Early Years
John Taylor Chappell was born on May 18, 1845, the son of Samuel Chappell, a Richmond butcher, and Eliza B. Gentry Chappell. Before his fifteenth birthday he began an apprenticeship to a coachmaker. The Civil War intervened, and in May 1861, against his mother's wishes, Chappell enlisted in Company H of the 23rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, also known as the Richmond Sharpshooters. He took part in the Rich Mountain and Cheat Mountain battles in western Virginia before being discharged on October 12, 1861. Early the next year he joined Company A of the 10th Virginia Cavalry and fought in the Peninsula Campaign. Chappell also served in the Confederate States Navy aboard the ironclad Virginia II late in 1864 and as first sergeant in Company D of the 1st Regiment Naval Brigade. He surrendered in North Carolina and was paroled at Greensboro on May 1, 1865.
Public Career
Despite simmering class antagonism, a lack of working-class solidarity had defeated strikes by Richmond ironworkers and bricklayers in the 1870s and early in the 1880s. Breaking this pattern, the Knights organized workers across skill, racial, and even gender divides. Richmond's working-class people boycotted flour produced in the local Haxall Mills because it used convict labor and eventually forced the giant mill to capitulate. Arguing that local quarries should provide the stone and employ organized labor, the Knights in May 1886 also organized protests against the contracts to construct a new city hall.
Chappell served on the bicameral Richmond city council for four years and sat on the committees on the streets, on the first market, on retrenchment and reform, and on the fire alarm and police telegraph. He chaired the committee on the second market in 1888. The victory of the reformers quickly proved illusory. Even before the new council's first meeting, the reform caucus fell into bitter feuds regarding policy and patronage. Democrats elected under the reform banner backed away from their campaign commitments, especially after the council's African American members demanded that blacks receive a share of the city's jobs. Chappell and the remaining eleven members of the caucus, all white trade unionists and labor and political reformers, turned to the six African American councilmen for support. The reformers remained a marginalized minority, however. They were attacked for their progressive views and effectively shut out of major decisions.
Despite these setbacks, Chappell and other white progressives made common cause with a powerful black popular movement that increasingly associated its interests with those of the Knights of Labor. The hundreds of black fraternal orders that flourished in postwar Richmond provided thousands of recruits who were attracted by the Knights' fraternal ritual and structure and its acceptance of black working people, albeit in segregated local assemblies. White radicals increasingly allied themselves with black aspirations as well. Chappell was instrumental in opening membership in the Knights' building association to African Americans. When the Knights of Labor held its national convention in Richmond in October 1886, he served as a key organizer for a series of events that brought thousands of black Richmonders into the streets. On October 11 he was a marshal for a parade of black and white laboring men that made its way to the fairgrounds for sporting events, fireworks, and a grand ball.
The waning of the Knights did not deter Chappell and his comrades from continuing to organize workingmen and to advocate transformations of society. In January 1888 he attended a state convention of wage-workers in Staunton. There Chappell introduced resolutions asking the General Assembly to restrict child labor and to adopt the secret ballot. The convention attempted to unite the labor movement with farmers and advocated such familiar reforms as restriction of convict labor but had no practical result. In April 1895 Chappell held a meeting at his Union Hill home to organize the Altrurian Assembly of a new, or reformed, Knights of Labor. The organization became Local Union No. 1 of the Cooperative Commonwealth of Virginia. Because the members preferred to spend their dues on local projects, on February 7, 1898, the local withdrew from the national organization and renamed itself the Socialist Educational Club of Richmond. From its inception, it sought to educate the people of Richmond about socialism, and the members sponsored lectures and distributed literature on social and labor topics.
For the organization's second meeting, Chappell prepared a short paper entitled "What Is Socialism." In it, he explicitly rejected the notion that socialism was derived from a Christian basis, although he admitted that Christian ethics were perfectly compatible with socialist teaching. Chappell's views may have been a reaction to the overtly Christian symbolism and language employed by the Knights of Labor and other Christian Socialists. Chappell asserted that socialism sprang from basic human necessities of a materialistic character, notably adequate clothing, food, and shelter. He had put those views into practice as an officer in the Knights of Labor Building Association. Chappell and his contemporaries believed that many of the difficulties facing the working class were the result of rents and other sources of economic dependence, a key tenet of early Jeffersonian Republicanism and American artisan protest. According to his grandson, Chappell's unusual views on society and religion were the probable cause of his removal as a Sunday school teacher and expulsion from his church.
Later Years
Chappell died suddenly of an aneurysm on September 27, 1915, at the Gross Carriage Works in Richmond and was buried in the city's Oakwood Cemetery.
Time Line
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May 18, 1845 - John T. Chappell is born. He is the son of Samuel Chappell, a Richmond butcher, and Eliza B. Gentry Chappell.
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May 1861 - Against his mother's wishes, John T. Chappell enlists in Company H of the 23rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, also known as the Richmond Sharpshooters.
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October 12, 1861 - John T. Chappell is discharged from service in the Confederate army.
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Early 1862 - John T. Chappell joins Company A of the 10th Virginia Cavalry.
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Late 1864 - John T. Chappell serves in the Confederate States Navy aboard the ironclad Virginia II
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May 1, 1865 - John T. Chappell is paroled after the Confederate surrender in North Carolina.
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October 14, 1866 - John T. Chappell and Martha Virginia Scherer marry. They will have four children, one daughter and one son of whom will reach adulthood.
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July 1885 - John T. Chappell, a member of the Knights of Labor, wins election to a seat on the seven-member Democratic Party committee representing Jefferson Ward in Richmond.
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January 19, 1886 - John T. Chappell wins election as a trustee and director of the Knights of Labor Building Association in Richmond representing Union Assembly.
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May 1886 - The Knights of Labor in Richmond organize protests against the contracts to construct a new city hall.
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May 1886 - John T. Chappell, a member of the Knights of Labor, wins election to a seat on the Richmond city council as one of three aldermen from Jefferson Ward.
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October 11, 1886 - At the same time the Knights of Labor holds its national convention in Richmond, John T. Chappell serves as a marshal for a parade of black and white laboring men that makes its way to the fairgrounds for sporting events, fireworks, and a grand ball.
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November 1886 - John T. Chappell is elected secretary of the Knights of Labor Building Association in Richmond.
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January 1888 - John T. Chappell attends a state convention of wage-workers in Staunton. Chappell introduces resolutions asking the General Assembly to restrict child labor and to adopt the secret ballot.
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April 1895 - John T. Chappell holds a meeting at his Union Hill home in Richmond to organize the Altrurian Assembly of a new, or reformed, Knights of Labor. The organization becomes Local Union No. 1 of the Cooperative Commonwealth of Virginia.
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February 7, 1898 - Local Union No. 1 of the Cooperative Commonwealth of Virginia withdraws from its national organization, the new, or reformed Knights of Labor, and renames itself the Socialist Educational Club of Richmond.
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September 27, 1915 - John T. Chappell dies suddenly of an aneurysm at the Gross Carriage Works in Richmond. He is buried in the city's Oakwood Cemetery.
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Kimball, G. D., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. John T. Chappell (1845–1915). (2015, November 2). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Chappell_John_Taylor_1845-1915.
- MLA Citation:
Kimball, Gregg D. and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "John T. Chappell (1845–1915)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2 Nov. 2015. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: June 26, 2013 | Last modified: November 2, 2015
Contributed by Gregg D. Kimball and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Gregg D. Kimball is the director of education and outreach at the Library of Virginia. He is the author of American City, Southern Place: A Cultural History of Antebellum Richmond (2000).