Representative John Wilson Candler

John Wilson Candler served as a Representative from Massachusetts in the United States Congress from 1881 to 1891. A member of the Republican Party, John Wilson Candler contributed to the legislative process during 2 terms in office.

John Wilson Candler’s service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history. As a member of the House of Representatives, John Wilson Candler participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of constituents.

John Wilson Candler (February 10, 1828 – March 16, 1903) was a United States representative from Massachusetts. He was born in Boston on February 10, 1828. He attended the Marblehead and Dummer Academies. He then became a merchant, engaged in shipping and commerce with the East and West Indies and South America. He served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He was chairman of the commissioners of prisons of Massachusetts, and president of the Boston Board of Trade and of the Commercial Club of Boston. Candler married Lucy Almira Cobb on September 1, 1851 in Boston. Cobb was the daughter of Henry and Augusta Adams Cobb. Her mother Augusta, however, had converted to Mormonism in 1832 and abandoned the family in 1843 to marry Brigham Young as his second polygamous wife. After bearing three daughters, Lucy Cobb Candler died in 1855 and John Wilson Candler then married Ida May Garrison of Manhattan in 1867, and they had one daughter. Candler was elected as a Republican to the Forty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1881 – March 3, 1883). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress, but was elected to the Fifty-first Congress (March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1891). He again was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress. He returned to engage in mercantile pursuits until his retirement in 1893. He died in Providence, Rhode Island on March 16, 1903. His interment was in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.