USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. IV > Part 16
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voyaging around Cape Horn. He was numbered with the famous forty miners, but after sharing the vicissitudes of a miner's life for a few months re- turned home by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Later on he took up the study of medicine as a disciple of the Hahnemannian doctrine and com- pleted his professional education at the old Cleve- land Homoeopathic Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio. the second institution of its kind in the country. He practiced a year in Richmond, Vir- ginia, and in 1856 settled in the town of Henniker, New Hampshire. In 1871 he removed to Hillsbor- ough Bridge, and lived there until his death. In 1890, in association with his only son, James P. Chase, he established The Messenger, and con- tinued the publication of that newspaper until the death of his son in 1876. Dr. Chase married Frances S. Vose, of Francestown, New Hampshire. She was born September 7, 1831, and died July, 1890. They had three children. James P. . Chase. their only son, was born in Richmond, Virginia, February 2, 1856, and died in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, November 1, 1876. He was a young man of much promise, had many friends and was considered one of the best practical printers in Hillsborough county. Emma Frances Chase, their elder daughter, was born in Henniker, New Hamp- shire, July 7. 1859, and married, February 23, 1891, Charles William Thompson (see Thompson III). Alice Pearson Chase, their younger daughter. was born in Henniker, New Hampshire, August 28, 1862, and married Ira P. Smith, of Boston, Massa- chusetts. They have one daughter, Emma G.
(VI) Ensign Moses, eleventh and youngest child of Aquila (2) and Ann (Wheeler) Chase, was born December 24, 1663, in Newbury, Massachusetts. He was married November 10, 1684. to Ann Follons- bee, and settled in what is now West Newbury, on the main road, about one hundred rods above Bridge street (present). A large majority of the Chases in the Uniter States are said to be his descendants. He died September 6, 1743. Ann Chase was admitted to the Newbury Chuch in 1698, and died April 15. 1708, at the birth of a son. Her tombstone at the old "Plains" graveyard in Newburyport, Massachu- setts, which has this date, is the oldest one known bearing the name of Chase. Mr. Chase was married (second), December 13, 1713, to Sarah Jacobs, of Ipswich. Mr. Chase's will was made July 3. 1740. in which he mentions his grandson but no wife, from which it is inferred that he survived his second wife. His children were: Moses (died young) and Daniel (twins), Moses, Samuel, Elizabeth, Stephen, Hannah, Joseph and Benoni. (Samuel. Joseph and Daniel and descendants receive extended mention in this article).
(VII) Moses (3), third son and child of Moses (2) and Ann (Follansbee) Chase, was born Jan- uary 20, 1688, in Newbury, Massachusetts. now West Newbury, and died September 17, 1760. He lived on the east half of the homestead. . He married, October 12, 1709, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Thomas and Mary (Perkins) Wells, of Amesbury, granddaughter of Thomas Wells, the settler. who came over in the "Susan and Ellen" in 1635, and settled at Ipswich. She was born December 17, 1688. in Amesbury, and died May 31. 1755. Their children were: Wells, Moses, Seth, Humphrey, Elizabeth, Eleazer, Anne (died young), Daniel, Anne, Rebecca and Abigail.
(VIII) Moses (4). second son and child of Moses (3) and Elizabeth (Wells) Chase, was born July 1, 1713, in Newbury, Massachusetts. and died on the old homestead where he had lived, October
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9, 1789. He married, December 9, 1736, Judith Bartlett, daughter of Captain Richard and Mar- garet (Woodman) Bartlett, who was born in New- bury, March 10, 1713, and died February 18, 1785. They had ten children: Wells, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Jchn, Judith, Waters, Stephen, Enoch, Joshua and Moses.
(VIII) Isaac Chase, son of Daniel Chase, of Amesbury, was born in Amesbury, about 1732, and between 1763 and 1773, removed with his two broth- ers, Abner and Daniel, to Warner, New Hampshire, where he settled and became a leading man in the town. He often served as moderator of town meet- ings, and as a selectman. He was also one of the early representatives of the "classed towns."
(IX) Isaac (2), son of Isaac (I) Chase, was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, in 1764, and re- moved with his parents in childhood to Warner, and was a life long farmer in that town.
