USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 103
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In October, 1881, he accepted the presi- dency of the Fuller Electrical Co., which was one of the first to undertake the development of the arc system of electric lighting. He remained actively in that position until May, 1884. During the sum- mer and fall of that year, having had more than twenty-five years incessant service, he spent three months in Vermont, but per- formed during this period of relaxation, a variety of services for the Electrical com- pany, and also for the Commercial Cable Co., whose system was then in course of construction.
Early in December, 1884, he was em- ployed as counsel by the Postal Telegraph and Cable Co., at the instance of Mr. John W. Mackay, and acted in that capacity until June 1, 1885, when he was appointed receiver of the property of that company by the Supreme Court of New York, and had charge of the operation of its lines and the management of its business while the fore- closure suits, which resulted in the sale of the property in January, 1886, were pend- ing. Upon its reorganization he was elected president of the company. In connection
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with his care of the property of the Postal Telegraph Co., the general management of the newly organized United Lines Telegraph Co., was assigned to him, that company having purchased the lines formerly known as the Bankers and Merchants. This property sub- sequently became a part of the Postal. In the meantime he had been made a director, a member of the executive committee and a vice-president of the Commercial Cable Co., and of the Pacific Postal Telegraph Co., and a director, and subsequently president of the Commercial Telegram Co. Mainly through his efforts the control of the plant of the latter company was sold to the New York Stock Exchange for the purpose of enabling that institution to make simulta- neous distribution of its quotations to its members, and Mr. Chandler became vice president and general manager of the New York Quotation Co., which assumed con- trol of the business in the interest of the stock exchange. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Brooklyn Dis- trict Telegraph Co., of which he was presi- dent during the first three years of its existence.
Immediately after the Western Union Co. acquired possession in October, 1887, of the telegraph system which had been built up by the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Co., Mr. Chandler was invited by reason of his well-known views on the subject of tele- graphic competition, and the necessity for it, to confer with certain of the principal owners and officers of the Western Union Co., the conference resulting in an arrange- ment for the discontinuance of rate cutting, rebating and other destructive methods of competition which had previously prevailed whenever any telegraph interest attained considerable extent. This condition has ever since continued, with great benefit to the telegraph companies, and to the public. Under it, non-paying rates were of course discontinued ; but a still larger number of rates were reduced, the aim being to equal- ize the charges and place the public on a uniform basis as to telegraph rates, discrim- inating neither for nor against any one, and making excellence of service, in speed and accuracy, the means of influencing patron- age. This has produced a telegraph service which is far superior to any that has ever before been performed, and to Mr. Chandler, more than to any other one person, the credit of establishing such conditions, both in connection with land lines and trans- Atlantic service, unquestionably belongs- negotiations respecting the latter having been intrusted to him, after the merit of the principles involved had become well assured by experience on the land lines. An authority on the history of the telegraph in this
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country fittingly alludes to Mr. Chandler as "a man of much prudence and conservative judgment, having an engaging courtesy and refinement."
To Albert B. Chandler the American public is very largely indebted for the comparative inexpensiveness of telegraphic communica- tion in these days, when the most sanguine ideas that Samuel F. B. Morse could have indulged in have been more than realized. From boyhood Mr. Chandler has been con- nected with the telegraph business, and for many years he has been prominently identi- fied with enterprises and movements that have been fruitful in bringing this immense interest into its present profitable and useful condition. During the last five years that Professor Morse lived, Mr. Chandler was well acquainted with him, and he has had the personal friendship of almost every one of the prominent promoters, inventors, own- ers, managers, etc., of telegraphic interests and of electrical enterprises generally, which have revolutionized the modern world. He is at the present time president and general manager of the Postal Telegraph Cable Co., vice-president of the Commercial Cable Co., and president of several local companies in different cities that are allied to those inter- ests. The magnificent new Postal Telegraph building erected during the past two years, on the corner of Broadway and Murray streets, opposite the New York City Hall, is the most recent of Mr. Chandler's important enterprises. He selected the site, conducted the negotiations which secured it, was chair- man of the committee which had charge of its construction and which now controls it. The building is of limestone, gray brick and terra cotta, fourteen stories in height over basement and cellar, and is recognized as one of the handsomest, as well as most com- modious, well-appointed and well-lighted office buildings in the world. The steam and electrical machinery are of most recent design, of the highest order of merit, and are so extensive and complete as to command the admiration of experts and scientists as well as less skillful critics. The value of land and building is about two and a half millions of dollars.
