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I am trying to connect with Quin Paul(AuntQuip(a)aol.com). We had
corresponded concerning our mutual ancestor Abel Chase (born 1775/Maine >
1811/Rutland, Meigs, OH > died after 1850 Rutland, Meigs, OH). I recently
sent her a message and it came back as a non-address. Does anyone have her
current email address?
I have pictures of Abel and Abigail's tombstones, and some other
information on the family I would like to share.
SueEd
NY
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM).
http://calendar.yahoo.com
Spotted this on the ReunionTalk mailing list (Reunion is the premier
Macintosh genealogy software); reposted by permission of the author,
Keith Tinkler. Happy hunting!
Just a note to the unwary ---
In North America and Canada there is a slow change over between the
N(orth) A(merican) D(atum) NAD 27 standard to the NAD 83 standard --
MOST maps will still have the older Lat/Long marked around their
margins. GPS systems will usually let you choose either standard
(check the options/preferences/settings area). Check the marginalia
of newer maps to see which standard is used.
Slán,
Mo! (Hanrahan) Langdon
I believe that it means that the party has legal title to and possession of
the land in question.
-----Original Message-----
From: Virginia Boulden [mailto:vlboulden@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 4:04 PM
To: CHASE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: [CHASE-L] What Does Well Seized Mean?
In researching early land transactions I've come across the term "well
seized." It is usually used in reference to someone being well seized of
the premises in fee simple....
Can anyone shed any light on what this term means? Much thanks.
Virginia Boulden
==== CHASE Mailing List ====
To unsubscribe from the Digest send a request here
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Dear All,
Does anyone happen to have the Directory of Deceased Physicians on CD? If
so, I was wondering if you would mind doing a look-up for me?
I am interested in the record for Dr. Thomas Bron Chace.
Cheers,
Jeffrey Chace
To: Chase-L members:
Subject: DNA results standardization
From: Charlie Scott, Chase DNA Team
We received the following message from Family Tree DNA:
"In the interest of continuing our efforts to promote standardization in this
industry, we will adjust the values for all of the alleles of DYS464 down by
one allele in concordance with the published nomenclature system for this
locus. We will be automatically updating the records of all of our clients.
Since we have been completely consistent in our treatment of DYS464 this
change will have no impact in your comparison with other clients, because all
DYS464 values will be adjusted in the same fashion."
Example of change:
464a 464b 464c 464d
initial 16 16 17 18
revised 15 15 16 17
"Note - On May 19, 2003 FTDNA reassigned the values for 464a,b,c,and d.
Dropping each by one.
I have made the changes, mentioned above, on our records and the new numbers
will be reflected on the Chase/Chace DNA webpage the next time we update our
site. This change only effects the last four numbers for those that had the
25 marker test. Once again, this change was done to promote standardization
in the DNA industry.
Financial note:
$826 was contributed by Chase-L members to help offset the cost of DNA
testing. I have paid $801 to Family Tree DNA Co. as partial payments on 15
DNA tests and for two 25 marker upgrades. I am still holding a check for $25.
Members of the Chase-L group should be proud of this team effort.
Charlie Scott
In researching early land transactions I've come across the term "well seized." It is usually used in reference to someone being well seized of the premises in fee simple....
Can anyone shed any light on what this term means? Much thanks.
Virginia Boulden
I have compiled a list of land transactions for William Chase from the
Chase/Chace
Chronicles. If you would like a copy, please send request to my address
below.
Lonnie Chase
chase1858(a)direcway.com
Susan,
Just did a search on Google and came up with the following two hits for
Rational Association Friendly Society. Don't know if this will help, but
it's a start.
