Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler

Lewis S. Chanler

Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler (September 24, 1869 in Newport, Rhode Island – February 28, 1942) was a New York lawyer and politician.

Early life

He was the fifth son of John Winthrop Chanler (1826–1877) of the Dudley–Winthrop family and Margaret Astor Ward (1838–1875) of the Astor family. Through his father, he was a great-great-grandson of Peter Stuyvesant^[1] and a great-great-great-great-grandson of Wait Winthrop and Joseph Dudley. Through his mother, he was a grandnephew of Julia Ward (1819–1910), John Jacob Astor III (1822–1890), and William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (1829–1892).

Lewis had nine brothers and sisters, including the artist Robert Winthrop Chanler and the soldier and explorer William Astor Chanler. His sister Margaret Livingston Chanler served as a nurse with the American Red Cross during the Spanish–American War.^[2] Margaret Chanler was later married to Richard Aldrich (music critic) and lived at Rokeby. Chanler's eldest brother John Armstrong Chanler married novelist Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy.^[3] Chanler and his siblings became orphans after the death of their mother in 1875 and their father in 1877, both to pneumonia. The children were raised at their parents' estate in Rokeby (Barrytown, New York).^[4]

He attended Columbia University and graduated in 1891.^[5] Then he attended Cambridge University, matriculating in 1894. He became a lawyer, and practiced in New York.^[6]

Political career

Chanler was active in the Democratic Party in Dutchess County and was a Delegate to several state party conventions. In 1903 he was elected a member of the Dutchess County Board of Supervisors.^[7]

He was elected the Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1906^[8] on the combined ticket of the Democratic Party and the Independence League, defeating the incumbent M. Linn Bruce, although his running mate William Randolph Hearst was defeated in his quest for the governorship by Republican Charles Evans Hughes.^[9] As the sitting lieutenant governor, he ran as the Democratic candidate for Governor against the incumbent Hughes in 1908 and was defeated. This candidacy was opposed by Hearst, who lampooned him in a series of cartoons.

While a resident of Barrytown, Dutchess County, New York, he was a member of the New York State Assembly (Dutchess Co., 2nd D.) in 1910, 1911 and 1912. Franklin D. Roosevelt had at first thought of running for this seat in the assembly, but Chanler refused to give it up. Thus, Roosevelt ran in November 1910 for the senate instead.

About 1920, Chanler and his first wife divorced and the next year he married Julia Lynch Olin, also a recent divorcee with two daughters of her own. The family bought a new home at 132 East 65th Street, in New York City. This house was later christened Caravan House.^[10]

He died in 1942 at his home in New York City. His obituary appeared in the New York Times on March 4.^[11] His funeral was conducted at St Mark's-in-the-Bouwerie by Rev. C.A.W. Brocklebank. After the scriptural reading, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab read from "the service for the departed" of the Bahá'í religion. Chanler was buried at St Paul's Churchyard in Glen Cove, Long Island.

Marriages and Children

Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler (1869–1942) m. 1st 1890 (div) Alice Chamberlain (1868–1955), m. 2nd 1921 Julia Lynch Olin (1882–1961)

1. Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler Jr. (1891–1963), m. 1st around 1920 Leslie Murray, m. 2nd after 1940 Mary Kroehle
   1. Susan Chanler (1921–1996), m. Clifford E. Herrick, Jr. (1916–1978)
   2. Bronson Winthrop Chanler (1922–2009), m. Evelyn Williams Rogers (1931)
   3. Clare Chanler (1927–1992), m. Bayard Forster (1924–2001)
   4. Rosanna Chanler (1930), m. Montgomery Harris
2. Alida Chanler (1894–1983), m. William Christian Bohn
3. William Chamberlain Chanler (1895–1981), m. Frances Randall Williams

External links

• His picture at NYPL, Click to enlarge, bottom-right.
• Biography of his wife Julie Olin

References

1. Winthrop Family 1404-2002 Chanler's grandfather John White Chanler married Elizabeth Shirreff Winthrop, daughter of Benjamin Winthrop and Judith Stuyvesant (Peter's daughter)
2. "Margaret Astor Chanler, Heroine of Porto Rico," Milwaukee Journal, Sept 8, 1898, p. 5.
3. Donna M. Lucey, Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age. New York: Harmony Books, 2007. ISBN 1-4000-4852-4.
4. Thomas, Lately. The Astor Orphans: A Pride of Lions, W. Morrow, 1971.
5. Venn, J. A., comp., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part II. 1752-1900, Vol. ii. Chalmers – Fytche, 1944, p. 8. London: Cambridge University Press, 1922-1954.
6. Who's Who in America, 1920-1.
7. New York Secretary of State, New York Red Book, 1912, pages 116-117
8. Joyce C. Ghee, Joan Spence (2005). Eleanor Roosevelt. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-3832-9.
9. Harpers Magazine
10. "From Gaslight to Dawn" by Julie Chanler. New York: New History Foundation, 1956.
11. Obituary, New York Times, Mar 4, 1942, pg. 19.