William A. Chanler

William Astor Chanler, Sr.
William Astor Chanler in 1896
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 14th district
In office
March 4, 1899 – March 3, 1901
Preceded by Lemuel E. Quigg
Succeeded by William H. Douglas
Personal details
Born June 11, 1867
Newport, Rhode Island, United States
Died March 4, 1934 (aged 66)
Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France
Resting place Trinity Church Cemetery
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Beatrice Ashley
(m. 1903—1909; separated)
Relations Samuel Cutler Ward (grandfather)
Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler (brother)
Robert Winthrop Chanler (brother)
Children William Astor Chanler, Jr.
Sidney Ashley Chanler
Parents John Winthrop Chanler
Margaret Astor Ward
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupation politician, soldier, explorer
Known for Exploration of East Africa, military exploits in Cuba, Libya, and Somalia

William Astor "Willie" Chanler, Sr. (June 11, 1867 – March 4, 1934) was a soldier, explorer, and politician who served as U.S. Representative from New York.[1] He was third 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[2] and a great-great-great-great-grandson of Wait Winthrop and Joseph Dudley. Through his mother, he was a grandnephew of Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910), John Jacob Astor III (1822–1890), and William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (1829–1892).

By the age of 27, he had already spent three years exploring East Africa, after which he embarked on a brief political career. Chanler regarded it as an American obligation to be on the side of the people who fought for their independence, and during his life he participated in rebellions and independence struggles in Cuba, Libya, and Somalia and provided support for insurgents in Venezuela, Turkey, and China. He maintained an active lifestyle even after losing his right leg in 1915. Late in life he became a novelist and an outspoken anti-Semite.

Early life

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Chanler had nine brothers and sisters, including the politician Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler and the artist Robert Winthrop Chanler. His younger sister Margaret Livingston Chanler served as a nurse with the American Red Cross during the Spanish-American War.[3] William's older brother Winthrop Astor Chanler served in the Rough Riders in Cuba[4] and was wounded at the Battle of Tayacoba.[5] His eldest brother John Armstrong "Archie" Chanler married novelist Amélie Louise Rives.[6] His older sister Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler married author John Jay Chapman. Chanler and his siblings became orphans after the death of their mother in December 1875 and their father in October 1877, both to pneumonia. The children were raised at their parents' estate in Rokeby, New York.[7] John Winthrop Chanler's will provided $20,000 a year for each child for life, enough to live comfortably by the standards of the time.[8]

Education

Chanler attended St. John's Military Academy in Ossining, New York, then Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Harvard University, which he left on his twenty-first birthday in 1888, after he completed his sophomore year. While a student there he was elected to the Porcellian Club.[8] Harvard later awarded him an honorary master's degree in 1895.[9]

Marriage and children

Chanler's wife Beatrice Ashley with their two sons circa 1910-1915

Chanler enjoyed theater, and in 1902 he saw actress Beatrice "Minnie" Ashley (1878-1946)[10] in a production of A Country Girl starring C. Hayden Coffin at Augustin Daly's theater in London.[11] Ashley was already well known after appearing in John Philip Sousa's operetta El Capitan (1896) starring DeWolf Hopper,[12] as well as The Geisha (1896), The Circus Girl (1897), A Greek Slave (1899)[13] and San Toy (1900 and 1902).[14][15][16]

Ashley was anxious to quit her stage career due to damage to her eyesight resulting from prolonged exposure to theatrical arc lights.[12] After a brief courtship, she married Chanler on December 4, 1903 at St. George's Episcopal Church in Manhattan.[17] They had two sons:

William and Beatrice separated on good terms in 1909.[12]

Beatrice Ashley became an author[21][22] and a sculptor,[23] studying under George Gray Barnard.[24] She was president of two relief organizations, the Friends of Greece and the Committee of Mercy,[25] and also managed the French Heroes Lafayette Memorial Fund.[24] For her philanthropic work she was decorated as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour[26] and was awarded (posthumously) the Greek Order of the Phoenix.[27]

African explorations

Visit to Kilimanjaro, 1889-1890

Map of East Africa exploration journey made by Chanler and von Höhnel, 1892-1894. From Through Jungle and Desert (1896).

A Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society of London, of the Imperial and Royal Geographical Society of Austria, and of the American Geographical Society of New York,[28] Chanler first visited Africa in 1889-1890 in the company of his friends George Galvin (then only 15 years old)[29] and Royal Phelps Carroll.[30] They traveled to Zanzibar and then to the coast of Kenya, going overland to Tsavo and then through lands inhabited by the Taveta people, where they encountered ornithologist William Louis Abbott and geologist Hans Meyer.[31] They continued into Maasai territory to spend ten months near Mount Kilimanjaro.[32][33] Chanler took with him a state-of-the-art Kodak camera designed to take four thousand photos without reloading, but upon his return it was discovered that the camera had not been properly loaded with film.[34]

After returning to the US, Chanler visited Wyoming in 1890 and became friends with Butch Cassidy, who escorted him to the Hole-in-the-Wall bandit hideout.[8]