In addition to these important trusts, Mr. Chandler has been called upon to give much time and careful attention to the manage- ment of a large estate in Brooklyn of which he is the executor.
Mr. Chandler married Miss Marilla Eunice Stedman, of West Randolph, Oct. 11, 1864, and three children have been born of the mar- riage. The first, a daughter named Florence, died in early childhood ; the others are two sons, Albert Eckert and Willis Derwin.
Mr. Chandler owns a handsome residence on Clinton avenue, Brooklyn, and has a com-
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modius country home in his native town where his family passes the summer. He Is a man of extremely pleasant manner, very approachable, and amid his many cares and responsibilities finds time to cultivate the graces of social life. His domestic attach ments are strong and he is a lover of music and literature, enltivating his tastes quite freely in both these directions. He wields a ready pen in literary and historical work, and among his diversions has been the prepara- tion of a genealogical record of his family that would do credit to a professional searcher. One of his peculiar faculties is a remarkable memory for names, faces and dates, and this, with his case in conversation, his wide range of information and his companionable ways, makes him a very interesting man to meet and to know.
CHANDLER, WILLIAM WALLACE, of Chicago, was born at West Randolph, Jan. 7, 1821. He was the eldest of a family of eight boys, there having been two girls older and three younger than himself. Twelve of these thirteen children lived to become parents, one girl having died in infancy.
His parents, William Brown and Electa Owen Chandler, were married at Hanover, N. H., in 1816, and removed immediately to West Randolph, where they resided to- gether for fifty years, lacking four months, when his mother passed to a higher life,- his father surviving until he was eighty-nine and one-half years old when he died at the residence of his son Frank in Brooklyn, N. Y.
His paternal ancestor, William Chandler, came from England to Roxbury, Mass., in 1637, only seventeen years after the landing of the Pilgrims.
William Brown Chandler, whose birth dates back to primitive times, learned the manufacture of farming and carpenters' tools and other branches of handiwork in iron and steel, from a horseshoe to articles and implements requiring far more skill. He also owned a farm (less than thirty acres), where this large family were reared, -the small farm contributing largely to their support. As was the case in most Vermont families in those days, industry and economy were necessary, and as soon as the Chandler children were able to work their services were utilized, and they were never idle, although never overtaxed. When there was no work, their mother, who was a natural and competent teacher, managed to keep them studying, which was a great ben- efit, as the school terms were limited to three months in summer and winter.
The subject of this sketch was a robust, hearty boy, and his services on the little farm and among the neighbors were too val-
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uable, after he was nine years old, to allow him to attend school except the three winter months.
From early childhood, he manifested an inclination to write in all sorts of places where letters could be formed, with a stick on the sand, or in the smooth snow, and a new shingle was a delight to him. At the age of fifteen, with very little instruction, and without the aid of copies of any merit, he had succeeded in formulating a system of penmanship which attracted much atten- tion in his native town and throughout the county.
Soon after passing his fifteenth birthday, he was induced to teach an evening class of thirty-eight persons in the village near his home. Not only boys and girls were his pupils, but their parents also. He possessed the rare faculty of being able to impart to others whatever he knew himself. His suc- cess in this, his first school, was regarded as almost marvelous. This was before the days of steel and gold pens, and he provided each pupil with three quill pens, uniform as to quality, which they used alternately for each lesson. The next day the pens were "mended" for the following lesson.
To make a good quill pen, and hundreds of them alike, was "high art"-not one man in a hundred could do it, but he could, and afterwards taught thousands to follow very closely his method. In the autumn of 1843, at Montpelier, he taught nearly every mem- ber of the Legislature to make a quill pen, no one paying him less than one dollar, and some voluntarily paid him five dollars, and one senator from Vergennes handed him a ten dollar note, remarking as he did so, "I never paid any money for anything more cheerfully."
