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Sophia May Chase: A Remarkable Woman of the 19th Century (continued)
by Mira Baz
Return to:
Introduction
Chase Family moves to Ohio
Kenyon College
Illinois and Jubilee College
Part 5. Epilogue
The autumn of 1852 brought the death of Bishop Philander Chase,
following a wagon accident, the last in a series that the Bishop had
been exposed to. This last one proved to be fatal. He was buried in the
Churchyard of Jubilee Hill.
He left Sophia a fair sum of money, one-third of his small fortune,
along with the property of the Robin's Nest. The following is an excerpt
from his will:
"...she having contributed about that proportion from her own patrimony
and form gifts sent to her from time to time by her friends abroad. This
aside from her labor in keeping the Cash Book and otherwise
superintending plans and carrying into effect measures and means for the
health and comfort of the students of Jubilee College. I mention these
things as reasons for promptness in paying that portion implied in this
item, that one who has thus far served the Institution without reward
may not be neglected as she was in the case of Kenyon College in Ohio,
in the founding of which her labors and wisdom were an essential part."
Sophia was now left to the care of her grown family, consisting of
children and grandchildren. Mary wrote to her husband in 1853:
"Mother and I have finished our two hours sewing, and are now sitting by
the table. Mother is reading "The Miseries of Ireland", a doleful book,
and I as you might guess am writing."
Sophia and Mary kept up the habit of reading aloud which they had
followed throughout their life.
After a series of illnesses through the last few years, Sophia had a
stroke of paralysis in early November of 1864. Over the next days, she
lost her ability to speak, her last words being "God is very good". She
died a week later, on November 15, 1864, and was buried beside the
Bishop. Mary wrote to her husband:
"She stroked her grandchildren's heads when brought to her....
She spent a long life in trying to make everybody happy.... The last
thing she made us understand was that she was very happy."
Caroline Bell wrote to Mary upon hearing the news:
"...for when you lost your mother I lost my best friend in all the West.
In all these years that I have been a stranger in a strange land she has
been invariably kind and affectionate to me.... I revere her virtues,
her life was a noble structure of good works."
It has been written about Sophia Chase:
Mrs. Chase entered with her whole soul into her husband's plans. She was
a lady perfectly at home in all the arts and minutiae of house-wifery;
as happy in darning stockings for the boys, as in entertaining visitors
in the parlor; in making a bargain with a farmer in his rough boots and
hunting blouse, as in completing a purchase from an intelligent and
accomplished merchant; and as perfectly at home in doing business with
the world about her, and in keeping the multifarious account of her
increasing household, as in presiding at her dinner table, or dispensing
courtesy in her drawing-room. (Piatt 50)
In a letter to his granddaughter Laura in 1842, the Bishop wrote of her:
"Your dear grandmother is industrious and economical as ever. Never were
greater sacrifices than those she has made all her life long for the
good of the Church."
These words of praise written by her husband in 1844 may be the most
descriptive of Sophia May Chase:
"If anyone should ask why my dear wife, who is so essential to my
personal comfort, in this my last journey to the east is not going with
me, let it be briefly said, because the thing is impossible. The whole
college establishment would at this critical period go to ruin if she
were to be absent from it this summer. To this necessity she submits
with a resignation becoming a saint. She looks up and says "It is thy
will, O God." This calms the tempest in her faithful bosom and then all
is serene. She is finishing the last garment to make me decent with the
least expense for the summer. Would that our churchmen could generally
know what this dear mother in Israel has suffered and done to build up
the Kingdom of God in the wilderness. She stays at home and works for
God. When money is sent for her from those who hear of her devotedness
in far countries, she applies it all to pay for the college goods in New
York, and when bills accumulate against her husband at home she will not
allow even the smallest sums to be deducted from them on account of any
salary to be allowed her or her husband. Such is the wife of Bishop
Chase, and in contemplating her character who can be unmoved?"
Bibliography
Piatt, John James. How the Bishop Built His College in the Woods. The
Western Literary Press, Cincinnati: 1906.
Smith, Laura Chase. The Life of Philander Chase. The Knickerbocker
Press, New York: 1903.
Contributing Library:
Cullom-Davis Library, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Return to Main Page
This page last updated: Monday, 07-Sep-1998 12:48:36 CDT
Copyright Notice
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Sophia May Chase: A Remarkable Woman of the 19th Century (continued)
by Mira Baz
Return to:
Introduction
Chase Family moves to Ohio
Kenyon College
Part 4. Illinois and Jubilee College
By June of 1836, the Bishop returned from his long journey and was
received with much emotion. Mary wrote to her brother in college: "It
was a day of rejoicing indeed; all ordinary occupations were laid
aside... our happiness had been complete. Dear mother actually cried for
joy." A few days later, the family embarked on a new journey to the "far
west" of Illinois to search for land for the new college. Mary
recounted:
"The ox-team, driven by a hired man, led the van; the old carriage with
the family came next; then [Henry] in the other wagon and [Philander] on
old Cincinnatus brought up the rear. At Lima... I mounted old
Cincinnatus, as we had agreed to take turns in riding him."
They reached Grand Prairie, in Illinois, where they were received by Mr.
Hanford, a churchman. He "fitted them a small cabin adjoining his own"
to stay in until their future home was found. "Father and Mother and
Henry have all gone as far as Peoria to find a spot to place the
college," Mary wrote.
They were soon successful; the "country was so entirely new that [the
Bishop] found no difficulty in pre-empting land, as it had not been put
into market by the Government" (Smith 278). In the fall of 1836, a
little house made of logs was built, consisting of "two skeleton
log-houses", which would be expanded over the coming years. The Bishop
called it "the Robin's Nest, because it was built of mud and sticks and
was full of young ones" (Smith 278). The bricks were from England, the
timbers of native oak, and the interior woodwork of native black walnut.
Lumber "of the poorest kind" was quite expensive at the time -- $40-50
for a thousand -- and so the family had to make do with what they could
afford.
Robin's Nest, the home of Bishop Chase and his family from 1836, and
later of their daughter Mary Chase Chamberlain and her family, until the
early 1900's.
By December of 1838, the Bishop managed to buy a total of over 3,000
acres of land for his college, which he named Jubilee: "that name of all
others suits my feelings and my circumstances," the Bishop wrote to his
friend Lord Kenyon. "I wish to give thanks and rejoice that, after seven
years passed in much trouble, pain, and moral servitude, God hath
permitted me for Jesus' sake to return unto His gracious favor." The
college site was high, overlooking a "beautiful stream," and had a grove
of trees which "shield it from the north and west winds in the winter,
and will make it pleasant in the summer" (Smith 287).
