USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Cornish > History of the town of Cornish, New Hampshire, with genealogical record, 1763-1910, Vol. I > Part 25
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degrees was granted by the state and the college received its name "Kenyon College" from Lord Kenyon of England who was its largest donor. The tract of land was called "Gambier Hill," in honor of Lord Gambier whose gifts were large. The chapel was "Rosse Chapel" in honor of Lady Rosse of England, who contributed largely to this object. ' The school at Worthington was removed to the new college and thus Kenyon College began its life in 1828.
This college owes its inception, its founding, its growth, its career of usefulness, its honorable record, its rank among sister colleges to the far-sighted sagacity and untiring zeal and energy of Bishop Chase. Never was a greater undertaking so swiftly accomplished by the sole power of one man. There is scarcely a parallel to it in all the history of American educational institutions.
He was a man of heroic mold in every way, physically of gigan- tic proportions, with a strength and endurance seemingly almost fabulous, and with a mind of the same commanding proportions as his body.
He was, in fact, a man of national reputation, both as a scholar and a teacher, and with a personality that commanded the instant attention and respect of everyone.
The original design of Bishop Chase in founding this college was to make it solely a religious institution for the education of the clergy and lay members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, "a school of the prophets." The trustees, on the other hand, were willing, and even desirous that it also serve the purposes of an institution for general education. This gave occasion for a breach between Bishop Chase and his faculty which could not be healed. The latter prevailed, much to the sorrow and disap- pointment of the bishop, who without any contention and for the sake of peace, made the great sacrifice and resigned the presidency of the college and took solemn leave of the same in the early summer of 1832.
For three years he resumed missionary labors as aforetime, but in the summer of 1835 he was notified of an appointment to the Episcopacy of Illinois. At this time there was but one finished church in all Illinois.
Although well advanced in years, Bishop Chase now stood upon the threshold of another vast state beholding her needs.
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The motto on his shield, "Jehovah Jireh" was still untarnished, and he again summoned those wondrous powers to action. He resolved to again visit England for aid. He accordingly sailed October 1, 1835, landing at Portsmouth. He returned the fol- lowing May.
While in England he received many tokens of love and respect, beside much substantial aid for the furtherance of his mission in Illinois.
Like the "Star of Empire," he moved westward and pitched his tent on the fertile prairie lands of Peoria County. Here he purchased 3,200 acres of land whereon he located and erected the new college. He named it "Jubilee College," for, as he says, "that name of all others suits my feelings and circumstances. I left those dear places by me named Gambier Hill and Kenyon Col- lege and now in 1838 I can again blow the trumpet in Zion for joy that another school of the prophets, 500 miles still farther towards the setting sun, is founded to the glory of the Great Redeemer."
In a marvelously short time all the preliminary stages were passed, and the second college founded by Bishop Chase came into successful operation.
Thus two prominent educational institutions of the West, whose influence has been great and world wide, owe their exist- ence to the devoted and sanctified energy of a Cornish boy- Philander Chase.
It is not out of place to add the following from the gifted pen of Marie M. Hopkins, president of the Chicago Branch of the Woman's Auxiliary of the Board of Missions: "Our prairie wind tells us of heroes of Church as well as of State. If you will pardon a personal allusion, my grandmother was Alice Chase, who claimed as her youngest and best beloved brother, Philander Chase, first Bishop of Ohio and later of Illinois. To this pure and sensitive boy, a son of New England's soil, the mystical voice of the unknown beckoned as alluringly as it had beckoned to his great progenitor La Salle, so many years before, La Salle and Chase -Chase and La Salle-they were men cast in the same mold. The voice sounded from the great Middle West, whose broad acres teemed with harvests that could support the world, whose vast plains afforded ample room for a population of millions then unborn. Philander Chase listened to this voice, and came to the Middle West. It is like reading a romance to read the life
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of this great man. He founded Kenyon College and then Jubilee; he worked for years without a salary, supporting his family by the produce of his farm. His Episcopal palace was a log hut which he called 'Robin's Nest,' 'because it was made of sticks and mud and was filled with young ones.' He endured perils by land and perils by water, the deadly pestilence, the violence of the persecutor, doubt and impatience, discouragement and discord and all the devices of the powers of darkness. Obstacles existed before him to be annihilated; hindrance rose in his path to be trampled under foot. Philander Chase did not coo like a dove; he roared like a lion. Even as Richard, that lion-hearted king of old England spent the best years of his life in ridding the Holy Land from the polluting touch of the infidel, so did Philander Chase spend his great strength in wresting the Middle West from the iron grip of heathenism and religious indifference. As long as time shall endure, so long will this portion of the country bear the indelible impress of this lion-hearted Bishop."