The spring after his first school, he at- tended a term at Randolph Academy, or as it was called, "The Orange County Gram- mar School." Soon after he commenced his studies here, the preceptor asked him to call at his room that evening, which he did. He said : " I have learned of your wonderful success as a teacher of penmanship last win- ter at the West village. Here are between one and two hundred students at this acad- emy, very few of whom are able to write even tolerable. They have no system what- ever, yet many of them are teachers. Now I am aware that if you should have classes in writing, you would be able to do very little with your own studies, but I am anxious to have these students instructed and will pay whatever we can agree upon for each pupil, relying upon myself to collect from them sufficient to reimburse me. You pro- cure suitable stationery, keep an account of what you pay therefor, which shall be re- funded. Make three classes-I will arrange
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for the time of cach,-one in the forenoon, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, using the academy hall. If you find you have not time to set the copies in each book, limit your work to blackboard illustrations." Suffice it to say, most of those students were his pupils, and he was well paid for his services, albeit he was obliged to give up his studies. When that school term closed an extensive farmer, who also ran a brickyard, said : " I want you for three months to work as I may direct, and will pay you $15,00 per month.' When the time was up the farmer said, " Here are $45, that fulfils the contract, but I am paying some of the others $20 per month, and your services have been more valuable than theirs, and no grumbling, therefore I gladly make you a present of $15." Farmers of that class are now nearly extinct.
That autumn he attended another academy for three months, where he also had a class in penmanship,-not so large, however, but that he was able to devote more than half his time towards perfecting his education. The following winter he taught a district school in a village, and had a large evening class in writing. Thus he continued to work and to study as best he might be able until he was nineteen years of age, when he entered Norwich Military Academy, an ex- cellent school, especially for the study of mathematics, of which he was especially fond. This school he attended nearly five terms, in the aggregate, teaching more or less between times, and this was by far the best opportu- nity he ever had for instruction. From that time until he was twenty-four years of age, he taught penmanship in most of the large towns of Vermont and some in the state of New York, in academies, seminaries, col- leges, and rooms which he rented outside of schools.
In June, 1845, he was persuaded to take a position as advance agent for a concert troupe, affording him an excellent opportu- nity to learn men and things, especially to study geography practically.
In September following, he returned to his teaching for nine months at Bakersfield Academy, at St. Albans, and other towns in Northern Vermont.
Having had experience as an advertising agent, the Cheney family (the famous Ver- mont singing masters), who had organized as a concert troupe, sought his services in a similar capacity, making him a very tempt- ing offer, which he accepted, and remained with them nearly eight months, when they disbanded at Albion, N. Y. Not long there- after he engaged with another concert troupe, where he continued until February, 1853, during which experience he visited twenty states of the Union, traversing some
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of them several times over, traveling a great pint of the time with a pair of horses and buggy -a good way to see the country thoroughly.
March 5, 1853, he entered the employ at Cleveland, Ohio, of the Cleveland, Pittsburg & Wheeling R. R., as fourth clerk in a freight office. In about three months he was promoted to first clerk, and before the end of three years he was advanced to the position of general freight agent of the road, where he remained nearly nine years, when he was sent to Chicago upon the organiza- tion of the "Star Union Line," the pioneer of the through freight lines of this country.
From that time until the present date, May 10, 1893, he has been the general agent of that company at Chicago. For more than forty years he has been so constantly em- ployed by the Penna. Co. in different capac- ities as to have received his pay for each and every day.
April 1, 1893, his health being somewhat impaired, he was retired on full pay, retain- ing his rank and title, whether or not he ever performs any further service.
Mr. Chandler enjoys the distinction of having invented and put in operation the first refrigerator cars ever built in this or any other country. He neglected to procure a patent, not realizing at the time the magnitude of the business which such cars would attain in a little more than a quarter of a century. Many thousands of such cars are in daily use all over this broad land.
Mr. Chandler has been married three times, his first wife bearing him two sons, both of whom died in infancy. The two sons of his second wife are married and liv- ing in New York City : William W. Jr., born Thanksgiving Day, 1856, and Fred Brown Chandler, born Thanksgiving Day, 1859, at Cleveland, Ohio.
