William P. Chapman, Pioneer Settler of Sandusky

William Pendleton Chapman was born in 1808, the son of Timothy Chapman and Nancy Pendleton, who were natives of Rhode Island. In 1834, William P. Chapman married Eliza Cross Pendleton in New London, Connecticut. Shortly after they were married, Mr. and Mrs. Chapman moved to Sandusky, where Mr. Chapman was the proprietor of a forwarding and shipping business. By 1862, he was the treasurer of the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad. His name was listed in a Railway Directory in 1862.

While serving as treasurer of the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad, Mr. Chapman and his family were given several railroad passes from several different railroads.

       

Besides being a busy business man, Mr. Chapman was active in the Grace Episcopal Church, where he had served on the very first church vestry. When church records began being kept for Grace Episcopal Church, it was William P. Chapman who painstakingly wrote them by hand.

When the church celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1885, Chapman, along with Rice Harper, wrote a history of the congregation, which was partially reprinted in Hewson Peeke’s A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio (Lewis Publishing Company, 1916.) 

By 1869 William P. Chapman had entered into the wholesale fish business with John Strickland. Mrs. Eliza Chapman died in 1891, and Mr. Chapman died in 1893. Both were buried in the family lot at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. 

To learn more about William P. Chapman and his extended family, visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, which holds letters from the Chapman and Pendleton families dating from 1843 to 1870. 

William Durbin, Former Railroad Superintendent

William Durbin was born in Carroll County, Maryland in 1813. He studied the art of civil engineering. As a young man he worked as an Assistant Engineer on the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. He lived in Sandusky, Ohio from the late 1830s through 1851, when he left to survey the Wabash Valley Railroad from Fort Wayne to its western terminus. Then, from about 1852 to 1855, he was involved in the management of the Lafayette & Indianapolis Railroad. In 1856 he returned to Sandusky and entered into a partnership with F.T. Barney and L.S. Hubbard in the banking business. An ad from the Union Bank appeared in the Sandusky Register of June 13, 1857.

In 1858 Durbin was elected president and superintendent of the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark Railroad. His name appeared in the Low’s Railway Directory in 1862.

William Durbin died after a brief illness on May 21, 1863. An article which appeared in the May 22, 1863 issue of the Sandusky Register stated about Mr. Durbin, “Mr. Durbin was one of our most active, energetic and public-spirited citizens. He was the life and soul of the S.M. & N. Railroad, managing its affairs and caring for its interests in a manner unexcelled. He will be a sad loss to the city and its interests and an irreparable one to the Railroad.” 

William Durbin’s funeral was held at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Hubbard, and burial was at Oakland Cemetery.