(X) Henry, son of Isaac Chase, was born in Warner, July 17, 1800. He was a farmer and re- sided in Warner. He married Hannah Palmer, who born in Warner. She was the daughter of Timothy Palmer, an early settler of Warner. Eight children were born of this marriage and grew up.
(XI) Daniel Aquilla, son of Henry and Hannah (Palmer) Chase, was born in Warner, December 31, 1839. He was educated in the common schools of. Warner, and at Phillips Andover Acadamy. In 1850 he removed to Boston and went into the em- ploy of the Roxbury Distilling Company. In- 1858 he entered into the business of distilling for him- self in Charlestown, and carried on that business until after the close of the war of the Rebellion. He then went west and started the largest rum dis- tillery in the world at Louisville, Kentucky, which he operated, employing many men and turning out annually a product of thousands of barrels. making a large revenue to the government. In politics Mr. Chase was a Republican, and was a stalwart sup- porter of the party and a liberal contributor to its success in pecuniary contributions. He was a mem- ber of the Republican Club, the Home Market Club, the Society of Colonial Wars, and the Society of Sons of the American Revolution. He was a mem- ber of the Masonic order and attained the thirty- second degree, and also of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married Mary L. Hoxie, daughter of Benjamin and Hoxie, of Maine. (IX) Wells, oldest child of Moses (4) and Jit- dith (Bartlett) Chase, was born in Newbury, now West Newbury. Massachusetts, September 9, 1737, O. S., on the old Chase farm where his father and grandfather were born and where his great- grandfather settled and died. At the age of six- teen he was apprenticed to learn the trade of house carpenter. In the year 1754 he enlisted under Gov- ernor Shirley, who went up the Kennebec to keep order among the Indians, taking twenty days' pro- visions, his arms, ammunition and blanket on his back. In 1758 he went into the army during the French war, marched to Lake George, and was in the battle of Ticonderoga under General Aber- crombie. He was married, February 2, 1760, to Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Illsley) Hovey and in 1771 moved to Chester, now Au- burn. New Hampshire. settling on a fifty-acre lot purchased from Joseph Basford, in a region that had been but little, if any, improved by the pio- neers. He died December 28, 1824. His wife was born September 8, 1737, O. S., and died October 5. 1814. Their children were: Benjamin Pike and Hannah. The latter died at an early age.
(X) Benjamin Pike, oldest child of Wells and Sarah Hovey) Chase, was born on "meeting-house hill," in Newbury, Massachusetts, now West New- bury, June 28, 1762. His school privileges were fair for that time, one of his teachers being the eccentric master, Simeon Chase, a widely known in- structor of the period. When he was nine years of age the family moved to Chester, New Hamp- shire (now Auburn) after which time his school advantages were very limited. It may be assumed that the occasion of the removal from the fertile valley of the Merrimac was the state of the family exchequer as the amount of money necessary to purchase a garden spot in Newbury would pay for many acres of rocky land in the Chester woods. As indicating the necessity for economy it may be noted that in the construction of the house on ac- count of the scarcity of nails, some of the floors were laid with wooden pins which may be seen today. The house is still in good condition and good for another century of use but has recently passed out of the name of Chase. Under this roof his father and mother, three wives, two children and himself died, and with one exception. He was a man of strong individuality, philosophical, prac- tical, of sterling integrity, and was often intrusted with public duties, serving as tax collector for town and parish, selectman and deputy sheriff. He united with the Presbyterian Church in 1814. in 1819 was chosen ruling elder, and in 1825 visited his two sons living in Maryland and attended the general assembly of the church as a delegate. From 1840 to 1850 he annuallly visited for several weeks his son, Stephen, then professor of mathe- matics at Dartmouth College, where he indulged to the fullest extent his taste for reading scientific and other works. At the age of eighty-nine he visited the widow of the professor, who had died a few months previously. He was social in his feelings, and greatly enjoyed making and receiving visits. When the temperance cause was first agitated in Chester, in 1829, he declined to enter into it, and its interference with the social drinking custom was one of his objections, but when he found that the drunkards were citing him as an example, he aban- doned the use of all intoxicating drinks, and was a strong .and consistent advocate of total absti- nence the rest of his life. He early became inter- ested in the anti-slavery movement and aided in forming a society in Chester in 1835, and continued a firm advocate of the freedom of speech and the press, and the same laws and privileges for both white and black. He was not of robust physique, being rather tall and slight of frame, yet he usually was blessed with good health, doubtless resulting largely from his active and temperate habits. He did not complain of the pains usually incident to old age, and sat up all the day before his death. He was up and dressed the next morning, but soon laid down and passed away as quietly as going to sleep, March 16, 1852, lacking but three months of ninety years. As showing the great vitality of the family it can be said that the average age at death of seven children was eighty-four years and tivo months, and of nine, over seventy-six years, two of the eleven children having lived but a short time.