Cheers,
Jeffrey Chace
http://home.wanadoo.nl/j.b.chace
Hits for "Rational Association Friendly Society"
http://www.hmc.gov.uk/NRA/searches/SIdocs.asp?SIR=37878
and
http://www.unl.ac.uk/library/tuc/docs/Tuckwellfinal.doc
The second link is to a document containing references to material
IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference: TUC Library Collections - Gertrude Tuckwell Papers
Dates of creation: 1890-1951
Extent: 10 metres approx. as currently shelved
Level of description: Fonds
In this collection you will find the following:
1913
Box 28, reel 13
Manchester;
Davies, Margaret Llewellyn; Wilson, Mona; Schuster, Sir Claud; Bondfield,
Margaret;
Rational Association Friendly Society; Womens Co-operative Guild;
CONTEXT
Biographical History:
Gertrude Tuckwell (1861-1951) was a trade union organiser and campaigner
for womens rights. In 1891 she became involved with the Womens Trade
Union League (WTUL), working as its secretary and editor of its journal,
the Womens Trade Union Review before becoming president of the League in
1905. In 1908 she also became president of the National Federation of Women
Workers (NFWW) which had been founded in 1906 through the WTUL. She
remained active in both organisations until 1918 when she announced her
retirement and withdrew effectively from January 1921 when the League
merged its work with that of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Tuckwell also became involved in the struggle for protective legislation in
the international arena as she joined the executive committee of the
International Association for Labour Legislation in 1906. She also
maintained the Christian Socialist tradition of her family (her father was
widely known as the radical parson) and from 1898 became secretary of the
Christian Social Union Research Committee.
Made this transcription last time I was in Kansas City.
Cheers,
Jeffrey Chace
http://home.wanadoo.nl/j.b.chace
Standard American Selective Biographical Reference
Whos Who in the Midwest, p235.
(housed at Johnson County Archives, Olathe, Kansas)
CHACE, Henry Edwards, clergyman; b. Portsmouth, R.I., June 22, 1901; s.
William Henry and Mary Anna (Faulkner) C.; B. Th., Marion Coll., (Ind.),
1929; B.D., McCormick Theol. Sem., Chicago, 1934; m. Reba Bonheur, Aug. 10,
1922; children Victoria May (Mrs. James Marvin Chisholm), Marcella Ruth
(dec.). Ordained, Soc. Of Friends, 1924; received, Presbytery of Kansas
City, (Mo.), Presbyn. Ch., 1934; pastor, Park Coll., Parkville, Mo., 1934-
35, Washington Street Presbyn. Ch., Indianapolis, 1936-41, Eastminster
Presbyn. Ch., Cincinatti, O., 1941-47, First Presbyn. Ch., Redwood Falls,
Minn. Since 1947. Mem. Indianapolis Ch. Fedn. (mem. Exec. Com., chmn.
Religious radio com. 1938-41); commnr. To gen assembly, Presbyn. Ch.,
1940. Served as lt. Commdr. Chaplains corps, U.S.N.R. Am. And Pacific
Theatres World War II. Address: 108 West Fourth St., Redwood Falls, Minn.
I thought the same as Sam. From the Providence, Rhode Island, list via the
Roseville, California, Genealogical Society.
Cheers,
Jeffrey
------------- Forwarded message -------------
Thought the following might be helpful to a few of my fellow listers. Hope
this is ok. Sam
May 14, 2003
Please visit the DAR's website (www.dar.org) some time to view the new index
that we have posted in the library's part of the site. Since the 1910s, DAR
members have been collecting unpublished genealogical materials, largely
Bible and cemetery transcriptions, in what we call the Genealogical Records
Committee Reports. There are nearly 18,000 volumes of these typescripts in
our library. We are the only collection with all of these compilations and
the volume numbering for these only works at the DAR Library. Many of you
may have some of the GRC Reports from your own state, but we have numbered
and arranged all of the state materials based on the holdings in our
collection, which we naturally consider to be the master set.
For the past couple of years we have had a project to index all of these
volumes and to create national index to this wealth of genealogical
information. The beginnings of this national index are now searchable on our
web site. On that site, click on the top bar where it says "DAR Library,"
and on the library's page click on GRC National Index in the left-hand
column just below the link to the library catalog. The page will open for
the index search screen. Presently, Virginia, Maryland, Oregon, and Kentucky
are largely complete, but there are about twenty other states for which
portions of their set of GRC reports. One may limit a search to a particular
state or to all states. NOT limiting a search to a state is a good idea
because so many records from eastern states ended up in the hands of DAR
members in western states and that's where the transcripts will appear, in
the typescripts for the state in which the donor/transcriber lived!
When the search results appear, there is a listing of the state, series,
volume and page number. At the present time, that is as far as the reference
will go. In the near future we plan to have every such index entry link over
to the cataloging record for the exact book in which the reference appears.