Earlier that year, while the Bishop was making a trip across the
Mississippi to Wisconsin Territory, Sophia received a letter informing
her of the preemption of their land. The Bishop directed her in his
letters on how to secure it by having witnesses testify in court. Also
during this year, Mary joined Sophia's family in Steubenville, Ohio, to
pursue her education, and Dudley returned to Gilead to maintain their
land. Sophia's annual visits to the East commenced in the following
spring, and which she would make for over a decade.
Preparations for the construction of the new establishment began after
the purchase of land. The Bishop wrote to Henry, who was in Ottawa,
Illinois, on Dec. 19, 1838:
"Your mother is very busy making ready for the bridge dinner. That is to
say, she is preparing a large and generous portion for each and every
man now assembled on the ground (cold as is the weather) to raise the
college bridge."
And on December 26 to Mary:
"...the cold weather has prevented the finishing of the bridge; and
indeed every other work commenced for the College."
Mary's relationship with her father is expressed in a letter dated
February 14, 1839. She wrote to the Bishop from Steubenville:
"In your last letter you invest me with the very responsible office of
Casuist. Heaven forbid my dear father that I should ever presume to
decide in a matter of conscience of which you were doubtful,
nevertheless in the cases that you give me I would give my opinion
though it be not worth much.... You ask if you are growing selfish in
enjoying a little retirement in your study?
[...] I hope my dear father will not think me impertinent in this
appearing to dictate. I should not have presumed to have said a word
about it had I not been encouraged to express my opinion freely.
... I have sought in vain for Dr. Turner's History, and after finishing
Charles the fifth we have from Mr. Morse's recommendation taken up
'Boswell's life of Johnson'...."
In a later date, Mary would ask her mother for the following list of
books: Leigh Hunt's "Imagination and Fancy" and "The Indicator", Will
Howit's "Student Life in Germany", "Cary's Dante", and Fred Kohlransch's
"History of Germany" "in the original if it can be had, and if not, then
in J. D. Haas' translation".
Indeed, Mary would later take charge of the girls' school, or the female
department as it was called, in Jubilee College. The idea of a girls'
school seems to have been started by Sophia, as it appears in a letter
to the Bishop from Mary Caroline Ward:
"I can enter most entirely into Mrs. Chase's feelings upon the subject
of female education.... I verily believe it is of radical importance to
the spread of vital religion to raise, as Mrs. Chase expresses it, a
generation of Christian Mothers." (Feb. 28, 1842)
Donations to Jubilee and to the Chases' were constantly made by friends
all over the country and from overseas. The mother of the novelist
Captain Marryat, who was the first cousin of Sophia, and who had met the
Bishop in England, sent a personal gift that year of 70 pounds sterling.
"A new Quaker coach and two fine horses were [then] purchased and sent
to Illinois from Philadelphia, and without which Mrs. Chase would have
been unable to go far beyond the porch of the Robin's Nest, even to
worship in Jubilee Chapel, a mile away" (Smith 289).
In their now-settled life at the Robin's Nest, Sophia kept the habit of
regular reading and knitting, and the Bishop started considering
publishing a manuscript, which would later become the Reminiscences. As
Sophia prepared for her trip to the East in 1839, the Bishop wrote to
Mrs. L. H. Sigourney in Hartford, asking for her assistance as editor of
his work. She replied to Sophia on March 16, 1839:
"... [the Bishop] desiring me to address my reply to you.... One of the
first steps, I suppose, would be to make conditions with some energetic
Publisher here, for the American part of the work - and New York would
doubtless be the best place - where your friends can aid you in those
business negotiations, which females can not so well manage."
And in a later letter:
"Still less fitting is it that a female should thus make herself
conspicuous, whose duty it is, rather "to learn in silence at home",
than to aspire at what I might well be counted, an undue elevation."
This statement explains the obscured role, though of much significance,
Sophia played in her husband's life. Her contribution to the production
of the Reminiscences will become clearer later.
Sophia set off on her journey east, stopping at Philadelphia, Kingston,
Boston, Vermont, and Detroit, where she later met her husband. Later in
March, the Bishop sent her the details of the laying of the cornerstone
of Jubilee College. She wrote to him in a letter: "Do you know I am
growing very vain, every person I am introduced to sees such a likeness
to you that they inquire if we are not cousins, often observing that it
is seldom brother and sister are so much alike!"
Of her activities with her daughter in the East, she wrote:
"We have engaged to spend the afternoon at the Museum and Gallery of
Indian Portraits [with Dr. H. Beck].... Tuesday afternoon he again
attended us to the Hospital to see West's painting, Chinese room, and
gallery of fine arts. In the afternoon he... rode with us to the water
works, and Girards College, so that the girls have had a fine
opportunity of seeing all that is worth seeing in the City."
Upon returning with Mary, Sophia fell seriously ill with the typhoid
fever. She had barely started to recover when the Bishop had to make a
trip to the South and the East to gather funds. He brought back with him
to the Robin's Nest his granddaughter Laura, daughter of the late
George. She stayed with the family for almost a year.
The Robin's Nest consisted at this time of a central cabin containing a
kitchen, two small bedrooms, and a little dark room filled with books, a
dining-room which was also a living-room that had a coal fire, a bright
carpet, and a wide lounge covered with a wolf-skin. On the walls here
were books to the ceiling. There was a little frame room at each end of
the house, one of which was the Bishop's study and sleeping-room, and
the other had been added for their son Dudley and his wife.
The troubles of the journeys were to be somewhat improved by the early
1840's, with the advent of the railroad system. Laura wrote to the
Bishop in June of 1841: "...the workmen on the railroad are coming on
and the great work of connecting Boston with the Canadas is rapidly
going on."
The Bishop started working on the Reminiscences, publishing the work in
sections before its publication in its final two-volume edition. Sophia
wrote him while he was on one of his journeys in the autumn of 1841:
"I have engaged a woman, aged 40, to assist me in sewing - so that I
shall devote more time to the examination of your papers, and the
Reminiscences - a box of the latter, with 50 unstitched copies for
England.... And the list of subscribers...."
Sophia's helpfulness, even to strangers, was known to all, and Emily
Pope once asked her for a favor in the following letter:
"though personally a stranger to you I feel as if I knew you and knowing
your kind attention to those who are in sickness and distress must be my
excuse for writing to you. I have a dear niece who three years since
moved to Charleston, Peoria County in your state.... I find that her
husband has communicated to her widowed mother the distressing
intelligence of her severe illness. I believe you are located near her
and my object in writing to you is to request that you will visit her
and show her those kindnesses that I know you are ever ready to render
to the stranger."
A testament of Sophia's repute in medicine is in her sister Charlotte
Pope's letter a decade later:
"I am very nervous so that for the last two years I have been obliged to
give up painting which was a great amusement to me and whiled away many
a lonely hour - but my hand is too unsteady. As you are a "doctoress"
perhaps you know something that will strengthen my nerves, if so please
let me know...."