Journey with Von Höhnel, 1892-1894

Between 1892 and 1894 he explored the territory in the vicinity of Mount Kenya with George Galvin and Ludwig von Höhnel, a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Navy.[35][36] Departing from Mkunumbi on September 18, 1892 they proceeded inland from the coast, mapping the Guasso Nyiro River, the Lorian Swamp, the Tana River, Lake Rudolph and then Lake Stefanie.[37] They were the first westerners to come into contact with the Bantu Tigania and Igembe Meru in this region (Carl Peters had passed to the south in 1889).[38] On January 30, 1893 they were attacked by some 200 warriors of the Wamsara (a subgroup of the Meru), who retreated after killing three porters.[39]

In early February the expedition was stranded in what is now the Meru North District of Kenya because of the death of all of its 165 pack animals (probably due to trypanosomiasis) and the desertion of many of the 160 porters.[40] On August 24, 1893 von Höhnel was gored by a rhinoceros in the groin and lower abdomen and was forced to return to Austria. Chanler himself came close to death from malaria before he finally succeeded in reaching Mombasa in February 1894.[41] Out of about five hundred photos taken during the journey, 155 photographs taken by von Höhnel have survived.[42]

Von Höhnel's map of his and Chanler's 1892-93 journey in East Africa, showing Chanler's Falls.

As part of the scientific contribution of the journey, Chanler collected numerous specimens of plants, animals and insects, including several new species of butterflies (Charaxes chanleri, Planema chanleri, Ypthima chanleri, and Cypholoba chanleri)[43][44] and a small crocodile.[45] Many of the African animals in the American Museum of Natural History were donated by him after being collected on this expedition.[46] Chanler's Falls on the Ewaso Ng'iro River[47] and Chanler's Mountain Reedbuck (Redunca fulvorufula chanleri) were named for him.[48]

In the course of his African explorations Chanler became fluent in the Swahili language.[49]

In 1896, Chanler also published the first ethnographic description of the Cushitic Rendille, a community he would describe as "the most original and interesting of all the strange and different peoples met in East Africa".[50]

Although von Höhnel and Chanler remained lifelong friends, von Höhnel considered Chanler to be reckless:

"It did not take me long to find out what an enterprising, high-spirited American Mr. Chanler was, and I realized that on this expedition I would have to be the mother of wisdom. Later on it was indeed a sight to watch my young traveling companion running risks that were not always commensurate with the object to be achieved. He often needed to be cautioned."[49]

Political and military career

Chanler was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention at Saratoga, New York in 1896 and in 1897; and was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York County, 5th Assembly District) in 1898.[51] He worked enthusiastically to pass bills concerning the Sunday closing law for New York City saloons and amending the code regulating prize fights.[8]

A fervent supporter of the Cuban struggle for independence, Chanler wrote to his friend von Höhnel in early 1898:

"I sympathize with the Cubans in their gallant efforts on behalf of liberty and I, being an American, feel it necessary to do what I can to separate entirely this continent from Europe."[8]

In February 1898 he took a leave of absence in order to accompany a shipment of weapons and ammunition to the Caribbean together with Emilio Núñez.[52] Among the guns were two M1895 Colt-Browning machine guns that Chanler had donated[53] (Rubens states that they were Maxim-Nordenfelt guns).[54] After the sinking of the USS Maine, when it appeared certain that war would break out, Chanler offered to resign from the assembly and was granted an indefinite leave of absence.[55] In May 1898 Chanler was elected a sachem of the Tammany Society.[56][57]

Participation in the Spanish-American War

In April 1898, at the outset of the Spanish-American War, Chanler responded to President William McKinley's call for volunteers by forming a New York regiment,[58][59] with the encouragement of Theodore Roosevelt, who was hoping to lead it as lieutenant colonel.[60] Known as the "Tammany Regiment," it was to be equipped at Chanler's expense. In early May, Governor Frank S. Black informed Chanler that the volunteer quota had already been reached by the 1st U. S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment[61] and that the army was unwilling to accept volunteer infantry, although Chanler speculated that it was in fact a politically motivated move.[8]

Chanler immediately volunteered his services to General Máximo Gómez and was given the rank of colonel in the nascent indigenous Cuban Army.[62][63] Chanler selected ten men skilled in scouting[64] and took them to Tampa, Florida in preparation for transport to Cuba.[65] The group included Chanler's brother Winthrop Astor Chanler, his brother-in-law C. Temple Emmet, his friend George Galvin, fellow explorer Dr. William Louis Abbott,[66] war correspondent (later Lieutenant) Grover Flint,[67][68] and the German surgeon Dr. Maximilian Lund,[69][70] as well as a grandson of General Hood, a great-grandson of Daniel Boone, and two former members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.[8]

On May 10, 1898, while Chanler was in Tampa, he was offered a commission as captain and assistant adjutant general on the staff of Major General Joseph Wheeler, which he accepted.[71][72][73] He served as acting ordnance officer, Cavalry Division, Fifth Army Corps, from May 23 to August 23, 1898. In June and July 1898 he fought in the Battle of Las Guasimas, the Battle of El Caney, San Juan Hill,[74] and in the Siege of Santiago de Cuba,[75] for which he received a commendation from Major General Wheeler for "gallantry in battle".[76] He was honorably discharged on October 3, 1898.[77]

