Tehama County Biographies

NORTON PARKER CHIPMAN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler, August 2004.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
            Norton Parker Chipman, the subject of this brief sketch, was born at 
Milford Center, Union County, Ohio, March 7, 1836.  Both his parents were born 
in Vermont, and on his father�s side several of the family were distinguished as 
statesmen and lawyers in the early part of the country�s history.  He had such 
advantages of education while a boy in the private and public schools as were 
afforded in Ohio; but his parents moved to the farther West while he was yet in 
his �teens, and settled in Iowa.  Here the boy assisted his father in building 
up a home and conducting his business as a merchant, but not to the neglect of 
his studies.  Young Chipman was a pupil of Samuel F. Howe, at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa 
� one of the most successful educators of his day � and later entered college at 
Washington, Iowa.
            With a liberal education, but without graduating, he became 
impatient to enter upon the activities of life, and chose the law as a 
profession.  He graduated later at the Cincinnati Law School, and at the 
beginning of the war was engaged in practice at Washington, Iowa, as a partner 
of Hon. Joseph R. Lewis, afterward Chief Justice of the United States Court in 
Washington Territory.  When Mr. Lincoln�s call for seventy-five thousand 
volunteers was sent out, Mr. Chipman was the first to enroll his name in his 
town, and a company was at once there organized.  It became Company �H� of the 
Second Iowa Infantry � the first three-year regiment from that State � and Mr. 
Chipman was Lieutenant of the company.  The Colonel of the regiment, Hon. Samuel 
R. Curtis, - then a Member of Congress, - appointed Lieutenant Chipman Adjutant 
of the regiment.  Upon Colonel Curtis� promotion as Brigadier-General, 
Lieutenant Chipman was elected by the officers and was commissioned Major of the 
regiment by Governor Kirkwood.  He took part in the early campaigns in Northern 
and Central Missouri, and was Chief of Staff to General Curtis up to the 
movement on the Tennessee River by Grant.  He was severely wounded at Fort 
Donelson while charging the enemy�s entrenchments with his regiment.  For 
gallantry at this battle he was commissioned by President Lincoln, Colonel and 
Additional Aid-de-Camp in the United States Army on the staff of Major-General 
Halleck, and was, after the siege of Corinth, assigned to his old commander, 
Curtis, and made Chief of Staff.  The Secretary of War detailed him for duty at 
the War Department in the winter of 1862-�63, where he afterward remained until 
the close of the war.  His position was one of confidence and responsibility, 
and he was near to that great War Secretary until the war ended.  He was 
Judge-Advocate of several important military courts, and prosecuted and 
convicted the Andersonville jailer, Wirz.
            He resigned from the army in 1865, after his promotion as Brevet 
Brigadier-General by Secretary Stanton, and opened a law office in Washington 
city, where he built up a large business.  In 1871 he was elected, and in 1873 
re-elected by the people of the District of Columbia as Delegate in Congress, 
and was the first and last Representative ever chosen for that office from the 
District.  He was one of the founders of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was 
the first Adjutant-General under the re-organization, while General John A. 
Logan was Commander-in-Chief in his first term, and was Judge-Advocate-General 
for General Logan�s second term.
            His health failing in 1875 he came to California, intending to 
return to Washington; but he soon became fascinated with the large enterprises 
then offering and the health-giving climate everywhere to be found.  And he 
never after lived out of the State, but at once identified himself with her best 
and highest development.
            As an evidence of General Chipman�s enterprise and tireless devotion 
to active business pursuits, he organized, immediately on coming to the State, a 
large lumbering company, which, in less than one year from its incorporation, 
had ten saw-mills, two sash and door factories and three flumes in operation; 
and in 1876-�77 manufactured and sold over 40,000,000 feet of lumber in one 
season.  The investment was large, and, but for the general failure of all 
enterprises which followed the downfall of the Bank of California, this great 
scheme would have succeeded and been profitable to its owners.  It went down for 
the time, but was re-organized, and is now one of the most important industries 
in Northern California.  The General has been practicing his profession of the 
law at Red Bluff since 1879, and has built up a wide clientage, and is among the 
foremost lawyers of his part of the State.  His law partner, Charles A. Garter, 
has recently been appointed United States Attorney for the Northern District of 
California, and now resides at San Francisco.
            General Chipman takes an active interest in all local enterprises 
and has given much thought and has written and spoken much upon matters 
concerning the material development of the State, and is a practical and large 
fruit-grower.  He is Vice-President of the State Board of Trade, whose labors 
are solely in the interest of State growth.  He is also President of the 
California World�s Fair Association, whose Executive Committee has in charge the 
whole matter of the State�s exhibit at Chicago in 1893.
            He has never been active in politics in the State, but always takes 
the stump for the Republican party on occasions of National and important State 
elections.  He has made the distinctive Republican policy of protection a 
special study, and his tariff arguments are pronounced clear and convincing by 
all who hear them, except the tariff-for-revenue believer and free-trader who 
prefer not to be convinced.  At the Republican State Convention in August, 1890, 
he was a prominent candidate for Governor, and though not nominated he made a 
most favorable impression, and, as a representative man of the North, the honors 
of the party may yet await him.
            General Chipman writes with great facility upon many subjects, and 
his helpful pen finds frequent expression through the press and periodicals.  
His annual address a the State Fair in 1886, and at the Stockton District Fair 
in 1887, published in the State Reports, are full of material of permanent value 
to agriculture and the fruit industry of California.  He was the first to 
present in satisfactory form the rise, growth and importance of our fruit 
industries, which he did in a report to the State Board of Trade in 1889.  When 
the people of Northern California shall make up their minds to demand a larger 
recognition in the distribution of places of political influence and power, 
somewhat commensurate with the grand capabilities and the existing merits of 
that region, it is not improbable that General Chipman may be chosen as their 
leader.
            General Chipman married the daughter of Robert Holmes, of St. Louis, 
Missouri, in January, 1865; and his wife has been his constant companion ever 
since.  Their home is widely known for its generous hospitality.
 