The contents notes of each book will help a researcher determine if the
index entry is indeed something of interest to their search. Eventually, we
hope to have the index entry link directly to the actual text. That,
however, is a few years down the road and will likely involve some sort of
subscription.
This GRC National Index enables researchers to tap into our materials here
in Washington and order copies of pages through the Library's Search Service
(information on that is also available in the Library portion of the DAR
website with fees and instructions). If there are questions about this index
please send them to me. This index is just the first of several in the
works, and we hope it will become a major source for researchers. Remember!
The DAR Library's collections are not in any way limited to the period of
the American Revolution. The materials buried in these reports cover all
periods in American history.
This index grows daily as new volume indexes are received from our members
performing this massive undertaking. Please let your researchers know about
it too.
Eric
Eric G. Grundset
Library Director
DAR Library
1776 D St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20006-5303
202-879-3313 (phone)
202-879-3227 (fax)
egrundset(a)dar.org
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I have been trying to find out information on a certificate I have of my great grandfather Charles Chase. The heading on it says Rational Association Friendly Society.Registered Office,Rational Buildings,Bridge Street. Manchester. It says he was transferred from a class # 3 to class # 5 in 1903. Does anyone know what this is and what it means.
Thank You
susan
http://www.lib.co.rowan.nc.us/HistoryRoom/prison/bibpersonal.htm
Rowan Public Library
201 W. Fisher Street, Salisbury, NC 28144
(704) 638-3001
(704) 638-3013 (Fax)
Chase, Heber (Oct. 5, 1835Nov. 27, 1864): A Prisoner in Salisbury, A
Compilation of His Letters, etc. Compiled by Judith Anderson. Tahlequah,
OK: The compiler, February 1999.
Chase, a soldier from Maine, wrote several letters to his wrote during the
war. One f these letters was written eight days before his death in the
Salisbury Prison. A fellow prisoner promised to carry a photograph and a
few other items to Chases wife, but he too perished in Salisbury. An
acquaintance of his, however, did manage to find Mrs. Chase and return the
items. While Chases short letter from the prison is not all that
noteworthy, the story revealed in the correspondence following his death is
especially poignant.
http://www.svcn.com/archives/lgwt/05.08.02/pfp-0219.html
Picture from the Past
Clearing uncle's record is the goal of Hal Chase III
By John S. Baggerly
Handsome Hal Chase, above, was the subject of a 1967 letter to the local
press from the National Baseball Hall of Fame asking the whereabouts of Hal
Chase Jr. It seems that a fellow in Metairie, La., claimed to be Hal
Chase's son.
This was an easy one. Hal Edward Chase III, now a county fire chief and
family historian, informed the baseball folks that Hal Chase Jr. was living
in Campbell and was in advertising sales for a San Jose radio station.
Learning this, the Hall of Fame secretary in Cooperstown warned the good
people of Metairie; apparently impostors had been gaining free drinks from
fellow barflies and flirting with ladies.
Chase III is a fire chief for Santa Clara County Fire District. His wife,
Karen, is a teacher at Terrell Elementary School in San Jose. They have
four children, three in college and one at Los Gatos High School.
Hal Chase the baseball player was born around the turn of the century at
321 University Ave. Baseballer Hal and four siblings were the offspring of
Edgar and Mary Chase.
Fire Chief Chase become the family historian. Old-timers said Chase always
had a ball, rock or apple to throw at a post or fence. He played sandlot
ball here and in San Jose when his family moved to Race Street. He also
played with the Santa Clara University varsity baseball team but never
attended classes, nephew Hal says.
After his Santa Clara experience, Chase joined the Los Angeles Angels, part
of the now-defunct Pacific Coast League. It was from there that he was
drafted by the New York Highlanders--a nickname designating a New York area
of high ground. The Highlanders later became the Yankees.
Chase's impact on the American League was immediate. When he arrived, first
basemen were like statues, standing on the bag awaiting their teammate's
throws. Chase changed that in a hurry. He was the first to position himself
off the bag--deep or shallow--the better to field the ball. He was the
first to charge bunts, tag the runner (even the fleet-footed, sharp-cleated
Ty Cobb) or throw out a runner trying to advance a base.