Election to Congress

On October 20, 1898 Chanler declared his candidacy for congress as a Democrat [78] and in November he was elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress, defeating incumbent Lemuel Ely Quigg[79] and serving as representative of New York's 14th congressional district from March 4, 1899 to March 3, 1901. During his term he introduced H.R. 9963, legislation to improve living conditions for American sailors.[80] He expressed vocal support for the construction of the Panama Canal and the annexation of Hawaii as well as Cuba.[81] He was not a candidate for renomination in 1900. In 1904 he declared his candidacy for governor of New York on the combined Democratic and Independence League ticket[82] but later withdrew. He managed the successful campaign of his brother Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1906 as well as his unsuccessful bid for governor in 1908.[8]

First hand account recorded by Edwin Manners on August 17, 1905:[83]

"Late this evening I went up to the Manhattan Casino. The William Astor Chanler association was holding its summer night festival and outing there. Mr. C. has explored a little in Africa: he is now exploring darkest Tammany. I noticed him, a manly young fellow, surrounded by some politicians, and while apparently a good mixer, he betrayed a subconscious pant as if the element was not just to his taste."

Later life

Racehorses

An owner of thoroughbred racehorses, Chanler raced both in the United States and in France. His trainers included Albert Cooper,[84] U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Preston M. Burch, and Chanler's friend, George Galvin. In 1896 he purchased the well-known broodmares Mannie Gray (dam of Domino) and Bandala (winner of the 1886 Mermaid Stakes).[85][86] Other horses that Chanler owned included Hancock II,[87] Aurelian,[88] Winona, Caldron,[89][90] Tender,[91] Cresson,[92] Madelaine, Salvacea, Camilla, Nanon, Lady Dainty,[93] Nasturtium,[94] Escuriel,[95] Salvatella,[96][97] I Told You,[98] Novena[99] and Salama.[100]

In 1907 he purchased Olympian,[101] a chestnut colt by Domino, out of Belle of Maywood by Lexington.[102] Chanler took him to race in France where he disappeared during World War I. Following the war, Chanler moved his stable to the south of France and raced frequently in England and in Paris at the Saint-Cloud Racecourse, the Maisons-Laffitte Racecourse, Longchamp Racecourse and Tremblay Park. Among his most successful horses were Mandar[103] (ridden by Matthew MacGee) and Seguridad, who won the Omnium Handicap in September 1932.[104]

Business dealings and investments

Chanler was a principle investor and co-owner of the Vanderbilt Hotel

In 1902, Chanler purchased an iron mine in Pinar del Río Province and the El Cobre Copper Mine near Santiago de Cuba. Profits were initially robust enough that Chanler was able to loan $35 million to the Cuban government and purchase a house in Sands Point, New York. While visiting his Cuban mines Chanler was introduced to a local drink known as a "Daiquiri" which he later popularized in clubs in New York.[8] Chanler was a member of the Knickerbocker Club, the Union Club, the Players Club, the Lambs Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Meadowbrook Polo Club, the Metropolitan Club, and The Brook Club.[105]

In 1903, he purchased two stone quarries and an ochre mine in Southern France and became president of the French firm Carrières Réunies de la Nièvre, which quarried Malvaux and Verger stone for the American Church in Paris.[25]

In 1913, he invested in and became co-owner, together with Alfred Vanderbilt, of the Vanderbilt Hotel at 4 Park Avenue in New York City.[106][107] After Vanderbilt died in 1915 in the sinking of the Lusitania, Chanler became full owner. For several years the hotel was managed by Chanler's friend, George Galvin.[8] Chanler's ex-wife Beatrice Ashley Chanler executed a 400-foot-long frieze for the hotel's ground floor.[108][109]

Chanler's investments in real estate and foreign mining operations largely insulated him from the Wall Street crash of 1929, although towards the end of his life he began hoarding gold coins in his Paris home as insurance against currency fluctuations.[8]

Hearst lawsuit

In 1907, Chanler filed a lawsuit for criminal libel against newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst for printing a story in The New York American on October 21 which implied that Chanler had engaged in the sexual abuse of girls together with actor and comedian Raymond Hitchcock.[110] On October 23, Chanler filed suit and Hearst was arrested, then released on $1000 bail.[111] As Hitchcock's trial progressed, it was revealed that the charges of sexual abuse were fabricated as part of a blackmail scheme.[112][113] Hearst printed a full retraction and an apology on December 21, saying:

“We have found that the [statement] was absolutely without the slightest foundation in fact, and The American and Mr. Hearst now frankly and unreservedly state that the publication was without any justification whatever, and desire to express to Mr. Chanler [their] extreme regret.”[114]

Hitchcock was acquitted by a jury on June 11, 1908.[115]

Support for foreign freedom fighters

Venezuela

In 1902, Chanler was approached by a group of Dutch investors, who were afraid that the Venezuelan President Cipriano Castro was about to default on a massive loan. They asked Chanler to stage a rebellion, which he did by raising a small army of "desperadoes, soldiers of fortune, cattle rustlers, bank robbers, gamblers, Indian scouts and fugitives," recruiting some through his acquaintance Butch Cassidy and others from Quantrill's Raiders.[116] The mercenary army landed on the Venezuelan coast, marched inland and threatened to seize power, but the insurrection was called off when the president agreed to comply with the terms of his loans. In return for his help, Chanler was able to borrow funds for a project to provide a new sewage and water supply system to the city of Tampico, Mexico.[8]

