Biography

Born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, his mother was Elizabeth Newman and father Thomas McCartney McCandless. McCandless grew up in Volcano, West Virginia. McCandless moved to Hawaii in 1882 to employ his expertise in oil drilling and mining to construct artesian wells. He joined his younger brothers James S. McCandless (born 1855) who had arrived in 1880, and John A. McCandless (born 1853) who had arrived in 1881, forming the McCandless Brothers family firm. On May 24, 1904 he married Elizabeth Janet Cartwright of New York.