John Chandler

Who was John Chandler?

John Chandler was an American politician and soldier of Maine. The political career of Chandler, a Democratic-Republican, was interspersed with his involvement in the state militia during both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

Chandler was born in Epping, New Hampshire, the brother of Thomas Chandler. His father was a captain in the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War, and had died in 1776. Chandler was self-educated and enlisted in the Continental Army at age 15. After the end of the war, he settled on a farm near Monmouth, Maine, then a part of Massachusetts. At the time, Chandler was both illiterate and without money. However, he had become the protégé of General Henry Dearborn, a future fifth U.S. Secretary of War, who was also an important commander of the Northeast sector at Fort Detroit, in the Old Northwest Territory, but a terrible failure during the War of 1812. Chandler borrowed $400 from the Dearborns and bought 200 acres of land. He became wealthy as a blacksmith.

From 1803 to 1805, Chandler served in the Massachusetts Senate; he later was elected to the U.S.