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Capt. E. P. CHANDLER, merchant, Fordyce, Ark. Mr. CHANDLER
is a member of the firm of Chandler & Rowland, general merchants, who established their business
in Fordyce in 1883, and carry a stock of goods valued at $6,000, and with annual
sales of $30,000. For two years this firm has owned and operated Fordyce Canning
Factory, and during 1889 put up 40,000 cans of apples, peaches, tomatoes and
string beans, and is one of the leading firms in town. Since its establishment,
this business has steadily and constantly increased, and evinces still further
success owing to the superiority of its canned goods. Mr. CHANDLER was born in
Smith County, Tenn., in 1828, and is the son of Parks & Mary (OWENS) CHANDLER,
natives, respectively of Virginia and South Carolina. They both removed with
their parents to Smith County, Tenn., when young, and there they were married.
The father died in 1844, but the mother came with our subject to Arkansas, in
1871. Both were members of the Methodist Church for many years. Parks CHANDLER
was a well-to-do farmer, and was the son of Isaac CHANDLER, an early settler
of Smith County, Tenn., where the latter probably passed his last days. He was
a farmer, and of German descent. The maternal grandfather, Thomas OWENS, was
a native of North Carolina, and died in Smith County, Tenn., where he had carried
on farming for many years. Both grandparents were in the War of 1812. Capt. E.
P. CHANDLER was the fourth of four sons and four daughters, and received his
education in the common schools. He married, in 1847, to Miss Sarah RAWLAND,
a native of Smith County, born in 1831, and the daughter of Rev. James & Patsey
RAWLAND, natives of of the Old Dominion, but early settlers of Smith County,
Tenn. Mr. RAWLAND was a farmer and tanner, and was also a minister in the Methodist
Church for many years. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died about 1868.
To Mr. & Mrs. CHANDLER have been born ten children, four sons and four daughters
now living: Mattie (wife of William JONES), Marion F., Parks, Ellen (wife of
Thomas ROWLAND, the other member of the firm), Allen B., Hughel T., Tobitha (wife
of Robert H. DEDMAN,[see his father’s bio]) and Mary. When Mr. CHANDLER
first came to Arkansas, he cut a road three miles to where he settled, nine miles
southwest of Princeton, where he improved a good farm, and there resided for
thirty years. He then removed to Princeton, and for three years was engaged in
merchandising, after which he moved to Fordyce, and continued the same business
there with unusual success. He is a prominent business man, and one who has the
respect and confidence of the people. He has just erected a fine brick business
house, one of the best in Fordyce, and is also the owner of 600 acres of land
in different tracts, all the results of his own efforts. He was in Capt. L. P.
McMurry’s regiment of the First Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Infantry,
and served about six months in the Mexican War. He was discharged at Carnago,
Mexico, on account of disability. During the late war he served in the Confederate
army- the first year as Captain of Company D, Twelfth Arkansas Infantry- principally
on the Mississippi River, and at Island No. 10 he was captured, but at once made
his escape. Soon after he was in the quartermaster’s department, in Arkansas
and Texas, and surrendered at Camden at the close of the war. In politics he
was formerly a Whig, and his first presidential vote was cast for Scott, in 1852.
Since the war he has been a Democrat. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity,
and all his family, with the exception of one daughter (Ellen), who is a member
of the Missionary Baptist Church, are members of the Methodist Church, of which
he has been steward for twenty years or more.