But the end came as it comes to all.
On Monday, September 20, 1852, Bishop Chase entered into rest. He calmly approached his end with undimmed eye, and with natural, mental and spiritual forces unabated. His mortal part rests in the cemetery at Jubilee.
SALMON CHASE.
This son of Dea. Dudley and Alice (Corbett) Chase was born July 14, 1761. He was the second of eight brothers, all of whom after obtaining a liberal education became distinguished in the medical, or legal profession, while a portion of these became eminent in the political arena.
The subject of this brief sketch was a graduate of Dartmouth College in the class of 1785, choosing the legal profession for his life work. On leaving college, he went to Portsmouth, N. H., and there studied law in the office of Judge Henry Sherburne.
On completing his studies, he was admitted to the bar and established himself in Portland, Me., then a thriving young town of great promise. Here he continued in the practice of his pro- fession until his death, August 14, 1806, at the early age of forty- five. The degree of eminence to which he might have attained had his life been prolonged is simply one of conjecture, but the
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brilliant talents manifested during his brief career gave assurance of great ultimate success in life.
Mr. Chase was a sound, well-read lawyer and had such a reputation throughout the state that he came to be called the "law-book." His opinions were implicitly relied upon in cases of doubt and difficulty.
James D. Hopkins, Esq., a contemporary, said of him: "He was not only an able lawyer, but he was well versed in all the branches of solid learning; in legal science and in mathematical and metaphysical learning he had few superiors." And further said: "Mr. Chase was held by all his contemporaries in very high respect as a lawyer." His practice was very extensive, more so than any lawyer of the time in the state, and confidence in him was unlimited.
Another contemporary said of him: "Salmon Chase was a sound lawyer, but not an eloquent advocate." He could not plead as well as he knew. By many it was said of him that "he was a kind and amiable man, easy and accessible in his manners and of fine personal appearance. From his sincerity and frank manners he always had great influence with a jury." The late Judge Dawes of Boston said of him that he never saw him enter the court but with feelings of profound respect.
Salmon Portland Chase, his nephew and namesake, was so named to perpetuate his uncle's name, as also the place of residence.
Mr. Chase was twice married. First, to Miss Mary Stinson of Portsmouth, by whom he had one son, George, born September 29, 1800, who graduated at Harvard College in 1818 and com- menced the study of law in Portland with great promise, but died November 11, 1819. The mother had died in 1801. Second, in 1804, he married Mrs. Sarah L. Waldo of Portland, by whom he had one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Doctor Howard of Boston. The mother and daughter and also the son survived him several years.
Mr. Chase's death was very sudden. He was at his office on Monday and on the following Sunday he died of bilious fever.
He was tall, erect and handsome and an excellent model of a lawyer and gentleman of his day. (Extracted from the "Annals of Portland, Me.")
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SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.
CHIEF JUSTICE U. S. SUPREME COURT.
Salmon Portland Chase7 was born January 13, 1808, in Cornish. When eight years of age, he, with his father's family, removed to Keene, N. H. He was but nine years of age when his father died, leaving him to the sole care of his mother. To the praise of this excellent woman it is said "that a Christian's faith and a mother's love, as high and pure as ever ennobled the most famous matrons of history, stamped the character and furnished him the equipment for the labors and triumphs of his life."
His uncle, Bishop Philander Chase of Ohio, assumed for a time the care and expense of his education. This drew him West, where he spent two years pursuing academic studies. He then returned to his mother's charge and entered the Junior class of Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1826 at the age of eighteen. At this time he wrote in his diary: "Knowledge may yet be gained and a golden reputation. I may yet enjoy the consciousness of having lived not in vain. Future scenes of triumph may be mine."
After spending four years in Washington in the study of law and teaching a law student in the office of William Wirt, he was admitted to the bar December 14, 1829, and at twenty-two he established himself at Cincinnati, O., thus transferring once and forever his home from New England to the ruder and more expansive society of the West.
During boyhood's tender years, under the pious instruction of his mother and the inculcations of the bishop, he accepted the Episcopal Church as the body of Christian believers, in whose communions he ever found the best satisfaction. His adherence to the Christian faith was simple, constant and sincere; he accepted it as the rule of his life and no modern speculation ever shook the foundations of his belief. His reliance upon God was evident when laying out all the important plans of his busy and strenuous life. His education had been of a kind to discipline and invig- orate his natural powers. His oratory was vigorous, forcible and earnest, his rhetoric ample, his delivery weighty and imposing. "With him the sum of practical wisdom seemed to be, in regard to all earthly purposes, to discern the path of duty and then pur- sue it. His force of will to accomplish was prodigious, his courage
SALMON PORTLAND CHASE, Chief Justice United States Supreme Court.