The children by the first wife were: Moses and Wells: and by the second: John, Stephen (died young), Sarah, Benjamin, Molly and Pike; and by the third: Anna and Stephen. (The last with de- scendants is mentioned in this article).
(XI) Benjamin (7), sixth child and fifth son of Benjamin Pike and Anna (Blasdell) Chase. was born in that part of Chester which is now Auburn,
B. Pche Chase
Benj. Chaveiro
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July 7, 1799, and died May 5, 1889, aged nearly ninety. "The first twenty-six years of his life were spent on his father's farm. His education, as stated by him, was limited to about eight weeks each winter. after the age of twelve, at the common school, kept in a house fifteen by sixteen feet, rough boarded and ceiled, with three windows of nine panes each, a smoky chimney. and warmed by burning green wood, which lay out in the snow until needed. The writing desks were planks or boards, one edge fastened to the wall of the house and the other supported by legs inserted in auger holes, and stools with legs for seats. Three terms previously, in summers at private schools taught by a woman, made up the sum of his school days. Before going to any school he had of his own voli- tion, and practically unaided, mastered the common school arithmetic as far as the 'rule of three,' in the absence of a slate, using a board and chalk." In his reminiscences he writes further: "In 1816 I borrowed from Stephen Chase, Esq., an English work on Geometry, Trigonometry and Surveying. and went through that in the school house, but without a teacher, just for the pleasure of it and without the least idea of any practical advantage. I also studied navigation. In the summer of 1816 my brother John and my father had a controversy on some point of astronomy, and to settle it father went to Chester to the town library and got Ferguson's Astronomy, which contained rules for calculating new and full moons and eclipses. I thought that it would be a pleasant thing to know how to do it. From the tables certain elements are obtained, and then a geometrical projection is made. As the book must be returned I had to copy the tables, and now have them. I calculated the eclipses for several years, and have several of the pro- jections now. I had no other instruments than a two foot Gunter scale and a pair of brass dividers .. If I wished to draw a circle I had to tie a pan to one leg of the dividers. These studies, pursued merely for the pleasure of them, have proved of great practical utility to me. In 1818 Stephen Chase, who had done all of the land surveying for many years, failed in health and I took it up and did much for several years, which prepared me to write and make the map for the History of Ches- ter. These studies also prepared me to understand the science of the millwright's trade."
His son writes of him: "Being a descendant on his mother's side of two generations of clock mak- ers. he was a mechanic by inheritance. In 1825 he found temporary employment as a millwright, which led him into that line of business for the remainder of his most active life, and during those years he made many improvements in the sawmills and grist mills that were in use preceding his time. He also procured the necessary tools and finished the house which became his residence on his marriage, and was his home to the end of his life.
"When the story of the Chase fortune in Eng- land was proclaimed, about 1846, Mr. Chase, though giving no credence to the report, became interested to look up the genealogy of his ancestry and the different lines descending from Aquila. This he made complete for his own line and collected much more for connecting lines, making very thorough search of real estate and probate records, and mak- ing maps of old Newbury, Cornish, New Hamp- shire, and other places, and thus locating the resi- dences of many of the earlier generations. Dr. John B. Chace, of Taunton, Massachusetts, did much work in the same line at the same time, and the product of their labors is now deposited with the
New England Historic-Genealogical Society in Boston, awaiting a master hand to complete and publish them.
"In 1864 he began the work of compiling the History of Chester, New Hampshire, 1719-1869, with a map of the original proprietors' lots, de- voting to the work the time not occtipied in his regular vocation. This was published as a volume of seven hundred pages in 1869, and is regarded as one of the best of town histories.
