William A. Chanler

William A. Chanler (1896)

William Astor Chanler (born June 11, 1867 in Newport , Rhode Island , †  March 4, 1934 in Menton , France ) was an American geographer and politician . Between 1899 and 1901 he represented New York State in the US House of Representatives .

Career

William Chanler was a son of Congressman John Winthrop Chanler (1826–1877). He was a member of both the well-known Dudley-Winthrop Family and the maternal Astor family . Chanler attended St. John's School in Ossining, New York State and the Phillips Academy in New Hampshire . He then studied at Harvard University for two years . He became a member of the Royal Geographical Society in London . From 1889 he was on the road as a researcher in Africa with interruptions . He reached Kilimanjaro in 1889 and 1890 . From 1892 to 1894 he traveled together with Ludwig von Höhnel to East Africa in what is now the state of Kenya . At home he first became a member of the Republican Party . In 1896 he took part as a delegate at their regional party congress for New York State. A year later he was a member of the New York State Assembly . Between May and August 1898 he took part in the Spanish-American War as captain of a cavalry unit . He was involved in the Battle of Santiago. Politically, he had meanwhile joined the Democratic Party .

In the congressional election of 1898 Chanler was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the 14th  constituency of New York , where he succeeded Republican Lemuel E. Quigg on March 4, 1899 . Since he renounced another candidacy in 1900, he could only complete one legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1901 .

After his time in the US House of Representatives, William Chanler worked, among other things, in the horse racing business. He owned several racing teams in the United States and France. From 1902 he was the owner of several copper mines in Cuba . He also bought two quarries in the south of France . Together with Alfred Vanderbilt , he owned the Vanderbilt Hotel in New York City , which after Vanderbilt's death in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915 fell to Chanler. Politically, he was inspired by the idea of ​​the freedom movement. Therefore he supported uprisings and rebellions in countries like Cuba, Libya , Somalia , Turkey , Venezuela and China . In December 1913 he lost his right leg in a mysterious accident in France, the exact background of which has never been clarified. From 1920 Chanler lived in Paris . In the following years he appeared as a writer. His anti-Semitism was evident in his works . He believed in a Jewish world conspiracy and other conspiracy theories related to Jews, which he saw as a threat to the United States, among others. William Chanler died in Menton on March 4, 1934 and was buried in New York City.

Works

• William A. Chanler: Through Jungle and Desert: Travels in Eastern Africa . MacMillan and Company, 1896 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Individual evidence

1. ^ University of Vienna: William Astor Chanler (1867–1934) and Ludwig von Höhnel (1857–1942) and Africa

Web links

• William A. Chanler in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Lemuel E. Quigg	United States House of Representatives for New York (14th constituency) March 4, 1899 - March 3, 1901	William H. Douglas