William Eaton Chandler was born on December 28, 1835, in Concord, New Hampshire, to Nathan S. Chandler and Mary Ann Tucker. His father was a stable keeper who owned $3,000 of real estate by 1850. Chandler grew up and attended school in Concord before attending Harvard University. He graduated in 1854, and he was admitted to the bar the following year.

 

On June 29, 1859, he married Ann Gilmore, the daughter of New Hampshire governor Joseph A. Gilmore. They had at least three children: Joseph, born around 1860; William, born around 1863; and Lloyd, born around 1870. By 1860, he owned $2,000 of real estate. He supported the Republican Party, and he served in the New Hampshire legislature from 1862 until 1864. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him judge advocate general of the Department of the Navy. He later served as First Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.

 

He acted as secretary of the Republican National Committee in 1868. His wife died in 1871, and he married Lucy Hale three years later. President Chester A. Arthur appointed him Secretary of the Navy in 1882, and he worked to modernize the country’s naval fleet. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1887, and he served until 1901. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Concord on November 30, 1917.

 

Image: William E. Chandler (courtesy Wikicommons)

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