Mrs. Chase prescribed to her husband once:
"You complain of a nervous headache, if you remember you have it
commonly at this season of the year, but it has yielded to small doses
of Quinine. If not broke up this way I fear it will produce fever. I
hope you will be very careful of your health, remembering you cannot
bear what you could 20 years ago - this is truly serving the Church -
even if you leave some present duties undone."
Their daily life for the next years followed the same routine. The
Bishop made annual missionary trips to the South and the East, and
Sophia with either Mary or the Bishop made her visits to the East in the
spring of every year. She wrote in 1844 to her husband:
"...since my sickness, Mrs. Russell has done what I always did - visit
all the rooms after the family had retired - we will take every
precaution, and trust in the goodness of God to preserve us from so
dreadful a calamity."
And a week later, to her daughter Mary:
"Good Mrs. Russell is with me still, and this kindness enables me to
indulge my invalid feelings. I write (now making out my quarterly Post
Office [report]), read, and saw, and do not, as yet, go beyond the three
warm rooms.... The little girls here all appear very happy and well
behaved - Lucia follows my advice and lets them sew 1/2 a day in the
week while one reads aloud. This beside improving them in that most
essential ornament to female education, needlework - keeps their clothes
in good order, and the charge is gratifying to them.
Shall I tell you my greatest pleasure it is, to nurse your plants - they
sympathized with me somewhat in my illness, dropping some of their
leaves - but in the last fortnight put forth beautifully and refresh the
eye, to look on them - reminding one of that blessed country where there
is no frost to desolate but an everlasting spring. Surely it is an
innocent amusement to love and tend flowers, when it associates the mind
with heavenly thoughts."
In 1845, J. S. Chamberlain was awarded a scholarship at Jubilee College.
By this year, Mary returned from her stay in Ohio. They were engaged a
year later, and moved after their marriage to Minnesota. Mary would make
frequent visits back to the Robin's Nest and Jubilee Hill during her
pregnancies to be with her mother, before the Chamberlain family would
finally move back to live at the Robin's Nest that would be left to them
by Sophia.
A scholarship from Jubilee College. Subjects include Latin and Greek,
Geography, English Grammar, Arithmetic, and Punctuality at Prayers and
Recitations.
Sophia Chase's letter to her husband, the Bishop Philander Chase,
dated Jan. 4, 1845, from Jubilee Hill. The letter folds to reveal the
address on the left side.
Bishop Chase's letter to Sophia Chase dated Jan. 14, 1845.
A letter from Mrs. Marriatt to Bishop P. Chase dated April 30, 1845.
Letters were usually written on one leaf of paper (before envelopes were
made separately in the 1850's); therefore, when the writers ran out of
space, they turned the paper 90 degrees and wrote over.
Continue to:
Epilogue
Bibliography
Piatt, John James. How the Bishop Built His College in the Woods. The
Western Literary Press, Cincinnati: 1906.
Smith, Laura Chase. The Life of Philander Chase. The Knickerbocker
Press, New York: 1903.
Contributing Library:
Cullom-Davis Library, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Sophia May Chase: A Remarkable Woman of the 19th Century (continued)
by Mira Baz
Return to:
Introduction
Chase Family moves to Ohio
Part 3. Kenyon College
The next task was the purchase of land for the building of the new
college, which was called Kenyon, on Gambier Hill. Over the next few
years, gifts for the college were received from the Bishop's friends in
England - an organ, books, and a printing press, among others. Sophia
received the teachers and students in her home while the college
buildings and dormitories were still being constructed. This was a
"small and rough log cabin... with one little window, composed of four
little squares of the most common glass" (Smith 211).
The Bishop managed the building of his college at this time with very
little funds, if any. With his son Dudley and a hired workman, he worked
the surrounding lands that had a mill used "for the double purpose of
grinding meal and of sawing timber into planks" (Smith 213). The lands
were the food supply for the inhabitants of Gambier Hill.
Guests were kindly received. A General Convention of the diocese was
held annually at Gambier; the guests from the clergy, twenty in number,
dined at the Chase's "common table with the students, the principal
luxury at the meals being the wild honey in the comb, taken from the
forest trees" (Smith 215) and prepared by Sophia.
Besides being a good hostess, Sophia gradually assumed a more important
role in the Bishop's business affairs. In 1829, he embarked on a journey
to the South, and "the management of this establishment was placed in
Mrs. Chase's hands" (Smith 222). She was affectionately called "Mother
Chase" by the teachers and the pupils who sat together for meals on the
Bishop's table, which were announced by a "hand bell". In a letter dated
August 20 of the same year, her sister Maria Kip wrote from Hartford: "I
sincerely hope and pray the sickness of yourself and that of the dear
ones around you has passed away. Your active part in those plans that
always surround the good Bishop we hope that you are again able to take
active part in."
But this endeavor was not to last long. The general legislature denied
the Bishop's petition for a grant of land to support Kenyon, and a
movement started in the college to depose him from its supreme
management and to make him a "mere figurehead" (Smith 233). Faced with
this disappointment, the Bishop resigned in September of 1831.
Again he and his family found themselves moving to another part of the
country, an event that would be repeated more than once in the following
years. Upon his departure, the Bishop, feeling betrayed, reportedly
"pointed significantly to a picture of King Lear, which for some time
had decorated his own apartment. In a few words he expressed [to his
houseguest Mr. Caswall] his sense of the applicability of the subject to
his own circumstances"(Smith 238-9).
Mr. Caswall further narrates: "The feelings of Bishop Chase in parting
from Kenyon College were of a very painful nature.... The builders, the
mechanics, and the workmen had ranged themselves in file, to say
farewell, and to ask a parting blessing" (Smith 238-9).
The Bishop and his son Dudley explored in the wilderness until they came
upon the small cabin, called the Valley of Peace, that stood in the dark
woods of Ohio. Sophia and the younger children were left on Gambier Hill
to pack their belongings, and Dudley returned to accompany them to their
new home. The Bishop alone worked on the cabin, which was in a wretched
state: "The timbers of the cabin had given way, the floor was unsafe,
the roof also, the windows were gone, and the fences down" (Smith 239).
After a few days, and before the roof was finished, the family arrived
in a covered Quaker wagon, tired from the bad roads and dismal weather.
One wonders how the burden was on Sophia. Laura Chase Smith writes:
Could any one have seen the countenance of her who was to be the chief
sufferer with, in the future, as she had always been the chief supporter
in the past of her husband, as she came out of the coach and looked
around upon the scene before her, tears of pity would have been shed for
her. Not a word from her, however, of complaint; everything needed for
lodging the family was ordered from the wagon; a cheerful fire soon
blazed upon the hearth; and the children as they lay in their new-made
couches on the floor were soon employed in counting the stars which
shone through the unfinished roof.... (240)
The winter was hard and cold. There weren't any neighbors, schools or
churches for miles. The family ate plain food and wore plain clothes
made by Sophia. A firelight was kept at night, "but how difficult for
her to keep a bright heart and a hearth swept clean for her little brood
of three boys and one little girl, and for the father to keep such a
home warm enough during the long, cold night" (Smith 241).
