Biography - Lemuel Chandler
Lemuel Chandler, of Bourbon, is one of the old and most universally respected citizens in the county. He was born within three miles of Cynthiana, Harrison county, Kentucky, August 30, 1824, a son of Israel and Lydia (Grewell) Chandler, who were born in the "Blue Grass" regions of Kentucky. Israel Chandler emigrated from Kentucky to Clermont county in 1831 and remained there seven years, when he came to Douglas county and located in Bourbon township, settling on what is now known as the old Chandler homestead, upon which William Chandler now resides (see his sketch). John Chanlder (grandfather), a Quaker in his religious belief, emigrated from Chester county, Pennsylvania, to Kentucky and settled in Harrison county in about the year 1791, the year preceeding Kentucky's admission into the union. John Grewell (maternal grandfather) married a Miss Temple, a native of Delaware, and settled near the Chandler's in Kentucky.
Lemuel Chandler was reared to manhood in the neighborhood in which he has always resided. For that day he received a very good education, attended the Paris Academy and later taught school in the Bourbon neighborhood. He has never been an aspirant for office, in the usual acceptation of that term, but he has held the office of supervisor of his township.
In 1849 he was united in marriage to Mrs. Prudence W. Bacon, a native of Hampshire county, Virginia, and a daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Beavers, the former born in the state of New Jersey, and the later in Baltimore, Maryland. To Mr. and Mrs. Chandler have been born six children: John, who is a farmer and resides in Bourbon township; William, whose sketch is found elsewhere; Beatrice, wife of Dell Henry, of Hastings, Nebraska; Lydia Belle; Gertrude, wife of Clifford Jones, who resides in the edge of the village of Bourbon; and Ernest M. Chandler, in the live stock commission business at Peoria, Illinois. Mr. Chandler is a member and deacon of the Baptis church, of which church his wife is also a member. Mr. Chandler owns two hundred and sixty acres of land in Arcola township and five hundred and forty in Bourbon township.
Extracted by Linda Lang from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, pages 157-158.
