Lewis' License reads:

"STATE OF MISSOURI,
SEVENTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT

Lewis A. Chapman Esq., having produced to me, Jonas J. Clark, Judge of the Circuit Court for the Circuit and State aforesaid, satisfactory evidence that he is a gentleman of good moral character, and that he possesses the necessary qualifications, and having taken and filed the oath of Loyalty, he is hereby admitted, licensed and permitted to practice as an Attorney-at-Law in all the Courts of Record in this State.

Given under my hand this 9th day of Feb., A.D. 1870.

Jonas J. Clark, Judge"

Chapman, Cowherd, Turner & Tschannen, P.C.
Commitment to Excellence since 1870

As Lewis A. Chapman arrived in Livingston County in 1855 little could he realize that he was to be the founder of a law firm that would still be engaged in the practice of law more than one hundred years later.  Lewis became an understudy of Judge Jonas J. Clark and soon obtained his license from Judge Clark.  That original license is on display in the office.  (The contents is reprinted above.)

Soon after gaining his license, Lewis opened his law practice in Chillicothe with attorney H.M. Pollard.  Lewis married Luella Benson and they raised a family of eleven children.  Two of these children, Nolan and Don, became lawyers, graduating from the University of Missouri Law School.  Nolan joined his father in 1913 and Don entered the firm in 1918 after serving in the U.S. Army in France in World War I.  The three man firm practiced for many years under the name of "Chapman and Chapman" in the Barney Building.  In 1928 Lewis died, after achieving distinction as one of the outstanding attorneys in north Missouri.

Following Lewis' death, Nolan and Don continued the firm.  Nolan's son, Nolan Jr., graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School in 1949 and returned home to join the firm. Don's son, Don Jr., graduated from the University of Missouri Law School in 1954.  After serving two years in the Army, Don Jr. also joined the firm in 1956.

In 1960 the firm moved its offices to the present location. Then in 1961, Nolan died.  The remaining members continued the partnership until 1974 when Don died. Later that same year, Robert Cowherd joined the firm.

The firm incorporated in 1980.  Subsequently, in 1983, Nolan Jr. retired and Brent Turner joined the firm.  In 1991, the firm opened an office in Brookfield, Linn County, Missouri.  Later that year, Don Jr.'s son, Tom Chapman, joined the firm.  Terry Tschannen joined the firm in 1992 at the Brookfield, Missouri office. In 2001, Andrew Ravens Vandeloecht joined the firm at the Brookfield office.  Christina L. Grouse joined the firm in 2005, at the Chillicothe office.