Harry C. Martin

Martin was born on a farm near Darlington in Lafayette County, Wisconsin on December 15, 1854, and attended a one-room school in the area. His family moved to Darlington when he was nine years old, and he continued in the public school at Darlington, after which he taught school for one year before going on to the University of Wisconsin, from which he graduated in 1879. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1881, and commenced a lifelong law practice in Darlington. He also became a director of the Citizens National Bank of Darlington.

Soon after his admission to the bar he was appointed Lafayette County superintendent of schools; he was twice subsequently elected to that office. In 1887 he was elected mayor of the city of Darlington and was re-elected in 1888. He was city attorney for Darlington for several years, and was elected county district attorney in 1892. Martin was a member of the Republican Party's state central committee for four years; was president of the high school board for Darlington from 1895 until 1910. He was elected from Wisconsin's 1st congressional district as a delegate to the 1908 Republican National Convention held in Chicago, 1908, which nominated William Howard Taft for President of the United States.

Chapman married Kittie E. Dodge, born 1858, an alumna of Platteville Normal School; they had one daughter, Anne Dodge Chapman.[2] Chapman died at his home in Darlington on February 25 after a long illness.[3]