He married his third wife, Miss Lavinia B. Pendleton, August 18, 1881, in Boston, her native city, where for several years she had ranked among the first of that city's fa- mous teachers. She is a lady of thorough education and refinement, and besides being her husband's constant companion is his amanuensis.
CHASE, LUCIEN B., was born in Ver- mont, and was representative in Congress. from Tennessee, from 1845 to 1847, and for a second term, ending 1849. He was the author of a work entitled "History of Presi- dent Polk's Administration."
CHEEVER, DUSTIN GROW, of Clinton, WVis., son of Josiah Rider and Candace Grow (Bronson) Cheever, grandson of Nathaniel Cheever, and great-grandson of William
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CHEEVER.
Cheever, who were pioneers of Hardwick, was born in Hardwick, Jan. 30, 1830.
He received his education in the public schools of his native town, and at Derby Academy, where he was a schoolmate of Hon. Redfield Proctor. Mr. Cheever was reared on a farm, but spent the winters either in attending school or teaching. In the spring of 1851 he emigrated to Wisconsin, and settled in Clinton, where he still resides. He at once engaged in agricultural pursuits with marked success, and has made that his chief occupation.
Mr. Cheever has ever been an ardent Re- publican, and many times has been honored by holding positions of trust and responsi- bility. During the years 1856 and 1858 he was town superintendent of schools ; in 1857 he was elected town clerk ; 1865 and 1875 he was chairman of the town board of sup- ervisors, and from 1865 to 1873 inclusive was justice of the peace. During the war of the rebellion, from 1861 to 1865, he was enroll- ing officer for the town, was chairman and treasurer of the recruiting committee to keep filled the town quota of volunteers. He was deputy postmaster from 1871 to 1877 and managed the Clinton postoffice mainly dur- ing those years.
In 1872 he was elected a member of the Wisconsin Legislature, and re-elected in 1873 ; in 1873 was appointed by Gov. C. C. Washburn a member of the committee to visit the charitable institutions of the state and make reports to the Legislature, was chairman of the committee, a member of the committee on claims, and was frequently speaker pro tem of the Assembly. From 1876 to 1883 was trustee of the Wisconsin Deaf and Dumb Institute, located at Dela- van, Wis., and during the entire time was a member of the executive committee ; was also a member of the building committee, having in charge the construction of its pres- ent fine buildings, erected since the old ones were destroyed by fire, Sept. 16, 1879.
Early in life he became connected with the Baptist denomination and has ever had an active interest in its welfare. He was a member of the building committee to erect their present fine church edifice in the vil- lage of Clinton and contributed liberally of his time and means to its completion ; has been superintendent of Sunday school and for many years teacher of a Bible class. He is a member of Good Samaritan Lodge, No. 135, A. F. & A. M., and was the first man made a Mason in Clinton. For many years he served the order either as senior deacon, junior or senior warden and has been dele- gate to the Grand Lodge; is a member of Beloit Chapter No. 9, Royal Arch Masons. He is also a member of Hope Temple of Honor and Temperance, No. 33, and takes
a deep interest in all temperance reform work. In years past when business cares were less pressing he was an active member of the I. O. O. F.
Mr. Cheever was married Jan 4, 1853, to Christiana, daughter of Dustin and Sarah (Lamson) Grow. Of this union are two sons : Ralph Wright Cheever, editor and proprietor of the Clinton Herald, a Republican weekly ; he is also village postmaster, appointed by President Harrison. The other son, Arthur Josiah, is a farmer. Mrs. Cheever died Jan. I, 1873. October 17, 1878, he married Mrs. Dell Louisa (Shumway) Bailey, who has a daughter by her first husband, Phebe L. Bailey, also a resident of Clinton.
CHEEVER, SILAS GROW, of San Fran- cisco, Cal., son of Capt. Josiah Rider and Candace Grow (Bronson) Cheever, was born in Hardwick, June 23, 1838. His pa- ternal and maternal ancestors were from England. His great-grandfather, William Cheever, who was born in Chatham, Mass., in 1745, was one of the early settlers of Vermont.
