John George Chapman
John George Chapman (c1831-1882)
1882 Obituary [1]
Mr. JOHN GEORGE CHAPMAN, of Tower Hill, Middleton-St.-George, Darlington, died on the 19th November, at the age of fifty-one years.
He was born at Crook, where, along with Mr. Morson, he afterwards worked some collieries. He subsequently acquired the largest stake in the Tees Bridge Furnaces at Stockton-on-Tees and the adjoining rolling and plate mills at Bowesfield.
Upon the Ferryhill Colliery being laid in after the stagnation which began about 1874, Mr. Chapman and his partners acquired the freehold of the colliery and farm. They also purchased a moiety of Cold Knott and Hargill Collieries, in Durham, where coke ovens and brickworks were erected, and about the same time, or a little later, they became owners of Howden Colliery, with the coke ovens and brickworks attached thereto. From first to last, therefore, the deceased gentleman had a large stake in the coal trade of Durham, and did a good deal towards developing those mineral resources upon which the Cleveland iron trade depends for its prosperity.
Mr. Chapman was the managing director of the Tees Bridge Ironworks at Stockton-on-Tees, where blast furnaces have been carried on for a number of years; and he was also a director of the adjoining Bowesfield Ironworks, where finished iron of various descriptions is produced. He was a director of various other concerns in his own district, and took an active part in public affairs, political and otherwise.
Elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1874, Mr. Chapman was a regular attender at its meetings, both in London and elsewhere. He was also a member of the North of England Institute of Milling Engineers and of the Cleveland Institution of Engineers. In private as well as in commercial and public life, the deceased was one -of the most genial and agreeable of men.