 Upon returning to Portland he built a home at 12th and Jefferson streets in what is now Downtown Portland . Chapman then returned to the practice of law . He also worked to secure Portland ’ s economic future by promoting the construction of the railroad line to California to link with the transcontinental rail line . From 1870 to 1876 he started three companies with the goal of creating a railroad connecting Portland to the Union Pacific ’ s transcontinental railroad . Chapman ’ s proposed line would have traveled through the Columbia River Gorge to The Dalles , Oregon , where it would then travel southeast to Salt Lake City , Utah , linking to the Union Pacific line . 