The Sanibel

In 1904, Chanler purchased the yacht Sanibel on which he spent his honeymoon in the Caribbean.[117] He is known to have invited Sun Yat-sen aboard to discuss his plans for overthrowing the Qing dynasty, as well as members of the Young Turk Movement who were organizing opposition to the Ottoman Empire.[8]

Libya

In 1910, Chanler went to Libya to fight for the Senussi against Italy in the Italo-Turkish War.[118] In August 1911 he wrote to von Höhnel to ask him to order 15 Mauser pistols and 5,000 rounds of ammunition through arms dealer Basil Zaharoff. He then visited Constantinople where he was granted a Turkish commission as colonel of auxiliaries and a gift of 500,000 Turkish lira. Chanler arranged for weapons and supplies to be landed at isolated spots along the Libyan coast. Returning to Libya, Chanler wandered the desert in disguise, exhorting the Tuaregs and Tebou to resist Italian rule. Eventually he was granted a rare audience with Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi who permitted him to recruit and train a unit of horsemen. On October 23, 1911 Arab cavalry commanded by Chanler ambushed and routed Italian troops landing at Benghazi. Chanler was forced to leave the country a few days later after drinking poisoned camel's milk.[8]

Somalia

In 1912, Chanler traveled to British Somaliland in present-day northwestern Somalia. There, he served until late 1913 as a military adviser to Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (the "Mad Mullah"), during the Somaliland Campaign, the Dervish State's struggle against the Italians, British and Ethiopians.[119] Chanler's recommendations may have influenced Hassan's forces to fight the British Somaliland Camel Corps at Dul Madoba on August 9, 1913 and later to sack the port at Berbera.

Amputation

On December 8, 1913, Chanler was involved in a mysterious accident in France, during which he injured his right leg.[8] Various reports suggested that Chanler had been in a car accident,[120][121] or that he had been dueling with boxer Frank Moran and was shot[122] (Chanler was backing Jack Johnson against Moran in the 1914 World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in Paris).[123] Chanler was taken to the American Hospital of Paris where he underwent several surgeries, but the injury never healed and his right leg was amputated above the knee in late September, 1915.[124]

Chanler suffered from morphine addiction for several years after the amputation. He tried dozens of different articulated prosthetic limbs before settling on a single unjointed pylon, "a plain pegleg, like that of [my] ancestor Peter Stuyvesant."[8]

Philanthropy

In 1916, Chanler's step-nephew Victor Chapman, an aviator with the Escadrille Lafayette, was killed in a dogfight in France—the first American pilot killed in the war.[125] Chanler established the French Heroes Lafayette Memorial Fund, together with Theodore Roosevelt and Myron Herrick, to build schools, hospitals and asylums. In December 1916 Chanler, Scottish industrialist John C. Moffat and other philanthropists including Theodore Roosevelt, Joseph Choate, Clarence Mackay, George von Lengerke Meyer, John Grier Hibben, and Nicholas Murray Butler purchased the Château de Chavaniac, birthplace of the Marquis de Lafayette in Auvergne, to serve as a headquarters for the fund,[126] which was managed by Chanler's ex-wife Beatrice Ashley Chanler.[127][128] The château served as a school, orphanage and preventorium for the care of pre-tubercular, frail and malnourished children, as well as a museum of the life and family of the Marquis de Lafayette.[24]

Publications and antisemitic beliefs

He moved to Paris in 1920 and, encouraged by the success of his 1896 travelogue Through Jungle and Desert, he published his first novel, A Man's Game, under the pseudonym John Brent.[116] The book was based on Chanler's involvement in a plot to overthrow President Cipriano Castro during the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03.

Throughout the 1920s Chanler corresponded frequently with his old friend Ludwig von Höhnel, then living in retirement in Vienna, on the "Jewish world conspiracy" and the degree to which von Höhnel shared Chanler's antisemitic ideology, writing on March 22, 1923: "You don't seem disturbed by the fact that your town is overrun by Jews."[49] Chanler accepted as authentic the widely-recognized forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and he employed agents to compile dossiers on Jewish public figures in the US and other countries.[8]

In 1925 he published his second novel, The Sacrifice, under the pseudonym Robert Hart, in which Jewish conspirators were planning to take over Western culture and government.[129] Chanler's sister in law, Margaret Terry, married to his brother Winthrop Astor Chanler, remarked in a memoir that late in life Chanler was "an ardent anti-Semite..... [who] holds the Jews responsible for the World War" and that he "believes the Pope to be somehow run by the Jews, and many other things that cannot all be true."[130] Chanler once wrote to Margaret:

"Although [I am] as you know, a devout Christian, I have been helped a great deal by the Islamic faith, and lately I have been massaged by a Hindu Yoghi much to my benefit. I am so open-minded that I would, once at least, even listen to a..... voodoo worshipper, a Mormon, or even a Holy Roller—but one religion I do bar, and that is the Hebrew."

