Now multitudes of root words are identical in the American languages over vast areas some of them with precisely the same senses, and others with various shades of analogical meaning.

Dawson's 1871 article in the Fort Wayne News Sentinel of October 21 and 23 about Dawson's childhood friend is still considered the main source for biographical information on Chapman. Born on October 21 1820 in Cambridge Indiana he was a lawyer a farmer and a newspaper editor before he entered politics unsuccessfully running for a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives in 1854 Secretary of State of Indiana in 1856 and United States Congress in 1858.