Easter Day of 1832 was to bring the family yet another future move. Mr.
Bezaleel Wells, a dear friend of the Bishop's, and whose daughter Sarah
was to be the future wife of Dudley, visited him and asked to be
accompanied to Michigan to see his son.
The Bishop was taken by the beauty of the land in Michigan and purchased
land for his future abode near a lake. He called it Gilead, and prepared
to move his family to it by summer. The Bishop and his two elder sons
preceded the rest of the family to Gilead in July to plant the land and
build the cabin. Dudley recounts:
"Farming operations were soon begun in good earnest. We had three or
four 'hands', but the boys had to pass their apprenticeship, and soon
became masters at this trade, and learned to do all things better than
their teachers.... Fences were to be made, the land ploughed, planted,
and sown, grain reaped, stacked, threshed, and, in time, barns and
saw-mill erected, forest trees cut, lumber sawed, and bricks made. The
stock of horses and cattle were to be largely increased and provided
for, and to these were added sheep and hogs" (Smith 252).
The boys worked the farmlands, plowing and sowing the grain, washing and
shearing the sheep, the wool woven into cloth that Sophia sewed into
garments for the family. Wolves' furs were made into "a large robe...
kept in use for many years" (Smith 253), the wolves' skin being "in the
finest order" in winter. At home, the family had "under all
circumstances morning and evening prayer and Sunday services" (Smith
257).
While the Bishop and his family were getting settled in Gilead,
harvesting the land and improving it, the newly formed diocese of
Illinois sent him notification in the summer of 1835 of his appointment
to the Episcopate of Illinois. The Bishop took up the responsibility,
and had to make another trip to England to gather funds for the new
task. Sophia was faced once again with the daily worries, alone. She
wrote to her husband now on his way to New York then England: "I will
try to do my duty by the children, though greatly will they miss you in
their education." The Bishop reached England in the autumn of that year.
Only a few months passed in this endeavor before the Bishop received the
bad news from home. In January of 1836, Sophia wrote to him about the
burning of the house in Gilead:
"Last Saturday night we went to bed in apparent security, but about
twelve o'clock a slight noise like the kindling of a fire in a stove
startled us. I sprang from bed and throwing open the dining room door
saw that the flames had burst from the upper part of the chimney into
the garret. The cry of "Fire!" quickly assembled all the family. A tub
of water was in the kitchen, and three pails full in as many seconds
were thrown on. It was, I saw, in vain. The fire had seized the roof; I
bid them all to lose no time, but throw out as fast as possible. My
first care was your sermon box, and then the box of English letters with
your letters to me from England, certificates, and three hundred dollars
in money."
Most of the beds and clothing were saved, two small tables, four chairs,
Sophia's bed curtains, sleigh fur, side-saddle, and some other articles.
She continued:
"By tearing down the flaming board fence, the ruin was stayed and the
school-house and milk-house were preserved. We had our beds taken to the
school-house, lighted a candle, and wrapped ourselves in blankets. It
had been thawing all day and water was not frozen on the ground, so that
our feet, though very cold, as we were all for a time bare-foot, did not
suffer."
Careful not to distract her husband from the affairs of his journey,
Sophia comforted his anxiety:
"And now, dear husband, let not this event shorten your mission or damp
your zeal. I know your heart is at home, and you will feel much for our
privation, but we have still the essentials of life, plenty of grain and
meat. These trials will make men of our boys; if it makes Christians of
them I shall welcome them. ...I am tired of scribbling by candle light"
(Smith 271-3).
The Bishop's English friends found out about the fire and quickly came
to his comfort and that of his family. Another letter from Sophia
followed this one after a short time, still re-assuring her husband of
the family's well being, and inducing him to continue with his mission
whole-heartedly. Laura Chase Smith wrote about her:
...what one woman accomplished ... as a helpmeet in her husband's
absence. She had the brain and the body and the strong nerve of a woman
in ten thousand, and she needed all these at this time. (273)
Fire incidents were common in those days, and were started by a candle
or chimney flame not completely put off. Since that accident, the Bishop
insisted until his final years that water be kept in buckets within
reach and near the beds during the nights to prevent any future similar
incident.
Not having yet heard of the burning of the Gilead house, Sophia's sister
Susan Perry wrote to her from New Bedford, inquiring about the state of
her family and updating her on her own:
"...a considerable change has taken place in my family. In September my
son Thaddeus - who lived with me 19 years - took a wife, and commenced
housekeeping. This left Duncan and myself entirely alone in a house
large enough to accommodate 20 - it was neither safe not pleasant to
live so, and I have taken a small family into part of the house, and
feel more comfortable.... Thaddeus has a good managing wife - not much
refinement - but she is attentive and affectionate to me and suits
Thaddeus better than one of a more cultivated mind." (January 1836)
Over the years, Sophia developed a famed reputation for her knowledge of
cures and their prescription; in later years she would be called a
"skillful Physician" by the Bishop's grand-daughter Mary O and a
"doctoress" by Sophia's sister. Her skills seem to have started in this
year, as appears in her letter to the Bishop:
"I do not remember anything indispensably necessary except a bottle of
Quinine - to which I should like a book like Ewall's for family
practice, and a treatice for practice, on Cholerac complaint -. [Last]
summer showed me necessity of studying the use of medicine, for every
person living in the Western country, where you may wait for days before
a physician can attend." (Gilead, March 25, 1836)
Continue to:
Illinois and Jubilee College
Epilogue
Bibliography
Piatt, John James. How the Bishop Built His College in the Woods. The
Western Literary Press, Cincinnati: 1906.
Smith, Laura Chase. The Life of Philander Chase. The Knickerbocker
Press, New York: 1903.
Contributing Library:
Cullom-Davis Library, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Return to Main Page
This page last updated: Monday, 07-Sep-1998 12:48:16 CDT
Copyright Notice
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Sophia May Chase: A Remarkable Woman of the 19th Century (continued)
by Mira Baz
Return to:
Introduction
Part 2. The Chase Family moves to Ohio
In the year 1818, Philander Chase's wife, Mary Fay, died of a failing
health, leaving him three sons; George, age 21 (1797-1836), Philander,
age 20 (1799-1824), and Dudley, age 2 (1816-1907). During this year, the
future Bishop was elected for the Bishopric of the Episcopalian diocese
of Ohio. He made a journey on horseback from Ohio to Philadelphia for
the consecration, which did not take place until February 1819 due to
opposition. Here he saw Sophia, whom, according to her daughter Mary, he
had known in Poughkeepsie, and they became engaged. The following year,
by Bishop Philander's request, she went to Worthington, Ohio,
accompanied by her brother Henry. They were married on July 4, 1819.