Chase eventually joined the Chicago White Sox, who soon became a heavy
favorite to defeat the Cincinnati Reds of the National League in the World
Series.
A notorious gambler put up money to bribe Chicago players into throwing the
series, but the plot had little hope without ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte, the
team's linchpin in the 1919 conspiracy. Apparently the White Sox owner had
promised 30-game winners a bonus but hedged against his promise to Cicotte
by refusing to let him pitch in the last days of the season, on the pretext
that Cicotte was being saved for the World Series. This action threw
Cicotte into the conspirator's camp and Cincinnati won the series. Players
in the "Black Sox" scandal were cleared in court but banned from organized
baseball for life.
Chase, his nephew says, later played baseball in wildcat leagues in the
Southwest portion of the United States. Hal Chase III believes his uncle's
name should be cleared and works toward that end.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly-
Times archives.
Historical Sketch
Manley M. Chase was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, October 8, 1842, the son of
William Coleman Chase and Mary Gilson. He left home at the age of 15 and
lived in the Middle West until 1860, when he moved to Colorado. There he
engaged in mining for a while, then went into the meat and freighting
business, operating a slaughter house in Denver and supplying beef to the
U. S. Army. On October 21, 1860, he married Theresa M. Wade. To this couple
were born six children: Lottie, Mason George, Laura, Ida, Mary L., and
Stanley M.
The Chases came to New Mexico in 1866, where M. M. Chase purchased a one-
third interest in John B. Dawson's ranch (part of the Maxwell Land Grant)
on the Vermejo River and went into partnership with Dawson to raise both
sheep and cattle. In 1871, Chase purchased another part of the original
Maxwell grant. He paid 50 cents an acre for 2, 000 acres along Poñil Creek,
an area which included the old Kit Carson homestead. The two-story adobe
house which he built about three miles northeast of Cimarron is still the
ranch headquarters and the family home.
Through partnerships with other ranchers to purchase large amounts of land
and the organization and supervision of several livestock companies, Chase
established himself as a prominent figure in New Mexico's livestock
industry of that time. When the Maxwell Cattle Company was incorporated in
1881, Chase was chosen to manage it for a period of five years. In 1886,
the Las Vegas Daily Optic reported that M. M. Chase "manages more cattle
than any man in New Mexico, " and in 1891 he was regarded as an authority
on the subject of stock raising.
M. M. Chase was one of the first to import Hereford bulls for breeding with
the Texas longhorn stock. Similarly, he contributed to the upgrading of
native sheep by the importation of Merino bucks from Vermont and Ohio. The
Chase, Eno and Company sheep ranch near Hansford, Texas, was incorporated
in 1892 by M. M. Chase in partnership with two cousins in Vermont and
William S. Eno of Pine Plains, New York. Mason Chase managed the Texas
ranch, and when his father decided to move the sheep back to New Mexico in
1895, Mason supervised the drive. The new camp was at Veda in Union County.
Mason managed this ranch until it was sold in 1901.
The Chase Ranch also enjoyed the reputation of having one of the finest
orchards in the Southwest. Begun in 1872 with 250 small fruit trees brought
by ox team from Ohio, the orchard later was increased to 85 acres. Crops of
fruit, primarily apples, averaged 500, 000 pounds yearly. The fruit was of
high quality, and in 1910, M. M. Chase wrote that his orchard had
experienced only one failure in 35 years. In addition to the orchard,
several hundred acres of land were placed under irrigation for oats,
alfalfa and barley.
After Theresa (Mrs. M. M.) Chase died in 1900, Nettie (Mrs. Mason) Chase
assumed the household responsibilities. She put much time and energy into
her poultry business developed around 1911. M. M. Chase died in 1915. Three
years later, the S. M. Chase Cattle Company was incorporated by his sons,
Stanley M. and Mason G. Chase, and his son-in-law, Charles Springer.
Scope and Content
The records and papers of the Chase Ranch span the years 1838 to 1960, with
the bulk of the material falling before 1910. They constitute a major
contribution to the history of cattle raising in New Mexico before 1900,
being especially strong for the period 1883-1887. The records of sheep
raising, particularly for the period 1892-1901, and fruit growing,
especially 1896-1905 and 1917-1918, are also significant representations of
these businesses. Records for the years 1920-1939 are sketchy and
incomplete. The latest dates in the collection, 1948-1951, and 1960, are
each represented by only one or two items or entries.