In 1928 Chanler wrote to then-governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on his preoccupation with Jewish conspiracy, and stated that he was in confidential communication with anti-Jewish Arab leaders including the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. In 1933 he wrote to his sister Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler on the "centralized Jewish control of world affairs," stating his belief that the British cabinet was under the control of the Fabian Society and Baron Israel Moses Sieff, who were enacting a secret plan to "Bolshevize" Great Britain and the United States, "which will result in the absolute loss of individual independence."[8]

Death

Chanler died on March 4, 1934 in Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France.[1] His remains were returned home for a lavish funeral held at St. Marks in the Bowery. He was buried in the Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City, near the graves of his father and grandfather.[131] His widow died in 1946.[24][26]

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Wm. Astor Chanler Is Dead In France. African Explorer and Soldier a Member of Celebrated American Family. Once Served In Congress. Great-Grandson of Original John Jacob Astor. Brother of Late Robert W. Chanler". New York Times. March 5, 1934. Retrieved 2013-12-10.
  2. ↑ Winthrop Family 1404-2002 Chanler's grandfather John White Chanler married Elizabeth Shirreff Winthrop, daughter of Benjamin Winthrop and Judith Stuyvesant (Peter's daughter)
  3. ↑ "Margaret Astor Chanler, Heroine of Porto Rico," Milwaukee Journal, Sept 8, 1898, p. 5.
  4. ↑ Rice, Wallace, editor. Heroic Deeds in Our War with Spain: An Episodic History of the Fighting of 1898 on Sea and Shore, G.M. Hill, 1898.
  5. ↑ "FIGHTING FILIBUSTERS; Expedition to Cuba Has Several Brushes with Spaniards. GEN. NUNEZ'S BROTHER KILLED Winthrop Chanler of New York and Five Cubans Wounded. Guns of the Peoria Do Great Execution Among the Enemy; Two Shiploads of Supplies for the Insurgents Landed." New York Times, July 14 1898.
  6. ↑ Donna M. Lucey, Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age. New York: Harmony Books, 2007. ISBN 1-4000-4852-4.
  7. ↑ Rokeby Mansion, Barrytown New York
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 8.10 8.11 8.12 8.13 8.14 8.15 8.16 8.17 Thomas, Lately. The Astor Orphans: A Pride of Lions, W. Morrow, 1971.
  9. ↑ "HARVARD COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT DAY: Degrees Were Conferred," New York Herald, June 27, 1895.
  10. ↑ Internet Broadway Database: Minnie Ashley
  11. ↑ "WILLIAM A. CHANLER WEDS; Marries Miss Minnie Ashley at St. Georges Rectory. Bride Was Formerly a Popular Actress," New York Times, December 5, 1903.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Minnie Ashley: Biography."
  13. ↑ "'A Greek Slave' is a Showy and Tasteful Extravaganza--Minnie Ashley's Big Hit," New York Times, Nov 29, 1899.
  14. ↑ Lewis Clinton Strang, Famous Prima Donnas, Boston, L. C. Page & Co., 1900, pp. 134-146.
  15. ↑ Beatrice Ashley Chanler Papers, 1914-1928 (MS Am 1311). Houghton Library, Harvard University.
  16. ↑ Lida Rose McCabe, "Poor Girls Who Marry Millions," Cosmopolitan, Vol XLI, No. 1, May 1906; pp. 249-258.
  17. ↑ "W. ASTOR CHANLER WEDS. FORMER CONGRESSMAN MARRIES MINNIE ASHLEY, ACTRESS." Chicago Tribune, Dec 5, 1903, p. 3.
  18. ↑ "Chanler, William A. Jr."
  19. ↑ "Obituary: William Astor Chanler, Jr."
  20. ↑ Chanler, William Astor, Jr. And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time: A Seven Hundred Acre Island Reminiscence. Rockport, ME: Outerbridge Books, 1984.
  21. ↑ Beatrice Chanler, Cleopatra's Daughter, the Queen of Mauretania, Liveright Pub. Co., London, 1934.
  22. ↑ Beatrice Chanler, Le péan du nouveau monde, Paris, Éditions de La Revue mondiale, 1927.
  23. ↑ Beatrice Ashley Chanler, artist
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 "Mrs. W.A. Chanler, Explorer's Widow. Actress, Sculptor and Author Is Dead. Her Husband Was Kin of John Jacob Astor Active in War Relief Work Was Singer on Stage". Associated Press in the New York Times. June 19, 1946. Retrieved 2013-12-09. Mrs. Beatrice Ashley Chanler of 59 East Fifty-fourth Street, New York, died today aboard a New York-to-Portland train while on the way to her Islesboro (Me.) summer home.....
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 The Beatrice and William Astor Chanler papers, 1897-ca. 1945.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Mrs. William A. Chanler Dies," The Rhinebeck Gazette / Red Hook Times, Rhinebeck, NY June 27, 1946, p. 10.