The Bishop had taken in Mrs. Russell, his widowed niece, who took care
of young Dudley as well as her own daughter before the Bishop's
marriage, the two elder sons being in college. Sophia raised Dudley as
her own, the family living in difficult conditions and very little
income. The situation became more difficult two years later, when she
gave birth to Henry (1821-1896). The Bishop was then forced to accept
the offer for the presidency of a college in Cincinnati. He removed his
family to Cincinnati, where they lived for two years, and where Mary,
their only daughter, was born (1822-1904). His son George, much to the
Bishop's distress, had started getting into "the habit of taking opium"
and alcohol since he left college in New York to live with his wife
Eliza in Vermont. The duration of this addiction is not known.
During this time, the need for training young men for the ministry grew,
and the churchmen suggested that young Philander, the Bishop's son, now
deacon, make a trip to England for an appeal to receive help for
building a religious college. Young Philander, who died in 1824 of the
growing illness, was taken to bed and disabled from making the journey.
The Bishop took this responsibility upon himself, with a heavy heart at
the thought of leaving his ill son. He removed his family once again,
this time to New York. Sophia at the start of a pregnancy, the young
Dudley and Henry, and little Mary, rode with him in a carriage driven by
two horses to Kingston, which they reached on September 15, 1823. They
were to stay with Sophia's mother until the Bishop's return from
England. Sophia's family strongly opposed his voyage overseas, fearing
the definite perils of the trip, but settled the matter upon seeing his
strong determination for the call of duty.
During his absence, which lasted until the summer of 1824, the Bishop's
son Philander died, and Sophia gave birth to another son, who was named
Philander (1824-1872) in the memory of their loss.
The Bishop's letters from overseas narrated to Sophia the details of his
business and its success. In each of them, he instructed his wife on the
education of his children, telling her to read to them from the Bible
and from his own letters, as in the following from Liverpool dated
October 30, 1823:
"Tell my dear son Dudley that he must be a good boy and learn his book:
that he must pray God to bless him with an obedient disposition, that
nothing can make me and his Heavenly Father frown upon and punish him
more surely than to learn his disobedience to his Mother, Grandmother,
aunts or uncle George. Make him read "The Lessons" with the same
constancy they were read at home, make him learn his Catechism and
Collects: and in every respect try to improve himself. If in these
things he obey his loving parents he shall not be without reward. And
what can I say to near dear Henry? Don't let him and Mary forget me. Say
ten thousand things in your own good way. Promise Henry that if he shall
have learned to read by my return, he shall have the finest Book I can
purchase for a shilling in all Old England."
And of his daughter he wrote in the same letter:
"Dear Mary! Thy image is constantly before me. Thy smiling face has
danced in the mists which float on the broad Atlantic, and dispelled the
gloom they were calculated to inspire."
Sophia, alone, took care of the children in the middle of the toils of
this busy life. The family, grieving over the loss of Philander, kept
"together under the benefit of lay reading," she wrote to her husband on
July 28, 1824. She being the dedicated wife and mother that she was,
whole-heartedly supported the Bishop in his endeavors, writing to him in
the same letter: "I will not murmur at the providence that keeps you
from us but pray and trust that He will complete the good work begun and
return you prosperous.... Our dear children are well and enjoy
themselves and still love to talk of papa."
Leaving the other end of the Atlantic, the Bishop arrived in Kingston in
August of 1824, after forty-three days on board the ship Orbit. He
transported his family back to Worthington, Ohio. Laura Chase Smith, the
Bishop's grand-daughter, in her The Life of Philander Chase, describes
the journey back home:
To cross the mountain with a family in 1824 was more trouble and took a
longer time than to go to Europe and back in a steamer of the present
day [1903]. One month was occupied in reaching Worthington from
Kingston. The pleasant home in Worthington [built by the Bishop himself]
was embosomed in trees, twenty and thirty feet high, covered with wild
grapes, purposely left for shade and beauty. One may imagine the
pleasure of the children and their elders to be at home under their own
vines. The peaches were ripe and the apples red and yellow in the
orchard. (192)
The Bishop's house was "the domicile for the teachers [of the school]
and small boys; and all ate at one table" (Smith 198). The family's life
in Ohio is later recalled by the adult Dudley Chase, the Bishop's son:
"Provisions were cheap and plenty when they were accessible, which the
state of the roads did not always permit, or the waters were too high or
too low to grind the grist. Thus sometimes we were compelled to feed on
the unground corn or wheat which was prepared with art unknown to
cook-book.... We had occasional visits from the outside world, as when
the Convention held their sittings near; then the boys could try to
mettle of the parsons' horses, stabled in the Bishop's spacious barn....
Of sports, besides the usual games, there were creek and mill-dam where
we could bathe and skate. In the forest there were numberless squirrels
and fur-bearing animals and at the right season millions of wild pigeons
feeding on the beechnuts; and on the boundary fence facing the forest
were often to be seen, attracted by the ripening corn, flocks of large
fat, wild turkeys -- fine sport for those who could or were allowed to
use the gun; and those who could not, by combining forces, could build a
log-pen in the forest about four logs high, cover its top securely, dig
a trench underneath leading upwards into it, and, by strewing corn into
this and outside, the simple turkey would 'walk into the parlor,' but
never thought to bend its neck to creep out whence it came in, and would
be trying to fly upwards to get out, while others hearing his cries
would join him, and so several at a time would be trapped.
The Indians taught us how to call the male bird when in the spring he
was heard from a great distance, by imitating the cry of the female, by
means of the hollow bone of the bird preserved for that purpose, and
thus being ourselves concealed, to bring them within easy gun or arrow
shot."
Continue to:
Kenyon College
Illinois and Jubilee College
Epilogue
Bibliography
Piatt, John James. How the Bishop Built His College in the Woods. The
Western Literary Press, Cincinnati: 1906.
Smith, Laura Chase. The Life of Philander Chase. The Knickerbocker
Press, New York: 1903.
Contributing Library:
Cullom-Davis Library, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This page last updated: Monday, 07-Sep-1998 12:47:52 CDT
Copyright Notice
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Sophia May Chase:
A Remarkable Woman of the 19th Century
by Mira Baz
Part 1. Introduction
At the turn of the millenium, and in the age of telecommunications and
electronic mail, immortality seems more difficult to achieve, as
epistles become more and more scarce. The memory of Sophia May Chase,
however, and of her family, who lived in the Nineteenth Century, was
certain to be preserved in letters. Reading the exchanged correspondence
between wife and husband, parent and child, family members and friends,
one delves into the minds of the Chase that one thinks may have been
oblivious to the lasting significance of the written word vis-à-vis the
immediate concerns of daily life. This, however, was not entirely true
about Philander Chase, Sophia's husband, and first Bishop of the
Episcopalian diocese of Ohio and of Illinois. His detailed letters
written to his wife in his missionary travels show a preoccupation with
recording events and serve as journals. Sophia, on the other hand, was
economical in her writing, her letters revealing little about herself.
