Adair County Iowa

Dr. Robert R. Chapman, a leading physician and surgeon of Bridgewater, where he has followed his profession for the past twenty-one years, is widely recognized as one of the able medical practitioners of the state. His birth occurred in El Paso, Illinois, on the 24th of September, 1869, his father being Dr. R. U. Chapman, now one of the foremost representatives of the medical fraternity in Des Moines, Iowa. The latter, who was born and reared in Leesburg, Ohio, served throughout the period of the Civil war as a member of Company K, Twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he began reading under the direction of his brother, R. C. Chapman, of Bakersville, Ohio, and subsequently attended Starling Medical College of Columbus, Ohio, while later he entered the Chicago Medical College. He is a graduate of both the Chicago Medical College and the Iowa College of Physicians & Surgeons. He practiced his profession in Bakersville, Ohio, from 1865 to 1869 and in the later year opened an office in El Paso, Illinois, where he remained until 1885, while during the past three decades he has resided in Des Moines. Dr. R. U. Chapman has been president of the United States pension board for the past twenty-five years and in 1903 was nominated by the democratic party for the office of state treasurer but withdrew from the race. He has been a worthy exemplar of the Masonic fraternity for more than a half century and has been an extensive traveler in this and other countries, touring Europe in 1900. As above stated, he is one of the leading medical practitioners of Des Moines and the enviable reputation which he enjoys in well merited.

Robert R. Chapman acquired his early education in the town of his nativity, being graduated from the high school there with the class of 1885. Subsequently he spent two years as a student in Drake University in Des Moines and then began reading medicine under the preceptorship of his father, later continuing his studies in Drake University for one year. In 1892 he entered Rush Medical College of Chicago, being graduated there from with the class of 1894. In the fall of that year he located for practice in Bridgewater, Iowa, where he has remained throughout the intervening twenty-one years. In 1896 and 1897 he pursued post-graduate work in Tulane University of Louisiana, and continued reading and research have kept him in close touch with the constant progress of the profession. He is a valued member of the Adair County Medical Society and also belongs to the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Dr. Chapman is accounted on of the able practitioners of Iowa and one who might easily win recognition among the leading physicians of any metropolis, but he has been loath to sever old ties and thus it is that the town of Bridgewater has always remained the scene of his professional labors. His services as an expert surgeon have been especially in demand.

In 1898 Dr. Chapman was united in marriage to Miss Cora M. Pote, a daughter of Jacob Pote, one of the well known agriculturists of Bridgewater. To them have been born three children, two of whom survive, Hazel and Malcolm R. Ronald died in 1915 when three years old. The Doctor gives his political allegiance to the democratic party and fraternally is identified with the Masons, belonging to the Fontanelle lodge, No. 138, A. F. & A. M.; St. John’s Chapter, No. 73, R. A. M., O. N. M. S. of Des Moines. He holds to high ideals not only in his profession but in citizenship and in social relations, thus commanding the warm esteem and genuine admiration of all with whom he comes in contact.