The collection consists of 68 bound volumes and six folders, which have
been organized in four series: financial documents, correspondence, diaries
and memo books, and miscellany. The records document, for the time periods
indicated, the Chase family's diverse agricultural activities, which
include the raising of sheep (1875-1901), cattle (1870-1907, 1909-1910,
1916-1939), horses (1911, 1924), hogs (1896-1897, 1924), and poultry (1911-
1915, 1923-1925); fruit growing (1896-1910, 1916-1939); butter sales (1911-
1914, 1923-1925); and milk sales (1929-1931, 1936).
The financial records for the period 1870-1883 are incomplete and
demonstrate the lack of an overall bookkeeping system. In June 1883, C.A.
Westcott implemented a sophisticated accounting procedure which enabled him
to keep complete and accurate records for the Chase Ranch itself, as well
as for the seven cattle companies of which M. M. Chase was manager and
acting treasurer. These cattle companies were the Cimarron, Luera, Monte
Ruvuelto, Gila, Maxwell, Red River and L. and G. Based on the documents
available, the quality of the system, in terms of cross-referencing
capability, begins to disintegrate after 1887. The volumes also contain the
records of the following operations: Chase and Dawson (1873-1879), Chase,
Dawson and Maulding (1883-1886), Chase, Maulding and Dane (1886-1889),
Chase, Eno and Company (1892-1901), the Dutchess Cattle Company (1893-
1896), S. M. Chase Cattle Company (1917-1925, 1929-1939), and the Rupert
and Traveller Horse Company (1924).
The two earliest volumes of correspondence deal primarily with the cattle
business. Subsequent books also contain many letters concerning the sheep
operation and some correspondence regarding fruit sales. In addition to
family members, correspondents include: Jesse A. Adamson, foreman, sheep
camp; Thomas Benton Brooks, New York financier; D. A. Clothier, merchant;
Dr. J. M. Cunningham, Las Vegas stockholder in the Red River Cattle
Company; Zenas A. Curtis, foreman for the Chase, Eno Ranch; Charles H.
Dane, partner of Chase; M. E. Dane, partner of Chase; John B. Dawson,
pioneer rancher and partner of Chase; S. M. Folsom, stockholder in the Red
River Cattle Company; Ira B. Gale, Chase employee; Silas Hough, cattle
driver; R. H. Howard, Chase, Eno employee; Charles Ilfeld, Las Vegas
merchant; Floyd Jarrett, stockholder in the Gila Cattle Company; Andrieus
A. Jones, attorney and public official; Dr. C. B. Kohlhousen, Raton medical
doctor and son-in-law of Chase; James C. Leary, Secretary, New Mexico Stock
Growers Association; Marion Littrell, rancher and sheriff of Colfax County;
W. H. H. Llewellyn, Las Cruces agent for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Railroad; Edward McBride, Colfax County Commissioner and Chase foreman;
Geoffrey McCrohan, foreman for the Cimarron Cattle Company; Benjamin
McLean, Kansas City, Missouri, stockholder in the Gila Cattle Company;
Frank Manzanares, New Mexico's delegate to Congress, 1884-1885; J. T.
Martin, Chase employee; Taylor F. Maulding, rancher, partner of Chase and
superintendent of the Cimarron Cattle Company; Melvin W. Mills, District
Attorney, northern New Mexico; the William R. Morley Family; A. S. Neff,
farmer, rancher, and Raton merchant; George J. Pace, Raton merchant and
county treasurer; Henry M. Porter, Treasurer, Maxwell Land Grant Company,
and partner of Chase; L. Bradford Prince, Governor of New Mexico Territory,
1889-1893; D. B. Robinson, Vice- President, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
Railroad; M. M. Salazar, Colfax County Clerk; Frank R. Sherwin, President,
Maxwell Land Grant Company; Dr. W. L. South, rancher, deputy sheriff of
Colfax County, and stockholder in the Cimarron Cattle Company; Charles
Springer, rancher, attorney, and Chase's son-in-law; Frank Springer,
rancher, attorney, and Vice-President of Maxwell Land Grant Company; J. R.