  27. ↑ Henry McBride, An Eye on the Modern Century: Selected Letters of Henry McBride, Steven Watson and Catherine Morris, editors. Yale University Press, 2000., p. 344. ISBN 0300083262
  28. ↑ "FELLOWS.: CORRECTED TO DECEMBER 31, 1892." Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York; Jan 1, 1892; p. xviii.
  29. ↑ Galvin, George E., Diary of George E. Galvin, Chanler Expedition, Kenya, 1888-1890 compiled by George E. Galvin Jr., Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1996.
  30. ↑ "HUNTING AFRICAN GAME: American Sportsmen Slay Two Hundred Ferocious Beasts," The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 5, 1890, p. 1.
  31. ↑ Hans Meyer, Across East African Glaciers: An Account of the First Ascent of Kilimanjaro, Translated by E. H. S. Calder; George Philip & Son, 1891.
  32. ↑ "Personalities." The Independent: Devoted to the Consideration of Politics, Social and Economic Tendencies, Nov 7, 1889; 41:2136; p. 8.
  33. ↑ Chanler, William A., "Hunting in East Africa," in Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnel, eds, Hunting in Many Lands: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club. New York: Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 1895.
  34. ↑ Battes, C. G., "A Plucky Young Explorer: William Astor Chanler, His Travels and His Photograph Camera," Idaho Daily Statesman, 3-24-1894, p. 5.
  35. ↑ Chanler, William Astor, Through Jungle and Desert, Macmillian & Co., London, 1896.
  36. ↑ "W.A. CHANLER'S EXPLORATIONS: Hitherto Unknown Mountains and Rivers in East Africa," New York Times Jun 14, 1894; p. 9.
  37. ↑ Wm. Astor Chanler's Expedition Route Map of a journey to the East of MT. Kenia 5th. Dec. 1892- 10th. Feb. 1893, University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  38. ↑ Fadiman, Jeffrey A. When We Began, There Were Witchmen: An Oral History from Mount Kenya. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
  39. ↑ Imperato, P. J. (1998). Quest for the Jade Sea: Colonial competition around an East African lake. Boulder, Co., Westview Press; p. 86.
  40. ↑ "IS CHANLER LOST? Alarming News of the Plucky Young Explorer," Trenton Evening News, Dec 10, 1893, p. 3.
  41. ↑ "EXPLORER CHANLER RETREATING.: On His Way Back to the Coast, After Being Deserted," The New York Times, Feb 6, 1894; p. 5.
  42. ↑ The "Rokeby Papers" include photos from the Chanler-Höhnel Expedition and are in a private collection in Red Hook, NY. See Kotrba, 2008.
  43. ↑ Orator Fuller Cook, East African Diplopoda of the suborder Polydesmoidea, collected by Mr. William Astor Chanler, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1895.
  44. ↑ William Jacob Holland, List of the Lepidoptera collected in East Africa, 1894, by Mr. William Astor Chanler and Lieutenant Ludwig von Höhnel, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1896.
  45. ↑ "Collections Recently received from Dr. W. L. Abbott and Mr. William Astor Chanler," Smithsonian Institution, 1894.
  46. ↑ "Death of Chanler Closes Brilliant Exploring Career," The Washington Post, Mar 25, 1934; p. B5.
  47. ↑ William Chanler, "Mr. Astor Chanler's Expedition to East Africa." The Geographical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 6 (Jun., 1893), pp. 533-534.
  48. ↑ Maddie DeMott, "William Chanler," Africana, 1967; 3, 1:15-19.
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 49.2 Von Höhnel, Ludwig. Over Land and Sea: Memoir of an Austrian Rear Admiral's Life in Europe and Africa, 1857-1909, ed. Ronald E. Coons and Pascal James Imperato; New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 2000; ISBN 0841913900.
  50. ↑ Moore, Marianne (1896). The Dial, Volume 21. Jansen, McClurg & Company. p. 13.
  51. ↑ "HOME NEWS: Prominent Arrivals at the Hotels," New York Herald, Nov 11, 1897, p. 12.
  52. ↑ Joyce Milton, The yellow kids: foreign correspondents in the heyday of yellow journalism, Harper & Row, 1989; pp. 50-51.
  53. ↑ Horace Smith, A captain unafraid: the strange adventures of Dynamite Johnny O'Brien, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1912, pp. 167-180.
  54. ↑ Horatio Seymour Rubens, Cuba, or, The pursuit of freedom, Ayer Publishing, 1970; ISBN 0-405-02049-X, pp. 167-8.
  55. ↑ "Captain William Astor Chanler: His Active Career as Explorer, Soldier and Politician." New York Tribune, Illustrated Supplement, Nov 6, 1898, Page 9.
  56. ↑ "Tammany Sachems Installed," New York Tribune, 5-13-1898; p. 21.