She was the support in her husband's active labors, and whom he only
mentions en passant in his Reminiscences -- an autobiography. She was
"his secretary, his housekeeper, his adviser, and treasurer" (Smith
197). In seeing her name, one would not think of the building of two
colleges, the distresses of the constant moving in the wilderness of the
frontier life, the strength behind the Bishop's achievements. This
biography is an attempt to "reconstruct" the life of Sophia May Chase.
Bishop Philander Chase with his second wife, Sophia May Chase, in 1847.
They were often thought to be cousins. (from Smith 300) Sophia May
Chase, at the age of 59, in 1847. (courtesy of Kenyon College)
Very little is known about her, especially prior to her marriage to the
Bishop in 1819. A letter by her daughter Mary overviews this period in
her life. Sophia May was born on February 13, 1782, in the city of
Amsterdam, Holland, daughter of Duncan and Susanna Ingraham. Duncan
Ingraham was a shipping merchant; and "when peace was restored" to the
U.S.A. at the turn of the last century, he returned and settled in
Philadelphia. After a few years, he retired from business and removed
his family to Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, where he died. Sophia grew up
here with her five sisters and four brothers, who "scattered to all
parts of the globe after a time." Her mother, with her son George, then
moved the "now diminished family" to Kingston, N.Y. Shortly after,
Sophia's sister Maria wed Mr. Leonard Kip of New York, and Sophia went
to live with her.
Continue to:
Chase Family moves to Ohio
Kenyon College
Illinois and Jubilee College
Epilogue
Bibliography
Piatt, John James. How the Bishop Built His College in the Woods. The
Western Literary Press, Cincinnati: 1906.
Smith, Laura Chase. The Life of Philander Chase. The Knickerbocker
Press, New York: 1903.
Contributing Library:
Cullom-Davis Library, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Return to Main Page
This page last updated: Friday, 24-Sep-1999 12:58:34 CDT
Copyright Notice
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Obituary from the Clare County Cleaver, March 15, 200l.
LaVerne T. Chase, age 87, of Farwell, passed away on Friday, March 9, in
Midland, Michigan.
He was born the son of Arthur B. and Floy (Tuttle) Chase on August l, 1913 in Lansing. He married Geraldine Parmeter on April 21, 1934, in Eaton Rapids.
He had served with the US Army during WWII and had been a Prisoner of War.
He was a retired Furniture Manager of Sears and Roebuck Co. in both Lansing, MI and Waukegan, IL prior to retiring to Farwell in 1974.
He was a member of First Baptist Church in Waukegan, the Glen Flora Country Club in Waukegan, had been active with the American Red Cross,
served as past Vice Chairman of Waukegan City Club,
Waukegon Human Relations Club, and was a past Commander of the Lansing VFW.
LaVerne is survived by his wife Geraldine, a son Gary Chase of Wisc., two daughters, Yvonne and Howard Olson of San Jose, CA, and Suzanne Aiken of Farwell; two sisters, Marion and Leon Mitchener and Barbara and Roland Dunckel, all of Farwell; five grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held on Tuesday, April 13 a 2:00 pm from the Stephenson-Wyman Funeral Home in Clare. Burial was in the Surrey Township Cemetery, Farwell, Michigan.
---------------------------------
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Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers!
Sometime last week, one of you posted the name of a book having to do with
the history of Cape Cod. Could you please post it again?
Dolores Chase Jarden
_________________________________________________________________
Get ready for school! Find articles, homework help and more in the Back to
School Guide! http://special.msn.com/network/04backtoschool.armx
http://www2.townonline.com/arlington/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=87245
From the Arlington Advocate
New additions mark Town Day 2004
By Les Masterson/ Staff Writer
Thursday, September 16, 2004
At the other end of the Town Day map is the Jason Russell House, which
was also bustling with activity. The lawn was set up with tables showing
Colonial life and games.
Inside, guides gave free tours and people walked through the Smith
Museum. The museum displayed for the first time an 18th artifact that it
received from the Chase (previously Chace) family in 1924.
Arlington Historical Society representative Doreen Stevens said the 1765
powder horn is an artifact from the French and Indian War era. Stevens said
the horns were cheap, light and safe (they melted rather than burned if hit
by burning sparks). She said both British Regulars and American militia
carried powder horns during the French and Indian Wars.
Though powder horns could be plain, other young men wanted a horn with
pizzazz included maps, rhymes or sketchings to commemorate particular
battles.
In addition to the phrases, "William Chace His Horn Made 1765"
and "Crown Point Fort," the powder horn also has the royal coat of arms with
a "GR" for King George and a spotted dragon creature with a long, slim fish.
Stevens likened the horn's prominence in its day to a 21st century
gadget.
"It was the equivalent of today's cell phone," said Stevens of the
item's popularity.
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Hello Richard,
When I lived in Kansas City, I recall an old building down in the River
Market area which could be seen while crossing the Missouri River via the
Broadway Bridge. On the side of the building "Chase Bag Co." could clearly
be seen in faded white paint. I wonder if this may have been the company?
I'll check further.
Cheers,
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Hello All,
I saw an interesting bag yesterday in a farm equipment museum near Buckley,
Michigan. It was a seamless cloth bag used for storage of flour or other
grains. It had the CHASE name on the bag. I would be interested to know when
and where the Chase Company that made the bags was located and which Chase
owned the business.
Richard
From the Shores of Grand Traverse Bay
Hello All,
I made an error in reporting that Owen Chace's son Owen Jr was the one
to have met Herman Melville and loan Melville a copy of Owen Chace Sr's
narrative about the ill-starred voyage of the Essex of Nantucket. It
was actually Owen's son William Henry Chace who was the party in
question. Otherwise, the rest of the story is correct. Oh, by the way,
did I mention that the members of the Essex crew who escaped the sinking
ship in the whaling boats resorted to canabalism to survive?
For more information see:
http://www.idiotsguides.com/static/cs/us/10/nf/readingguides/moby_dick.h
tml
Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819 into a
family of illustrious lineage. Both of Melville's grandfathers had
played significant roles in the Revolutionary War. His mother's father,
Peter Gansevoort, achieved distinction for his defense of Fort Stanwix
in Rome, New York, while his paternal grandfather, Thomas Melville,
claimed to have been the first to throw tea into the harbor during the
Boston Tea Party and later served as a major in General Washington's
army.
Herman was raised in the genteel world of New York society, a world of
servants and high culture. But in 1830, when he was only 11, his
father's import business went bankrupt and the family, which now
included eight children, was forced to flee to Albany to escape
creditors. Two years later, Allan Melville died, and Herman and his
older brother were pulled from school to help support the family. From
then on, Herman (whom his father had described as "backward in speech
and somewhat slow in comprehension") was largely self-taught. Over the
next five years, Melville struggled to find a vocation, working as a
bank clerk, a farmhand, a clerk in his brother's cap and fur store, and
as a schoolteacher in Pittsfield and Albany.