SOURCE:  Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1891. pg. 353-355


THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT: Presiding Justice.
NORTON PARKER CHIPMAN (Republican) was born at Milford, Union County, Ohio, of 
New England parentage, his father and mother being natives of Vermont. The 
family soon afterwards moved to Iowa and resided variously at Keosauqua, Mount 
Pleasant, and Washington, in that State. He attended school at these places, 
receiving most of his education at Howe's Academy in Mount Pleasant and at 
Washington College. He commenced studying law at the latter place, but graduated 
at the Cincinnati Law School, entering practice just before the Civil War, at 
Washington, Iowa. At the call of President Lincoln, in 1861, he enlisted in the 
Second Iowa Infantry, the first three-year regiment from that State; was made 
Second lieutenant of Company H; appointed by Col. Samuel R. Curtis regimental 
adjutant; elected by the officers as major to fill the vacancy caused by the 
promotion of Colonel Curtis to the rank of brigadier-general; was detailed to 
serve as chief of the latter's staff; returned to his regiment and took part in 
Grant's campaign on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers; was severely wounded in 
a charge of his regiment upon the Confederate works at Fort Donelson; was back 
at his post at the siege of Corinth, where he received promotion as colonel and 
additional aid-de-camp in the regular army on the staff of Major-General 
Halleck, and was assigned to duty with his old commander, Curtis, now 
major-general, commanding the Department of Arkansas, and was made his chief of 
staff; was sent to Washington, D. C., on special duty, his services while there 
attracting the attention of Secretary of War Stanton, who refused his earnest 
request to be returned to field duty, and he served in the War Department to the 
close of the war; he successfully performed some important and hazardous special 
service as bearer of dispatches to commanders in the field, by the personal 
detail of President Lincoln, and came near capture by "Mosby's Guerrillas" on 
one of these occasions and on another by the retreating army of General Early; 
as judge-advocate he tried and convicted the Andersonville Prison jailer, Henry 
Wirz, who was hanged in "Old Capitol Prison" for his atrocious cruelties to 
prisoners of war; he also tried many other important military commission cases 
as judge-advocate; was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers at the close of 
the war, and resigned to enter the practice of law at Washington, D. C., in 
November, 1865; when the District of Columbia was given a territorial form of 
government he was appointed Secretary of the District by President Grant in 
1870, but resigned and was elected Delegate to Congress, where he served two 
terms (1871-1875) and was the only representative ever given the district in 
Congress. In 1868 and 1869 he was adjutant general of the Grand Army of the 
Republic on the staff of its commander-in-chief, General John A. Logan, and was 
largely instrumental in effecting a reorganization, on a sound and enduring 
basis, of that remarkable society of Civil War veterans; it was while adjutant 
general in 1868 that he wrote the memorable order creating Memorial Day. He came 
to California to reside in 1876, since which time he has been prominently 
connected with the industrial, political, and social welfare of the State. No 
man has written more or with better effect or given more of his time and 
energies to advertise to the world the attractions of California. For a number 
of years he was the president of the California State board of Trade, and to him 
is due the credit of promulgating the dictim that "the climate of California is 
the State's most valuable asset." In April, 1897, he was appointed by the 
Supreme Court as one of the five commissioners of that court, and served in that 
capacity until appointed by the five commissioners of that court, and served in 
that capacity until appointed by Governor Pardee in 1905 as Presiding Justice of 
the District Court of Appeal, for the Third District; he was regularly elected 
to that office in November, 1906, and allotted the twelve-year term.
 
Source: California Blue Book, or State Roster, 1911
Compiled by Frank C. Jordan, Secretary of State
Friend W. Richardson, Superintendent of State Printing, Sacramento, CA, 1913


Submitted by Nancy Pratt Melton