Sarah Chandler Blain Slane (3705) :

Sarah Chandler Blain Slane is the key figure in the history of the William Chandler family as it relates to our current generation at the beginning of the 21st century. It is through her, the granddaughter of William Chandler (3512), that all of the source documents passed down to us through her daughter, Miss Edna. They were kept in a Civil War-era chest we assume belonged to Stephen Slane, and very likely were looked at infrequently (if at all) between the 1930s and the 1990s.

Between 1850 and 1867 Sarah was the recipient of letters from cousins, aunts and uncles, siblings, and friends. She saved a number of these correspondences. During that time she lived in Chillicothe with her uncle, William Chandler Jr. (3562), until her marriage in 1865 and William’s death in 1875. Letters written to William Jr. and to Sarah’s mother, William’s sister, also came into her possession. Perhaps because of this long and close association with her uncle, Sarah was heir to the earlier family documents. Some of her own letters from the 1860s to her mother and uncle are saved, as are several documents related to Stephen Slane’s service during the Civil War.

There is a photo album from 1860s Chillicothe with pictures of several individuals mentioned in letters and documents. Among them is a picture of Stephen Slane wearing the saber described in a saved document.

A curiosity is several letters addressed to Sarah from her “brother.” Sarah was the single child of Hannah Chandler and Charles Blain. It is very possible (and letters seems to indicate) that Sarah had half-siblings (John Blain, C.W. Blain, William Blain) through an earlier marriage of her father, Charles Blain. A John Blain is the Justice of the Peace in Licking County, Ohio on October 19, 1864 who signs Stephen Slane’s Civil War Discharge paper’s Oath of Identity. Stephen and Sarah marry in February 1865.