Biography
Chancellor was born in Dayton, Ohio. After graduating from Amherst College, he went into teaching. In 1906 he was the superintendent of schools of Paterson, New Jersey. He wrote prolifically, publishing around 40 books and hundreds of articles between 1904 and 1920. He married into the family of Harriet Beecher Stowe. He was a Democrat.
When Chancellor was a professor at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, he began to research the background of Republican candidate Warren G. Harding. He wrote two pamphlets about this subject prior to the 1920 presidential election, unleashing a major scandal as he alleged Harding was of mixed-race descent. The college dismissed Chancellor from his post four days before the election. Copies of Chancellor's pamphlets were confiscated by federal agents and destroyed; only five are thought to be in existence, three of which are owned by rare book collectors, the other two owned by museums.
Read more about this topic: William Estabrook Chancellor
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