Jane Chandler's father, John C. Chandler

John Chandler (1786-1875) is listed as the father of the wife of my 4 times great uncle (Spencer Clack Rogers.)

I wanted to learn about him because he lived through the Civil War in Sevier County, TN, where some of my ancestors lived about that time also.

He is noted as having built the newer building of Wheatlands after the original one burned in 1824. He had inherited it in 1819 from his father Timothy Chandler #1 who had settled the area after serving in the Revolutionary War...receiving land as payment for serving for North Carolina's militia.

John C. was the youngest son, out of at least 11 children in his parents' home. I haven't looked further to see if there were indeed 2 daughters named Rebecca, but born 4 years apart and both living to be adults. I have just merged them into one person on my tree for now.

John C. Chandler was born in Wheatlands (the original building) in 1786. He was the youngest son, with at least 2 older brothers, so I wonder why he inherited the homestead. Perhaps because he was still living there when his father Timothy died age 91. John's mother Hetty (Mahetible Jane Temple or Terrell) had been much younger that her husband and lived 5 years more until 1824 when she was 84.

Both of John's parents had been born in Virginia, but John himself was born in Wilkes County NC. Many of his older siblings had also been born in Virginia, but the family apparently lived in this western county near the blue ridge mountains of North Carolina by the 1770's. At one time Daniel Boone also lived in Wilkes County NC, but we don't know if it was at the same time as the Chandlers.

There aren't any records of when the Timothy Chandler family crossed the Appalachian Mountains and settled in Sevier County TN, just west of the area that would late become the Smoky Mountain Park. But his hand written deed for land from the State of Tennessee in 1807 describes some of his property in Sevier County. It's quite possible that he already was living there in the community that became known as Boyds Creek, where his family has lived until the twentieth century. But all the children of Timothy and Hetty had been born before they moved west. Remember North Carolina owned the lands that became Tennessee until 1796.

Oh my. I just found a SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) installed headstone for Timothy Chandler #1, the Revolutionary War patriot from North Carolina, (placed in Boyds Creek TN.) It says he died in 1794...not 1819.

So how did Find A Grave published the date Timothy Chandler had died on April 25, 1819 while including this picture of the memorial stone from the SAR?

OK, back to John C. Chandler. He married Eleanor "Ellen" Shahan Chandler who had been born in Sevier County in 1790. That's about the time that my Rogers ancestors also arrived in that community. Ellen lived until 9 April 1826, dying just at age 36. She had an infant son who died that year, and she gave birth that year to a daughter. The records don't say if there was illness at that time, or if the daughter died as well.

John and Ellen had 9 children, 7 of whom lived to adulthood, including my Great times four Aunt Jane Chandler Rogers (1816-1855.)  She was their 4th child, and born before the new brick plantation home was built around 1825.  I don't know where Ancestry came up with her birth and death dates, so I'm going with them until I find anything different.

Just before the Civil War, John Chandler had married again in 1859 when he was 73, and had his new wife's youngest 2 children living with them in 1860 census. 

"John Chandler (1786–1875), inherited Wheatlands in 1819, and under his direction the plantation grew to become one of Sevier County's largest farms, covering 3,700 acres (1,500 ha) by 1850. With free slave labor his 1860 census shows he had real estate at value of $20,000. But with emancipation he freed his slaves, but offered to pay them to remain and work for him."

Chandler's freed slaves inherited part of the land of Wheatlands when John died in 1875, and formed the Chandler Gap community in the hills south of the plantation.  The 1860 slave schedule index is all that is available on Ancestry, but for a large plantation, with wheat as its major crop, I would imagine there were a lot of farm workers. The information that I've found on the freed slaves is not precise, but I do know a bit about the families of the black workers who were in the house as servants. See my last post here.

Spencer Clack's first wife, Jane Chandler and their children

Jane Chandler Rogers.
The first written record I found on Ancestry (not counting other members' postings on their own family pages) is the Census for Hamilton County TN, Dist. 27, for 1850.

And I doubt that they have this record listed, since the family is listed under Spinger Rodgers, for Spencer Rogers. Jane is 32, while Spencer (Spinger) is 33. That does give us a general idea of her birth year, within a few months. Since the census was taken in Nov. of 1850, she probably had already had her birthday.

The way I was sure the Spinger C. Rodgers and Jane were Spencer C. and Jane Rogers was the names and ages of their children. See my previous post which listed them in the 1860 census...with new wife, Mary (who had 2 records of their marriage.)

 in 1860 Census - Spencer C. Rogers - 
Children's names are
 Arthur C. 18
Jane C. 15
Cornelia A. 13
Emma 10
William S 6
George M 6 months

By the next census of 1860 John was 23 and a bookkeeper still living at home with Spencer (in Nashville TN then).  Since George M. was 6 months old in 1860, I assume he was Mary's son, not Jane who died in 1855.

