Paul Wadsworth Chapman (1880–1954) was an American banker and businessman based in Chicago. He was the founder of the banking firm P.W. Chapman & Co. (formally Chapman, Mills & Co.) in 1912, and was the owner of

United States Lines United States Lines was the trade name of an organization of the United States Shipping Board (USSB), Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) created to operate German liners seized by the United States in 1917. The ships were owned by the USSB and all ...

from 1929 to 1931.

Early years

Paul Wadsworth Chapman was born on December 28, 1880, in

Jerseyville, Illinois Jerseyville is the largest city in and the county seat of Jersey County, Illinois, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 8,337. Jerseyville is a part of Southern Illinois, the Metro-East region and the St. Lou ...

to Sarah Alvira Landon, age 24, and Theodore Stillman Chapman, age 31. He graduated from Jersey County High School in 1899. After high school, he became a messenger boy at the Harris Trust and Savings Bank. He proudly preserved a formal contract employing him in this capacity at $7 a week. He rose rapidly and became manager of his department. On December 28, 1903, Chapman married Joanna Norton Highley in Chicago Illinois and had five children. In 1910, he began working in the Marquette Building, employed by Harris Trust & Savings Bank as the Manager of the Municipal dept. He Resigned from Harris Trust and Savings bank in 1912 to enter the securities business on his own account, P. W. Chapman & Co., Inc. He maintained offices at 115 West Adams St., Chicago, and at 42 Cedar St. in New York along with branches in thirteen principal cities.

Acquiring United States Lines

In March 1929, Chapman acquired

from the

U.S. Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...

along with 11 ships for $16,082,000 of which composed $6,782,000 of the price. A flag raising ceremony was held on board the ''Leviathan'', the first of the ships delivered, on April 14, 1929, marking the official company change. Members of both the shipping board and Chapman's company as well as his daughter Joanna were in attendance. Due to the stock market crash in 1929, Chapman and his company began to struggle, and in 1931, he sold United States Lines to the

International Mercantile Marine Company The International Mercantile Marine Company, originally the International Navigation Company, was a trust formed in the early twentieth century as an attempt by J.P. Morgan to monopolize the shipping trade. IMM was founded by shipping magnates ...

. Chapman retired from his company's CEO position in 1944.

Death

Paul Wadsworth Chapman died on July 16, 1954, at the age of 73.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Paul Wadsworth United States Lines American bankers 1880 births 1954 deaths People from Jerseyville, Illinois