  57. ↑ "Chanler Installed As Sachem," New York Tribune, 1-10-1899; p. 2.
  58. ↑ "CHANLER TO FIGHT: Millionaire Raising a Regiment For the War," Free Press, Easton, PA, Apr 22, 1898, p. 1.
  59. ↑ "Thousands of Volunteers: Recruiting Continues Rapidly," The New York Times," Apr 28, 1898.
  60. ↑ G. J. A. O'Toole, The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898, W. W. Norton & Company, 1986 ISBN 0-393-30304-7; pp. 145, 160.
  61. ↑ "THE VOLUNTEER RECRUITS: William Astor Chanler Disbands the Regiment He Has Been Forming." The New York Times, May 1, 1898, pg. 3.
  62. ↑ "One Millionaire to Fight for Cuba: W. Astor Chanler has Gone to Fight for Gomez," Columbus Enquirer-Sun, May 5, 1898.
  63. ↑ "OFFICERS OF VOLUNTEERS: The President Sends the Names of Army Officers and Well-Known Civilians to the Senate," New York Times, May 10, 1898.
  64. ↑ "From the Waldorf to Cuba: William Astor Chanler Leads Companions to Join the Insurgents," New York World, May 3, 1898.
  65. ↑ "William Astor Chanler." New York Times, Oct 20, 1898, p. 12.
  66. ↑ William Louis Abbott Papers, Record Unit 7117, Abbott, William Louis (1860-1936) Smithsonian Institution Archives
  67. ↑ "THE CENTAURS OF OUR ARMY: What was Seen in a Day's Visit to the Quarters of the Rough Riders in Camp at ·Tampa." Boston Sunday Journal, June 5, 1898, Vol. V, Issue 245; p. 9.
  68. ↑ Grover Flint, Marching with Gomez: A War-Correspondent's Field Note-Book Kept during Four Months with the Cuban Army, New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1899.
  69. ↑ "NUNEZ KILLED; Chanler's Brother Wounded - Filibusters Get Near the Fire Line." Minneapolis Journal, July 15, 1898, p. 8.
  70. ↑ "Acting Assistant Surgeons in the Army," in George Frederick Shrady, Thomas Lathrop Stedman, eds. Medical Record, Volume 57. W. Wood, 1900; pp. 561-62.
  71. ↑ "Staff Position for Astor," The Sun, Baltimore, MD, 5-10-1898; Vol CXXII; Issue: 150; p. 6.
  72. ↑ Rouse, WJ, "WILLIAM ASTOR CHANLER'S ROUGH RIDERS," New York Times, May 29, 1898; p. 10.
  73. ↑ "Millionaires in Army Uniform: Men of Fortune Who have Enlisted in Actual Service against the Spanish Forces." Boston Sunday Journal, May 29, 1898; p. 10.
  74. ↑ Fitzhugh Lee, Joseph Wheeler, Theodore Roosevelt, and Richard Wainwright, Cuba's struggle against Spain with the causes of American intervention and a full account of the Spanish-American war: including final peace negotiations, The American Historical Press, 1899, pp. 533, 538-540.
  75. ↑ "FEW ASSEMBLYMEN ABSENT" New York Times, July 12, 1898.
  76. ↑ "Gen. Wheeler's Report: Praise for His Subordinates," Dallas Morning News, Aug 6, 1898, p. 4.
  77. ↑ "Capt. Chanler Honorably Discharged," New York Herald, Oct 3, 1898, p. 3.
  78. ↑ "Candidates for Public Office," New York Times, Oct 23, 1898, p. 13.
  79. ↑ "CHANLER DEFEATS QUIGG: The Captain Victor by About 6,000 in a Hotly Contested Fight for Congress," New York Times, Nov 9, 1898; pg. 3.
  80. ↑ James H. Williams, "The Sailor and the Law," Independent, LII, Nov. 15, 1900, pp. 2733-2737.
  81. ↑ Mitchell Charles Harrison, Prominent and progressive Americans: an encyclopædia of contemporaneous biography, Volume 2, New York Tribune, 1904, p. 42.
  82. ↑ "CHANLER FOR GOVERNOR: Author and Traveler Announces That He Is a Candidate." The New York Times, Jul 25, 1904, p. 1.
  83. ↑ The Journal of Edwin Manners
  84. ↑ "WILL RACE FOR AMUSEMENT: William Astor Chanler to Have a Select Stable in charge of Albert Cooper," New York Herald, Dec 24, 1895.
  85. ↑ History of the Mermaid Stakes: Daily Racing Dorm, July 7, 1909
  86. ↑ "Turf and Track Notes," The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 24, 1896, p. 22.
  87. ↑ "Racing Season Opens: Very Successful Season at the New Aqueduct Racetrack," New York Times, May 5, 1896.
  88. ↑ "RACING AT CONEY ISLAND," New York Times, September 3, 1896.
  89. ↑ "Sports at Paris Exposition: Col. Hamburger Wants to Send a Team of American Champions to the Olympian Games," New York Times, February 8, 1898.
  90. ↑ "THE RACES AT BRIGHTON: Outsiders Finished First," New York Times, July 9, 1898.
  91. ↑ "The Racetrack. Results At Morris Park--Fewer Persons In Attendance," New York Tribune; 5-18-1899; p. 8.
  92. ↑ "DOMINO'S SONS IN FRONT: Commando First, Olympian Second," New York Times, August 8, 1900.
  93. ↑ "SONGSTRESS BROUGHT $7,700: Kinley Mack's Dam Sold to J. B. Haggin at Sale of Brood Mares," New York Times, October 20, 1900.
  94. ↑ "American Horse In The English Derby," The Patriot, 3-15-1902; p. 11; Harrisburg, PA.
