William Chandler was a 19th-century businessman based in Wilmington, Delaware, an active abolitionist, and an early railroad executive.
[1] Chandler participated in several business ventures and abolitionist societies with Thomas Garrett, a Wilmington merchant and stationmaster on the Underground Railroad.
In 1827, the 25-year-old Abolition Society of the State of Delaware was reorganized as the Delaware Abolition Society, whose officers and directors included Chandler, Garrett, president John Wales, vice-president Edward Worrell, and others.
[3] In 1837, he helped found and was named first vice-president of the First Board of Trade of Wilmington.
His service as a railroad executive is noted on the 1839 Newkirk Viaduct Monument.