Stollar, Kansas City cattle buyer; William Van Bruggen, Maxwell merchant
and banker; Harry Whigham, Secretary, Maxwell Land Grant Company; and J. W.
Zollars, Las Vegas banker.
The small books in the Diaries and Memo Books series do not contain the
more important diaries in the Chase collection. These were written on
sections of pages in volumes located in the Financial Documents series.
Entries by Ada Chase, Laura Chase, and Nettie (Mrs. Mason G.) Chase comment
on family and ranch life in 1886-1888, 1900-1905, and 1918-1919.
Miscellaneous items include a scrapbook, mostly of newspaper clippings 1881-
1899; a record book containing copies of legal documents, primarily 1886-
1902; the Certificate of Incorporation, bylaws and minutes of the S. M.
Chase Cattle Company, 1917-1918; bills and statements from the Springer,
New Mexico, mercantile operation of Porter and Clouthier, 1884-1885; and
correspondence regarding the orchard business, 1917-1918.
Collection Summary
Title
Chase Ranch Records, 1838-1960
Collection Number
Ms 108
Creator
Chase Ranch (Colfax County, N. M.)
Size
9 linear feet
Repository
New Mexico State University. Rio Grande Historical Collections
Abstract
Located on the Poñil River near Cimarron. Begun by Manley M. Chase, this
ranch is one of the oldest ranching operations on the Maxwell Land Grant.
Contains financial records, business correspondence, diaries and daybooks,
and other materials related to the ranch's cattle, sheep, horse, orchard,
vegetable, poultry, and dairy production and documentation on several other
ranches in which Chase had an investment or managerial interest.
Significant correspondents include John B. Dawson, Charles Ilfeld, Andrieus
A. Jones, Frank Manzanares, Melvin W. Mills, L. Bradford Prince, Frank R.
Sherwin, and Charles and Frank Springer.
http://elibrary.unm.edu/oanm/NmLcU/nmlcu1%23ms023/
Biographical Sketch
Albert Fall Chase was born in 1918, attended New Mexico College of
Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, and entered the U.S. Army in 1940 with an
ROTC commission. As were many New Mexico troops, he was sent in 1941 to the
Philippines, where he trained native troops on Los Negros for the
Philippine Scouts, 73rd Regiment. They fought on Mindanao and Cebu until
they were captured by the Japanese in 1942. Chase was a prisoner of war in
Camp No. 2, at Davao, Mindanao for two and a half years. He was killed
aboard a Japanese ship transferring prisoners to Formosa, when the ship was
torpedoed by U.S. forces on September 7, 1944. He was posthumously awarded
a Purple Heart in 1945 and the Bronze Star Medal in 1946.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of a file kept by Clarence Cornell Chase on the
activities of his son, Albert Fall Chase, during World War II. A large
portion of the collection is correspondence exchanged by Chase with the
families of the P.O.W.'s, the government and later soldiers who had served
with and were imprisoned with Lt. Chase. Included in this correspondence is
a photocopy of letter from Douglas MacArthur to Mrs. Fall and numerous
letters from Era Rentfrow, New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic
Arts Registrar about alumni soldier's deaths. In addition to letters from
the army, there is also a copy of Bulletin No. 8 of the Bataan Relief
Organization of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Other items include correspondence
and documents concerning Chase's estate and posthumous medals, newspaper
clippings and government bulletins. The photographs consist of group
photographs with Fall marked on each picture.
Pictures of the house can be found at:
http://www.strawberybanke.org/museum/chase/chase.html
Chase House, at the corner of Court and Washington Street, is one of the
grandest Georgian structures at Strawbery Banke. The Chase family,
Portsmouth merchants, lived in the house for over a century.
Chase House was built about 1762 by John Underwood, a mariner from Kittery.
Underwood sold the house to his in-laws, the Dearings, also of Kittery, but
four years later repurchased it from them at a considerably higher price.
This may have been when much of the finish work was done on the house,
especially the elaborately carved woodwork, both inside and out. Ebenezer
Dearing was a noted local shipcarver.