Both his father and uncle had regaled him as a child with stories of
their sea voyages, and in 1839 the twenty-year old Melville shipped out
for London as a "cabin boy" on the St. Lawrence. In 1841, seeking
further adventures, Melville took a step which would prove decisive for
his future as a writer-he signed on the whaler Acushnet and set sail
from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, on a three-year whaling voyage. During a
gam in the Pacific Melville happened to meet William Henry Chase, the
son of Owen Chase, first mate on the ill-fated Nantucket whaler Essex.
William loaned Melville a copy of Owen Chase's account of the disaster
that had befallen the Essex. It told how their ship had been attacked by
an eighty-foot white whale, how the whale had rammed the ship
deliberately and repeatedly, "with fury and vengeance," completely
staving in its bows. Chase's narrative also recounted, in harrowing
detail, how the men of the Essex spent the next 93 days on the open
ocean in battered whaleboats, an ordeal that would end in the deaths of
all but a handful of the original crew. "The reading of this wondrous
story upon the landless sea," Melville recalled, "and so close to the
very latitude of the shipwreck had a surprising effect on me." Nearly
ten years later it would provide the spark for Moby-Dick.
Sorry for any confusion.
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
http://www.philipsemanorfriends.org/chase.htm
CHASE, FRANK DAVIS (1877-7/21/1937) Chicago, Ill.
Head of the firm of Frank D. Chase & Company founded in 1913, his works
were mainly in the industrial field and included newspaper plants for
the St. Louis Star-Times, the Oklahoman at Oklahoma, and the Milwaukee
Journal. He was also architect of a number of important buildings in
Chicago, such as the Memorial Hospital, the Strack Building, South
Chicago Community Hospital, and the Office Building at 100 West Monroe
Street. At one time Mr. Chase was president of the Western Electric,
later held the same position with the Illinois Central Railroad, and
during that time his office planned a number of railroad stations.
-Obit., Bulletin, Illinois Society of Architects, September, 1937.
[The above citation is from: Henry F. and Elsie Rathburn Withey,
Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased) (Los Angeles:
Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc. 1970; facsimile of 1956 edition), p. 119.]
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Because of some of the private responses I received to a recent post, I thought I'd post some of the following information to the list. I think we have some newer people on the list looking for info.
For compiled genealogies:
For those people with Stratton ancestry who contacted me:
A Book of Strattons, Vol. 1 and 2 is available through Higginson Book Company, 148 Washington St, PO Bx 778, Salem, Massachusetts 01970 ph: 978-745-7170 Fax 978-745-8025
Chase Ancestry:
The Seven Generations of Descendants of Aquila and Thomas Chase by John Carroll Chase and George Walter Chamberlain.
People on this list a couple of years ago got Picton Press in Rockport, ME to do a printing of this. They may still have copies...or if you can get enough people together maybe they'll do a reprint. It was pretty expensive, but I can't tell you what this book means to me:
Picton Press, PO Bx 250, Rockport ME 04856-0250 ph 207-236-6565 email: sales(a)pictonpress.com web site: http://www.pictonpress.com
Also, Dow History of Hampton is interesting to read. It is available online through the Hampton Library: http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/
And the History of Newbury by John Currier...and there is also one written by Joshua Coffin. These provide a little insight into the layout of the towns and some of what life was like.
I have a copy that I got online of the passenger list from the "Mary and John" which sailed March 24th 1633/34 under Robert Sayers. Included on this list are John Wheeler and his family which includes David and Anne...later wife of Aquila. David was arrested with them for the "Picking Pease" incident.
I "believe" but cannot prove( as yet) that Aquila and Thomas were working on this ship. We know they were both Mariners. Also on this passenger list were people who settled in and around Hampton and Newbury....that they knew and lived with the rest of their lives. It has to be...it would be too great a coincidence otherwise. If I had the time and the money, I would go to England to see if I could find a ships manifest for this voyage that would list the crew. I've tried via mail...but I keep reaching deadends. Maybe someday.
Another possible avenue would be the "Confidence" which sailed in 1638/39. There is, I guess, a listing for "David Wheeler age 11 yrs" on that voyage. 1638/39 was when Aquila first appreared in Hampton. These passenger lists...like the genealogies are not always accurate that far back. However, there are too many names on that "Mary and John list...that you can find later in both Newbury and Hampton.. for it to be wrong.
I went to Newburyport a couple of years ago to research and one of the questions I asked the man at the Historical Society in Newburyport was..."Who would have been the person who was in the position to offer Aquila the job as a fisherman in the early settlement?" The answer was "Rev. Thomas Parker". And guess what? He came on the "Mary and John" just like the Wheelers. I just feel strongly that Aquila came over on this voyage because these people knew him. But anyway, I can't prove that yet. Just some guessing on my part.
Hope that helps,
Kathy Caslin caslin(a)winco.net
Noticed this while searching for another surname.
1850 census for Washington, Elkhart, IN
roll m432-144 p 42
Jerusha CHASE 36y b. MA
Cyrus 14y b. MA
Alice 7y b. MI
Stephen 5y b.MI
George V. 3y b. MI
Noticed this while searching for another surname.
1850 census for Washington, Elkhart, IN
roll m432-144 p. 42
Hiram CHASE 40y b. NY
Mrs 31y b. OH
George A. 13y b. MD
Matilda J. 11y b. MD
Mary 9y b. MD
Augustus 6y b. MD
Ellen 4y b. MD
Lucy A. 6/12 b. MD
I am looking for the parents of Minerva E Chase.
Minerva b.1837 where?
Married in Toledo, Tama County, IA to Isaiah Honeywell (Hunnewell) 1830-1889
Died 1857 in Tama County, IA
Parents ?
Any help will be appreciated.
Don
Here is an excerpt from an email I posted last year on November 14th.
The Enduring Shore: A History of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket
by Paul Schneider
From The Enduring Shore, page 169
Over the Bar
Whoever actually hired the Essex crew, he didn't have far to look for a
first mate. Just a Pollard himself was promoted from mate to captain, one
of the boatsteerers from the previous voyage, Owen Chase, got Pollard's old
job of first mate. The twenty-two-year-old Chase was five feet ten inches
tall, had dark hair, and, like the new captain, was connected to several of
the founding English families of Nantucket. On his mother's side, his
lineage went back to Peter Folger, who came to Nantucket from Martha's
Vineyard to act as the original Coffins' and Macys' intermediary with the
native population.
