Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/1220

 1058 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY Goodhue county, was a central figure around whom the rural population of the county were wont to rally. He had many of the characteristics of the New England puritan, but a long resi- dence in the West had modified their asperities. He had well de- fined views upon all public questions, and did not lack ability or inclination to vindicate his opinions when occasions offered for their expression. He served in the legislature of the state, and would doubtless have represented his district in Congress but for his rigid views of political ethics, which restrained him from adopting the methods in vogue and practiced by aspiring poli- ticians in his time. He early realized the substantial character of the resources and capabilities of the new country in which he had made his home, and hence had unlimited confidence in the possibilities of its future. He did much to advance the material interests of his immediate locality, and is gratefully remembered as one of the founders of that delightful community, cosily nestled in the charming valley of the Zumbro. Martin Spencer Chandler, now deceased, many years sheriff of Goodhue county, and ;i man of prominence in the state was born ;it Jamestown, Chautauqua county. Mew York, Feb. 14, 1S24, son of Woodley W. and Phebe Winson Chandler, both of Mew England ancestry. The maternal great-grandfather of Mar- tin S. Chandler v;is an officer in the Revolutionary War, and his grandfather on the same side was in the War of 1812. The father was a woolen manufacturer and an extensive farmer, be- ing one of the leading men of Chautauqua county for many years. An uncle. Spencer ("handler, from whom .Martin S. was named, was city marshal of Nashville, Tennessee, for twenty- three years, and when the Civil War broke out was one of the few men in that city who stood nobly by the old Hag. Martin was educated at the Jamestown and Fredonia academies, and learned the tanner and currier's trade, but preferred farming, which he followed in his native town until the fifties, when he came to Goodhue county and opened a farm in fine Island. Dur-* ing the first year he was in the state he was elected one of the three county commissioners, serving until 1858; in the autumn of which year he was elected sheriff, taking office Jan. 1, 1859, in which position he served for nearly three decades. He was a stanch Republican and from the earliest days of the county was a leader in the party councils. He was a presidential elector in 1872 and was elected messenger to carry the vote of the state to Washington, but declined in favor of Wilford L. Wilson, of St. Paul. Mr. Chandler was several times urged to become a candidate for Congress and other honors were offered him. but many of these he declined. He served the state two terms as United States Surveyor General for Minnesota and in 1888 was