  95. ↑ "Horse Chat," The Morning Herald, 3-25-1902; Vol. 32, Issue 84; p. 7, Lexington, KY.
  96. ↑ "WINS HANDICAP BY AN EYELASH: Salvatella Gets Decision in Close Finish at Brighton." The San Francisco Call, 10-23-1903, p. 38.
  97. ↑ "BRIGHTON RACES ENDED: Holiday Crowd Braved the Cold to See Last of Seaside Meeting." New York Times, Oct 25, 1903, p. 14.
  98. ↑ "ENTRIES AND SELECTIONS: Washington (Bennings)," New York Morning Telegraph, April 3, 1905.
  99. ↑ "NEW YORK RACING YEAR ENDED AT AQUEDUCT; Big Crowd Witnessed the Final Programme of the Season," New York Times, November 16, 1905.
  100. ↑ "Gossip of the Turf," The Lexington Herald, 9-12-1909; Vol. 39, Issue 255; p. 2, Lexington, KY.
  101. ↑ "Gossip of the Track and Paddock," The Duluth News Tribune, 2-03-1907; p. 11, Duluth, MN.
  102. ↑ "The Horse," The Southern Planter, Volume 70, Nov 1909, p. 1047.
  103. ↑ "COURSES AU TREMBLAY," Le Figaro, 11 May 1924, p. 5.
  104. ↑ "LES COURSES AU TREMBLAY," Le Figaro, 19 Sept 1932, p. 7.
  105. ↑ Men of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries, edited by John William Leonard, New York: L.R. Hamersly, 1908, p. 424.
  106. ↑ "The 1912 Vanderbilt Hotel -- Park Avenue and 34th Street."
  107. ↑ "New York History: Vanderbilt Hotel 1913."
  108. ↑ "NYC's Hotels and Boarding Houses 1916."
  109. ↑ Architecture and Building, Volume 44. W.T. Comstock Company, 1912, p. 152.
  110. ↑ "WARRANT ISSUED FOR W.R. HEARST: William Astor Chanler Accuses the Editor of Criminal Libel," Oct 23, 1907; The New York Times, p. 7.
  111. ↑ "WARRANT SERVED ON HEARST: He Is Arraigned on Chanler's Libel charge and Paroled." New York Times, Oct 24, 1907.
  112. ↑ "Pleaded Guilty When Charged with Blackmail - Tried to Extort $1,500 from Raymond Hitchcock - Vindication for Noted Actor;" Wilkes-Barre Times Leader; 12-23-1907; p. 1; Wilkes-barre, Pennsylvania.
  113. ↑ "Hearst's Own Witnesses Turn the Table on Him," Dawson Daily News, Nov 15, 1907, p. 1.
  114. ↑ "Apologizes To Chanler. New York American Declares Its Story Without Foundation;" The Daily Picayune; 12-23-1907; Page: 11; New Orleans, Louisiana.
  115. ↑ "JURY DECLARES ACTOR GUILTLESS: Raymond Hitchcock Acquitted of Crime against Young Girls." Morning Oregonian, June 11, 1908, p. 5.
  116. ↑ 116.0 116.1 John Brent, A Man's Game, The Century Company, 1921.
  117. ↑ 1906 New York Yacht Club Member Book, New York, Knickerbocker Press, 1906.
  118. ↑ Robert S. Leopold, "A Guide to Early African Collections in the Smithsonian Institution," Department of Anthropology National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution August 1994, p. 21.
  119. ↑ Kotrba, Franz, "William Astor Chanler (1867-1934) und Ludwig von Höhnel (1857-1942) und Afrika." Diplomarbeit, Universität Wien. Historisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät BetreuerIn: Sauer, Walter. 2008.
  120. ↑ "W.A. CHANLER ILL IN PARIS.; Suffering from Hurts Said to Have Been Received in Auto Accident." The New York Times, Dec 9 1913, p. 1.
  121. ↑ "SAY CHANLER WAS NOT SHOT: Only Resting from Strain, His Friends Assert." The New York Times, Dec 13, 1913; p. 4.
  122. ↑ "CHANLER HURT IN A DUEL? Rumor in Paris." The New York Times, Dec 12, 1913; p. 1.
  123. ↑ "JOHNSON AND MORAN TO FIGHT IN PARIS; Champion Will Sign Articles Today and Get $35,000, Guaranteed by W.A. Chanler." The New York Times, Jan 14 1914, p. 12.
  124. ↑ "W.A. CHANLER LOSES LEG: Sportsman and Explorer Has Limb Amputated at Paris." The Washington Post, Oct 31, 1915; p. 2.
  125. ↑ The Story of the Lafayette Escadrille. Told by its Commander, Captain Georges Thenault. Translated by Walter Duranty. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company (1921).
  126. ↑ "Americans buy Layette's Home," The Sacred Heart Review, Volume 57, Number 4, 6 January 1917, p. 3.
  127. ↑ Albert Bushnell Hart, Harper's Pictorial Library of the World War, Volume 7, Harper, 1920; p. 110.
  128. ↑ "Americans Aid War Refugees in Paris Mrs. William Astor Chanler Tells of Work Done Through Lafayette Fund;" The Philadelphia Inquirer; 8-04-1918; Vol. 179, Issue: 35; p. 11, Philadelphia, PA.
  129. ↑ Robert Hart, The Sacrifice, London: Boswell Printing and Pub. Co., 1925.
  130. ↑ Margaret Terry Chanler, Roman Spring Little Brown & Co., 1934, p. 246.
  131. ↑ Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum
Preceded by
Lemuel Ely Quigg		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York
March 4, 1899 - March 3, 1901 		Succeeded by
William H. Douglas

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.