OK back to Jane Chandler Rogers.  The Chandler family was pretty well off in Sevier County TN at the time she would have met Spencer, a preacher/farmer's youngest son.

Her father John built a gorgeous home...

Wheatlands (Sevierville, Tennessee)

1825

Sevierville, Sevier, Tennessee

"Wheatlands was an antebellum plantation in Sevier County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The plantation's surviving structures— which include the plantation house, a storage shed, and smokehouse— have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The plantation house has been called "the best example of a Federal-style building remaining in Sevier County."[2] Wheatlands, named after its large annual wheat crop, was established as a family farm by Revolutionary War veteran Timothy Chandler in 1791. Chandler's son, John Chandler (1786–1875), inherited Wheatlands in 1819, and under his direction the plantation grew to become one of Sevier County's largest farms, covering 3,700 acres (1,500 ha) by 1850.[3] Chandler's freed slaves inherited part of Wheatlands in 1875, and formed the Chandler Gap community in the hills south of the plantation. State Highway 338 roughly follows what was once a section of the 18th-century Native American trail known as the Great Indian Warpath. In 1780, John Sevier followed the path across the French Broad River to engage and defeat a Cherokee force at the Battle of Boyds Creek, which took place at the future site of Wheatlands.[5] Early settlers also followed the trail into the Boyds Creek area, among them Timothy Chandler, a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia, who moved his family to Boyds Creek in 1791.[2] ...

 After Timothy Chandler died in 1819, his son, John Chandler, inherited the family's Boyds Creek farm. The original Chandler farmhouse burned in 1824, and John Chandler built the present plantation house at the site to replace it.[2] By 1850, Wheatlands had become one of the largest farms in Sevier County, covering some 3,700 acres (1,500 ha) worth $7,000 (US$193 thousand in present terms[6]), and included fifteen horses, ten mules, forty cattle, fifty sheep, and three hundred hogs. Chandler and fourteen slaves produced 3,000 bushels of corn, 400 bushels of oats, 200 bushels of sweet potatoes, 12 bushels of buckwheat, 10 tons of hay, 150 pounds of wool, 200 pounds of butter, and 200 gallons of honey. The plantation's distillery produced 6,000 gallons of whiskey, worth $4,500 (US$124 thousand in present terms[6]).[3] 

When Southern slaves were emancipated during the American Civil War (1861–1865), Chandler started paying his freed slaves to remain at Wheatlands. Upon his death in 1875, Chandler left his former slaves a portion of land along the south side of Wheatlands known as Chandler Gap. The Chandler Gap community remained a predominantly African-American community well into the 20th century. In 2011, three Pigeon Forge businessmen purchased Wheatlands, and announced plans to restore the house, and possibly re-establish a distillery on the property.

 Wheatlands is located at the corner of State Highway 338 (Boyds Creek Highway, sometimes called Old Knoxville Highway) and Cedar Springs Valley Road in the Boyds Creek community, about halfway between Sevierville and Seymour. The plantation was situated along the banks of Boyds Creek, which empties into the French Broad River at the Brabson's Ferry Plantation about a mile to the east. This gave Wheatlands access to the nation's interior waterways, allowing this shipment of its "Wheat Whiskey" to New Orleans."

(Source: description which came with the photo on Ancestry, posted by SherryWhaley2 June 14, 2013.)

Jane was one of 9 children raised in that home.

So Jane Chandler married Spencer C. Rogers on Dec. 18, 1833. I don't know how that date was commemorated, as the documentation is missing. But a specific date does lead one to believe it happened.

She and Spencer supposedly had 10 children. I'm sure if I looked at the trees of them, I would find out records that substantiate most of them.

Correction of Mary A. Simmons Rogers:
There are many ancestry trees belonging to other descendants who list Mary A. Rogers as the daughter of Jane Chandler (first wife) and Spencer C Rogers, since she was born in 1833, just before his marriage to Jane Chandler in December of that year.  I have taken the liberty to return Mary A. to her (I assume) rightful place as his second wife. There are 2 census records that support this. She doesn't exist on his 1850 record above with Jane as wife. And she is listed first above his children in the 1860 record, where a wife would have been. (Plus two records of her marriage to Spencer in 1859.)

I do have records that show that both Spencer C. and Jane Chandler Rogers were listed as parents, on the death certificates of these 2 of their daughters. Both Emma and daughter Jane C. Rogers are on the 1850 and 1860 census of the Spencer C. Rogers families.

 In Knoxville TN in 1931, Emma Rogers Tillman's death certificate clearly gives Spencer C Rogers and Jane Chandler as her parents, from Tennessee. Information had been provided by her husband, Lewis Tillman.

Jane C. Rogers Grosheider died in 1935 at 89 years of age, and her death certificate information in Indiana, clearly gives her parents. This information was provided by Bertha Grosheider, the youngest daughter of 11 children of Jane C. Grosheider.

More, maybe a final chapter, on Jane Chandler...soon.