"Mr. Chase was a man of sturdy frame and great earnestness of purpose. One of the rules of his life was the scriptural injunction, 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.' Another was, 'I first endeavor to ascertain my duty and then do it.' He knew no idle hours. Pushing his business in working hours, he devoted all others but those for sleep to intellectual and social enjoyment. Though doing a great amount of laborious work in his occupation as millwright, he so kept an even balance of physical and mental effort, that his strength was well preserved and his mind clear un- til near the end, at two months less than ninety years. Though mathematical and philosophical in his tastes, his character was well rounded out by the development of moral and literary qualities. In his early manhood he heard a discourse on the sub- ject of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, and at once not only adopted that principle in his practice but confined himself mainly to water as a beverage the remainder of his life.
"When the doctrine of immediate emancipation of the slaves was proclaimed by William Lloyd Gar- rison, it was embraced by Mr. Chase, as well as that of non-resistance and woman's rights, and he often contributed articles on those subjects to the Liberator and the Herald of Freedom."
He married, March 2. 1826, Hannah Hall, who was born February 18, 1789, and died February 25, 1876, aged eighty-nine years. daughter of Moses K. and Lucretia (Currier) Hall, of Chester. Their children were: Caroline, Louise and Benjamin. Caroline (8), born September 14, 1828, married, December 16, 1847, Charles, son of Joseph Chase. (See Chase XI).
(XII) Benjamin (8), son of Benjamin (7) and Hannah (Hall) Chase, was born August 18, 1832. He grew to manhood on the paternal estate in Au- burn, attending the district school in his boyhood and youth. Subsequently he attended for several winter terms a select school at Lee, New Hamp- shire, where he profited by the instruction of that magnetic .and progressive educator, the late Moses A. Cartland. With only brief interruptions he aided his father in the work upon the home farm and in the millwright business until his twenty-first year. Early recognizing his distaste for agricul- tural pursuits he was encouraged by his father in a free use of the mechanical tools in the home work- shop, and developed much skill in that line so that at the early age of fifteen he began to engage in mechanical work by the day. At the termination of his period of schooling he gratified the craving to go to sea that is felt by many a country lad and made a voyage before the mast from Boston to Mobile, Alabama, and thence to Liverpool, England, which experience he now considers was a very practical and beneficial graduation into life's higher school. On his return he continued further me- chanical service in conjunction with his father un- til 1855, after which he was employed as a mill- wright in various textile manufactories in New Hampshire and Massachusetts until 1867, when he laid the foundation of a manufacturing business
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in Derry which has had an unpretentious but uni- form and sound growth, and at the end of nearly forty years' occupation of its distinctive field has been recently incorporated as The Benjamin Chase Company, its progenitor being the president of the company. As a manufactory of certain specialties in wood it is the largest and best equipped con- cern in existence with a world-wide demand for its products, and the intricate and delicate pieces of mechanism which make up the plant's installation are the creation of the proprietor's inventive gen- ins and industry, being all the product of his own brain. Of Mr. Chase personally it can be said with- out exaggeration that he would be a man of note in any community on account of his varied abili- ties, his sterling characteristics and his works in every good purpose. A man of extremely retiring disposition and averse to office-holding he is never- theless sought out by his townsmen for counsel and suggestion in matters of public concern and is extensively known throughout southern New Hampshire. Of late years he has spent the winter months in travel, Havana, Alaska, the Orient and Mexico having been visited, and the rewards of an active and well-spent life are now being enjoyed. He married, June 17, 1875, Harriett Davenport, daughter of Jared and Thankfull (Story) Fuller, of Dunbarton, who was born August 8, 1833. They have one daughter, Harriett Louise, born January 22, 1881. She is a graduate of Abbott Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, in the class of 1903, mar- ried Dr. Charles E. Newell, of Derry, January 22, 1907, and resides in Derry.
