ROBERT G. CHANDLER, p. 345-347

1888 Portrait & Biographical
Album of Branch County
by Chapman Brothers, Chicago

     


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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARTICLE ON ROBERT G. CHANDLER

 

Robert G. Chandler, of Coldwater, represents the wholesale saddlery and harness business, and took up his residence here in 1839, since which time he has acquitted himself as a worthy citizen and a capable businessman. A native of the Wolverine State, he was born in the city of Detroit, Dec. 21, 1838, and is the son of Albert and Eliza F. (Abbott) Chandler, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this volume.

Mr. Chandler spent his boyhood and youth in his native city. At the age of seventeen he commenced his apprenticeship at the tinner’s trade, at Coldwater, with the firm of Hale & Chandler, and a year later was promoted to salesman, and finally succeeded Mr. Hale in the partnership; the firm then, in 1869, became Chandler & Son, and has thus continued until the present time.

Upon the Sabbath when the first gun was fired upon Ft. Sumter, our subject opened a recruiting office for the purpose of recruiting for the Coldwater Light Artillery, which was afterward known as the famous Loomis Battery. ……….

Mr. Chandler was first married , in 1863, at the home of the bride in Coldwater, to Miss Julia M., daughter of Henry A. and Lydia Tyler, and who was born at Penn Yan, N.Y. Of this union there was born one child, a son, Robert T.

Our subject contracted a second marriage, in July, 1873, with Miss Eliza Jane Abbott, who was born in March, 1844, in Detroit, and the third child of James and Theresa (Ermitinger) Abbott, whose family consisted fo four children. Their eldest daughter, Catherine, became the wife of Guy F. Hinchman, and is a resident of Detroit; Thomas H. is in Detroit; Alice T., Mrs. Fred Chesebrough, is deceased. Capt. James Abbott was a native of Detroit, and was at one time an officer in the United States Navy; he made his home in his native city, and died there about 1860. His wife Theresa, was a native of Michigan, and spent her younger years in Sault de St. Marie, and is now living in Detroit; she is a lineal descendant of a noted family in Canada and of English descent.

The early days of Mrs. Chandler were spent mostly at her home in Detroit, and her studies were completed in a private school at Ann Arbor; she was first married to James E. Smith, and became the mother of two children – James S. and William S. These, since her second marriage, have adopted the name of Chandler, and to our subject and wife there have been born two daughters: Kate E., July 28, 1874, and Alice T., Jan. 10, 1876 They both continue under the parental roof, and are pursuing their studies in the city school.