood cemetery to-morrow evening at 3 o'clock.

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, December 23, 1888
pg. 1

W.M. CHAPMAN DEAD
The Editor of the Evening Journal Passes Away in the Fifty-Second Year of His Age
The Gazetteer is called upon to record a loss to the journalistic profession in the death of W.M. Chapman, editor of the Evening Journal of this city, which occurred at his home on West Sears Street at 1:20 o'clock Sunday morning. Mr. Chapman had been suffering with consumption for some time and his death was not unexpected, though he had succeeded in keeping upon his feet up to Friday of the preceding week.
Mr. Chapman was a life long journalist and practical printer, and in both branches of the craft was highly respected and esteemed. He was a man of honest and straightforward qualities, courteous in speech and friendly in disposition, and by his demise the city loses a sterling friend and the profession an honorable representative. From the Evening Journal we glean the following outline of his history:
"W.M. Chapman was born in Grafton, Illinois, on August 27, 1836. His father died while he was yet a very small boy and he was left to support a widowed mother at a very early age. He became an apprentice to his uncle as a blacksmith, but soon abandoned the business. His mother moved to Alton, Illinois, when he was but a little lad and he went to work shortly after arriving there in the Alton Daily Telegraph office, where he learned the printer's trade. He was the foreman of this office at seventeen years of age.
He then went to St. Louis and accepted a position on the St. Louis Republican, which he held for a number of years. Returning to Alton, he was employed for some time on the Telegraph as a pressman.
He next went to Peoria, Illinois, and accepted a position as foreman of the pressroom on the Democrat under W.T. Doudle, the present postmaster of that place. He lived in Peoria a number of years and then began to move about from one place to another. He published a paper in Washington, Indiana and one in Washington, Illinois. He then returned to Peoria, where he lived for about six year, after which he came to Texas.
Locating in Sherman, he was connected with the various papers of that place for years, after which he removed to Denison with his family and accepted a position on the Herald News. At a later date he became owner of the present Journal office and publisher of the Daily Gate City. At lenght when old age began to tell on him he disposed of the paper to the present proprietor, his son, and became editor of the Journal."
The funeral took place from the First M.E. Church at 3:30 p.m. Monday, the funeral sermon being preached by Rev. T.G. Corkill. Among those who followed the hearse to Oakwood Cemetery, newspaper men were conspicously numerous, and the hands that lowered the remains to their last resting place were those of his fellow journatlists.