The subject of this sketch received his education at the schools of his native state and from private lessons from professional instructors in the West after leaving home. During the years of his minority he worked on his father's farm until 1856, when he went to Wisconsin, where his eldest brother, Hon. D. G. Cheever, resides. He was there engaged in farming, teaching school and bagging grain for Chicago, Milwaukee and Racine markets. In the spring of 1859 he moved to Iowa and engaged in farming and building. From there he crossed the plains to Nevada, where he was interested in min- ing, and as contractor and builder, until De- cember, 1867, when he went to California, arriving in San Francisco in January, 1868, where he still resides. He then purchased a half interest in the Evangel, the organ of the Baptist denomination, and was for several years associated with Rev. Stephen Hilton as assistant editor and business man- ager ; and it was during his connection with that journal that it saw its most prosperous days. Subsequently he disposed of his in- terest in that paper and engaged in general advertising, including in his list of papers the Daily and Weekly Call, also Bulle- tin and several of the leading weeklies of the Pacific coast.
He has always voted the Republican ticket, and sometimes made political speeches at club meetings, but always de- clined to run for office.
He was captain of Co. Q, of the Nevada state militia, and was afterwards appointed assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of major and served on Gen. John B. Winter's
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statt in 1867. When on the plains, he, at the head of a company of determined men, ar- tested and disarmed a band of rebels and halt breed Indians who were disturbing and robbing emigrants, and turned them over to the commander at Fort Independence on the Sweetwater river.
He has been an Odd Fellow for more than twenty years and is a past grand of Unity Lodge of San Francisco and was its representative to the Grand Lodge in 1877, and its permanent secretary and organist since 1882. He has been a member of the Handel and Haydn Society and held the office of financial secretary and trustee. Having a fine and well cultivated tenor voice he was in demand for church choirs and he has been tenor soloist and director of several and also superintendent and musical director of their Sunday schools. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of San Francisco, and also the Pacific Coast Association Native Sons of Vermont and held the office of secre- tary in 1891 and 1892, and vice-president. He is editor and proprietor of the Maple Leaf, which he publishes in the interest of the Vermont Association.
He was married in 1858 to Miss Anna Wells, of Wisconsin, and they had one son : Edwin Freemont Cheever, who died in 1863, and his wife died in 1885. In April, 1887, Mr. Cheever was married to Miss Phoebe H. Carr, and of this union is one son : Earl Howard Cheever, born Feb. 15, 1890. Mr. Cheever has two brothers, D. G. and E. W. B. Cheever, and one sister, Mrs. Adaline L. Mason.
CHIPMAN, JOHN S., was born in Ver- mont, and was a representative in Congress from Michigan from 1845 to 1847.
CHITTENDEN, L. E., of New York City, was the son of Giles, who was the fifth in descent from Thomas Chittenden, the first Governor of Vermont. He was born at Williston, May 24, 1824.
Educated at the Williston and Hines- burgh academies, he studied law with Nor- man L. Whittemore, of Swanton, and was admitted to the bar in Franklin county, with John G. Saxe and Croydon Beckwith in September, 1844. Commencing practice in Burlington in the spring of 1845, his part- ners in succession were Wyelys Lyman, Ed- ward J. Phelps and Daniel Roberts. In 1861 Mr. Chittenden was appointed by Governor Fairbanks a member of the Peace Confer- ence, which met at Washington on the invi- tation of the Governor of Virginia, on the third of February in that year. As he kept the records of the conference he afterwards published them in 1864. At the request of Salmon P. Chase he accepted the position of
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Register of the Treasury, which position he held until 1864. In 1867 he commenced the practice of his profession in New York City, where he still resides. Mr. Chitten- den has collected, and still owns, probably the largest collection of books printed in and relating to Vermont. He has published the following books and pamphlets : "Ad- dress on the Centennial Celebration at Ticonderoga," "Address on the Dedication of the Monument to Ethan Allen at Bur- lington," "Recollections of Abraham Lin- com and his Administration," "Reminis- cences from 1840 to 1890," and several other pamphlets and magazine articles.
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