(XI) Stephen, oldest child of Benjamin Pike and Mary (Chase) Chase, his third wife, was born in Chester, now Auburn, New Hampshire, August 30, 1813. As a boy he was exceedingly precocious, learning the alphabet before he was two and one- half years old, and at four years having read through the New Testament. At the age of twelve he was sent to the Pinkerton Academy at Derry, which was then under the charge of Preceptor Abel F. Hildreth, a most thorough instructor. When fit- ted for college he, on account of his youth, re- mained at home on the farm a year or two before resuming his studies, and finally at the age of six- teen entered the sophomore class at Dartmouth College, and graduated in 1832. He entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, but soon engaged in teaching in Virginia, where he remained a year. going thence to Baltimore, Mary- land, for the year 1834. He then accepted a situa- tion in the academy at Gorham, Maine, from whence he returned to the Andover Seminary, but after a brief stay accepted the appointment as principal of the academy at South Berwick, Maine, where he first met the young lady who later became his wife. In the spring of 1838 he was appointed tutor in Dart- mouth College, and in June of the same year profes- sor of mathematics, which position he held until his death. Although mathematics was his profession and his favorite science, he was well versed in sev- eral languages, as well as the various subjects under discussion in the scientific world. In religion he was orthodox without austerity, bigotry or supersti- tion, being ready to examine any subject and to re- ceive whatever there was evidence to sustain. He early engaged in the temperance and anti-slavery reforms. He had a great thirst for knowledge for its own sake and had a mind to grasp whatever came within its reach. He was of a very social nature. and won the esteem of all who knew him. Though rather frail in constitution he had, by
judicious care, maintained a good degree of health until in the later years. In addition to his duties he had prepared a treatise on algebra which was pub- lished in 1849 and used as a text book in the col- lege for many years. By this extra work he had run too near the margin of his strength. His health failed several months before his death, but though no serious apprehension was felt as to the immediate result, the vital forces failed and he died, suddenly to his friends, and lamented by all who knew him, January 7, 1851. He married Sarah Thompson, daughter of General Ichabod Goodwin, of South Berwick, Maine, August 31. 1838. She was born December 8, 1809, and died August 17, 1890. They had two sons: Frederick, born Sep- tember 2, 1840, and Walter Wells, born May 28, 1844.
(XII) Frederick, oldest child of Stephen and Sarah T. (Goodwin) Chase graduated at Dart- mouth College in 1860. He was assistant professor of chemistry for a short time, and then taught school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Returning to Hanover, he read law in the office of Daniel Blais- dell, Esq., until his appointment to a position in the second auditor's office in the United States treas- ury in 1861. In August, 1864, he was transferred to the office of the secretary of the treasury. In Octo- ber, 1866, he began to attend the Columbia College Law School in Washington, and graduated in June, 1867, with the degree of LL. B. and took up the practice of law in Washington. In the spring of 1874 he returned to Hanover, where he resided until his death, January 19, 1890. He was elected treas- urer of Dartmouth College, and was appointed judge of probate for Grafton county in 1876. both of which positions he held during the remainder of his life. He was also a director in the Dartmouth Na- tional Bank and a trustee of the Dartmouth Savings „Bank, and a member of the constitutional conven- tion of 1889. He delivered the historical address at the centennial of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of the college in 1887. He was greatly interested in local history, and had been engaged for several years in the preparation of a "History of the Town and Col- lege," a labor which he prosecuted with zeal and en- thusiasm. The first volume was practically com- pleted and appeared soon after his death, and is considered a work of rare excellence and a monu- ment to the indefatigable and thorough work of the author. It is a source of great regret that the in- timelv end of the author left the second volume in- complete. He married, November 9, 1871, Mary Fuller Pomeroy, of Detroit, Michigan, danghter of Dr. Thomas Fullet and Mary Anne (Hoadly) Pomeroy. They had six children: George Hoadly (died young), Stephen, Theodore, Mary Hoadly, Frederick and Philip Hartley. The sons are all graduates of Dartmouth College, the alma mater of their grandfather and father. Stephen gained the championship of the world in high hurdling while in college.
(VII) Samuel, fourth son and child of Moses (2) and Ann (Follansbee) Chase, was born May 3, 1690. in Newbury, and died there July 24, 1743. He was married December 8, 1713, to Hannah Em- ery, and they had eight children, namely: Francis, Amos, Hannah, Mary (died young), Anna, Samuel, Mary and Betty.
(VIII) Francis, eldest child of Samuel and Hannah (Emery) Chase, was born in Newbury, Angust 18, 1715, and died in Newtown. He married Sarah Pike, and settled in Newtown (now Newton, New Hampshire), at that time a frontier settle-
Samuel Chiave
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ment. They had twelve children: Hannah, Sam- uel, Amos, Francis, Joseph, Abner, Simeon, Sarah, Betty, died young, Daniel, Betty and Ruth.
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