Along with the Folgers on Chase's maternal side of the family tree are a
generous sprinkling of another original Nantucket family, the Swains. And
like Pollard, Chase was newly married to a woman from yet another old-guard
lineage, the Gardners. On his father's side, meanwhile, First Mate Chase's
roots went back to the founding of Yarmouth. His great-great-great-great-
great-grandparents William and Mary Chase settled there in 1638 after
living for eight years in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. What induced Owen
Chase's grandparents to move from the ancestral turf of Cape Cod to
Nantucket in the middle of the 1700s is not clear, though it may have been
related to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that resulted in the birth of Owen's
father, Judah Chase. It apparently did not have anything to do with the
collapse of shore whaling on the Cape around that time, which prompted the
removal to Nantucket of more than a few other coofs, as off-islanders were
scornfully called. Owen's father was a farmer.
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl
Note from the Chase Chronicles - July 1912
WILLIAM CHASE FAMILY IN THE WHALING INDUSTRY.
By President Jason F. Chase
Family Reunion, June 27, 1912.
Your Honor, Mayor Ashley: (New Bedford, Mass.)
"We thank you for your warm words of welcome. We are glad to be here
and your words have made us feel that we are at home and not like
those who are visiting the graves of their ancestors. For our journey
here today was inspired by the memory of our ancestors - of those
enterprising and indefatigable men who had part in gathering the
wealth which gives this city the distinction of being the wealthiest
city of its size in the United States - of those fearless and
adventurous men who won New Bedford's wealth from the depth of the
ocean, "braving every danger, accepting every hazard and fearlessly
entering unknown regions in pursuit of their prey. "Well has one of
your foremost citizens stated that the destiny of the New England
whale fishery is so interwoven with the history of New Bedford during
the last century that they cannot be separated. No record of the
growth and business of your town and city can be complete without it.
Your wealth, your population and your progress have been the points of
this industry; and your position and fame among the cities of the
world is due to its successful prosecution. Eloquently and truly has
he spoken when he says; "Gathered from the ocean at her own peril, New
Bedford's wealth impoverished no other's treasury and for the
distinction of being the wealthiest city of her size in the Union, she
owes no debt save to her sons. "
Among those sons who brought those riches to the lap of their mother,
were many who bore the name of Chase. Look back over the roll of honor
of the captains of the whalers sailing from this port and one will
find probably as many Chases as those of any other single name, not to
make any invidious comparison with some families as the Russells, the
Rotches, the Rodmans, the Howlands, the Bunkers, the Coffins, the
Norths, the Gardners and the Bakers. There is found the name of Joseph
Chase as early as 1739, James Chase, George Chase, Brown Chase,
Shubail Chase, Franklin Chase, Peter F. Chase, Reuben Chase, the
famous of the Essex, Owen Chase and scores more who reached the
enviable position of captains of whalers.
It is not inappropriate at this time, members of the Family
Association, for me to speak of the characteristics of the William
Chase branch of the family as reflected in the industry which for
generations the majority of the male members of the family followed, -
that of fishing and whaling.
In 1634, William Chase and Mary, with their sons, left Roxbury and
made their way to Cape Cod where they spread out over its sand-dunes
and beside its ocean-washed shores. The niggardly yield of the land
early drove them out upon the ocean's depth to brave its dangers and
win its food and wealth. The wealth of the sea was not alone in the
gold they won from its salt waters, but in the sturdy type of
character they developed. The ocean was a nursery of a hardy, daring
and indefatigable race of seamen such as scarcely any other pursuit
could have trained. It taught them how to do and dare every danger,
made them ingenious and industrious, hardy and enduring, self-reliant
and independent.
>From the Chases of Cape Cod in part at least, were secured the timber
out of which the master whalers of New Bedford's history were built.
It is true that to another than a Chase, viz: Joseph Russells, belongs
the honor of being the pioneer in the whale fishing, when in 1755, he
laid the foundation of it in New Bedford, but history tells us that
even before this Nantucket had been sending her sons over the seas and
it was from Cape Cod and Easthampton that they secured their teachers,
for even before Nantucket and New Bedford, the Cape Cod-ers had
pursued this hardy industry. It was not until a century later that
whaling reached its height in this place , when this port boasted 329
whaling ships worth $12,000,000, and its income from this source
reached in 1851, $10,000,000, and in 1853, almost $11,000,000; In half
a century, their earnings were $141,000,000.
I wish time afforded the opportunity and my knowledge was broad enough
to recite the achievements of these bold, brave men. I would tell you
of how, beginning in sight of land, they gradually explored the
recesses of four mighty oceans, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian,
and the Arctic; how they rounded Cape Hope and Cape Horn, sailed
through Behring Strait and along Greenland's coasts hunting the lions
of the deep. Their whole life was crowded with danger and suffering.
Think of the type of character it required to leave home and wife and
children for a voyage of from three to five years in the tropical
ocean battling not alone with the often ferocious bullsperm whale,
but also in the Arctic Ocean with the dangers of ice and storm,
accident and starvation. Not alone did their hardihood bring wealth to
this city, but when the nation called for men to man her ships of war
and go forth to battle for endangered liberties, then the nation
turned its eyes to the sturdy and danger disciplined seamen and they
carried the standard and sword as nobly as they had carried oar and
harpoon. In the conflicts of 1775 and 1783, of 1812, and of "61to '65,
they gave their strength to preserve the Union. In '61 the
"Shenandoah," a Confederate privateer, captured and burned 50 ships in
the Behring Straits and 28 of these were from New Bedford. The whalers
had not yet learned of the war. This brought them the news and the
rest hurried home and gave their ships to the government to form the
Stone Fleet which was sent out from New Bedford filled with stones and
sunk in the Confederate harbors while the men joined with Farragut and
Grant and Capt. Winslow and wiped the Confederate fleet off the sea.
But what of the mothers of our Chase family? If it be great to leave
home for years and fight dangers, what does it mean to stay at home
and work and wait for long years for the father and son to return. I
have some letters of my fathers first wife, preserved by my own
mother, which show the picture of the battle that went on in a woman's
soul to be brave and true and prudent with the master on the high
seas. I have his letters to her as he put in at various Pacific Ocean
ports on his way around
Cape Horn. Oh, I tell you, only great men were fit to be husbands of
such great women. How they sometimes must have felt as they stood and
watched as the father and sons sailed out from port and were never
heard of more or, if heard from, only through the casual report of
some passing vessel. They sailed on those ships, which according to
the beautiful language of Irving "have too truly gone down amidst the
roar of the tempest; Their bones lie whitening among the caverns of
the deep. Silence and oblivion, like the waves, have closed over them
and no one can tell the story of their end."
These men laid the foundations of spiritual courage which made
possible that great story of the passed year and that heroism which
for a generation will be called "Titanic bravery." the bravery of
disciplined sailors who go down with the ship. To have descended from
such men is indeed a glorious birthright and calls upon us to live a
glorious life."
Jeffrey Chace
http://www.chace.demon.nl