In 1766, only three weeks after repurchasing the house, Underwood mortgaged
it to Barlow Trecothick and John Thomlinson, London merchants and English
agents for the province of New Hampshire. This transaction probably was
influenced by John Wentworth who was in England at the time. Wentworth was
a close associate of Trecothick and had just been appointed the new
governor of New Hampshire. He may have had his eye on this house as a
possible governor's residence. Barlow Trecothick had been a prime mover in
the repeal of the Stamp Act that same year, and was shortly to become Lord
Mayor of London.
The house remained part of the Trecothick estate until 1799 when it was
purchased by Stephen Chase, a successful Portsmouth merchant who had
already been living in the house for a number of years with his family.
Stephen Chase, like his father, was a graduate of Harvard College. His wife
Mary was related to the famous Pepperrells of Kittery merchants long
involved in the West India trade. Chase's own business was located on the
large Portsmouth Pier at the foot of State Street. Stephen Chase was a
substantial member of the community and a public minded citizen and there
is no reason to doubt a family tradition reported in Sibley's Harvard
Graduates that George Washington, on his visit to Portsmouth in 1789,
attended a reception in this house and kissed the three small Chase girls
on his departure.
When Stephen Chase died in 1805 his widow and two sons, William and
Theodore, both merchants, continued to live in the house. The last Chase to
live here was William's widow, Sarah Blunt Chase, who died in 1881. At that
time Theodore Chase's son, George, a railroad magnate and philanthropist of
Boston, bought the house and donated it as a home for orphaned children.
When the needs of the Chase Home for Children outgrew the house early in
the twentieth century it was purchased as a residence by Mrs. Thomas Bailey
Aldrich. Her husband's boyhood home, just two doors down the street, had
been opened as a memorial to him only a few years before.
Architecturally Chase House is one of the richer dwellings in Portsmouth.
The building's most unusual features are its gambrel roof, quoined corners
and beautiful doorways. The front doorway is capped by a segmental or
curved pediment reminiscent of that of the much earlier (1716) Warner House
which stands outside the museum just two blocks away on Daniel Street. The
door is framed by fluted pilasters topped by delicately carved Corinthian
capitals, and supported by paneled pedestals in the early Georgian manner.
The side door has a triangular pediment and fluted pilasters with Ionic
capitals. Nowhere is the classical influence on Georgian architecture
better illustrated.
The interior of Chase House boasts even greater architectural
sophistication. Most remarkable is the intricately carved frieze over the
fireplace in the parlor, the front room to the east. This panel, carved
from white pine, shows the painstaking work of a master craftsman, perhaps
Ebenezer Dearing. Many of the architectural features of the parlor, full-
length sliding shutters, wainscoting, denticulated mantelpiece and cornice,
and the arches on either side of the fireplace, show that every attention
was paid to detail.
In 1807 James Nutter, a joiner who was at that time "the head of his craft"
in Portsmouth, boarded at Chase House. Nutter appears to have exchanged
labor for rent, for it was at this time that the dining room was remodeled
in the newer Federal style. The chaste simplicity of the reeded
wainscoting, shallow cornice, and mantelpiece contrasts sharply with the
bold and elaborate Georgian woodwork in the parlor, and provides an
excellent chance to compare taste before and after 1800.
The stairway balustrade, which terminates at a beautifully carved newel
post, is composed of balusters of three types, a pattern typical of
Portsmouth. The two front upstairs chambers contain excellent woodwork,
with especially wide panels over the fireplaces.
Chase House is furnished in close accordance with inventories taken in 1805
at the death of Stephen Chase, and fifteen years later when Mary Chase
died. These documents, listing the furniture and objects found in each
room, provide a good idea of how the family used each room and reveal the
living patterns of the people in the house.
Some of the disclosures are surprising. In general, much less furniture and
fewer carpets and curtains were found in the house than is often supposed
for the period. Also the furniture arrangement was more formal than
previously believed. One of the best examples is the parlor which contained
little more than rows of straight-back chairs along the sides of the room.
This room was used primarily for entertaining on special occasions.
Paintings of other house interiors from the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries indicate that this was common practice.
The Chase family is one of the best documented in the neighborhood due to
an extensive manuscript collection owned by Strawbery Banke. These
documents provide additional glimpses into the lives of various members of
the family. Chase House was restored through the generosity of Miss Nellie
McCarty.