Birthplace Salmon Portland Chase.
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to brave, and fortitude to endure, were absolute. Equality of right, community of interest, the reciprocity of duty were to his mind the adequate principles by which the virtue, strength and permanence of society were maintained, and he did not hesitate to oppose vigorously everything that endangered them."
A man possessed of such endowments necessarily confers authority among men, while they are prepared to successfully antagonize the endangerments of great and valued principles.
In the ten years of professional life following his admission to the bar, he established a reputation for ability that in due time brought him high rewards. During this time, in his leisure hours, he compiled the Ohio statutes, then a mighty work.
This period was the quieter part of his life, but was soon broken. The high offices awaiting him were not to be reached by the path of jurisprudence, but by statesmanship. His first political move was, after the death of Harrison in 1841, to make slavery the touchstone of politics and the basis of political action. Neither of the political parties could be pressed into the services of the principles and course of action he believed to be right. Each tolerated slavery, though under different restrictions.
The history, growth and development of the anti-slavery prin- ciple affords a chapter of great interest to the student of our national history. Its adherents bore the names of: "Liberty party," "Abolition party," "Free Soil party" and "Independent Democrats."
The sentiment continued to expand until it culminated in the election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860.
Through all these years Mr. Chase was ever championing the cause of the slave. To him must be awarded the full credit of having resolved upon, planned, organized and executed this political movement, himself either leading or cooperating.
From 1840 to 1849, Mr. Chase was simply a citizen and could expect no political station or honor until it should come from the prosperous fortunes of the party he was striving to create. All at once, by a surprising conjunction of circumstances, he was elevated at a bound to the highest and widest sphere of influ- ence which our political establishment presents, to the Senate of the United States. He entered that body March 4, 1849. A handful of Liberty party men held the balance of power to pre- vent or determine a majority.
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He was the anti-slavery champion of the Senate, whose speeches summed up the calm argument of unflinching anti- slavery men, and spread it through the country in the crises of 1850-54. More than any other man he is credited as being the founder of the Republican party. His term in the Senate ended March, 1855. The highest authority then said of him: "We always counted on his opposition to all corruption or extravagant expenditure and depended on his cooperation to restrain action of the federal government within its proper sphere. He ever showed a consciousness of moral responsibility in all his political services."
His term in the Senate was followed by two successive elections to the governorship of Ohio. In this high station, all the official functions as governor were discharged with benefit to the legisla- tion of the nation and to the administration of the state. At the close of his gubernatorial terms, he was reëlected to the Senate.
The presidential election of 1860 approached. The Republi- can party, the party he had assisted in creating, now took the field for the first time with an assurance of ultimate success.
As a candidate for the presidency, Mr. Seward seemed to lead in public favor, while Mr. Chase, with a following scarcely less, stood second. In the Republican convention in Chicago, May 16, 1860, the chances of these two men were so nearly equal that their friends resorted to a third candidate, and Mr. Lincoln received the nomination and was elected.
Recognizing the mental and moral worth, as also the invalu- able services rendered by these two men, Mr. Lincoln invited both of them into his cabinet, giving Mr. Seward the office of secre- tary of state and Mr. Chase that of secretary of the treasury, which he held three years.
The Civil War was precipitated. The financial problems of these times assumed a magnitude never before known, and seemed to require almost superhuman wisdom to solve them.
Mr. Chase seemed to rise equal to all the requirements of the hour, and his management of the finances of the Civil War was the marvel of Europe and the admiration of our own people.
He resigned the portfolio of the treasury in June, 1864, and on the December following he was appointed chief justice of the United States, which office he held for the remainder of his life.
The distracted and disrupted condition of the country,
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the best policy to pursue in the construction of the same, were problems now confronting all the heads of government, including the judiciary. In all matters brought before the chief justice, even the trial of President Johnson, he displayed the dignity, tact, sagacity and sound judgment befitting his exalted station. "As a constructive statesman, Mr. Chase must ever stand among the greatest Americans." Mr. Lincoln said of him: "Chase is about one and a half times bigger than any man I ever knew."
It is not claimed that Mr. Chase was free from faults, or that his judgment was infallible. This can be claimed by none; but taking his entire record before the world's impartial tribunal, their verdict would be as expressed in the language of his dis- tinguished friend and associate, Hon. Wm. M. Evarts: " A lawyer, orator, senator, governor, minister, magistrate, whom living a whole nation admired; whom dead a whole nation laments. Upon an eminent stage of action, the tenor of his life was displayed on all the high places of the world. The places he filled were all of the highest, the services he rendered were the most difficult, as well as the most eminent."
Mr. Chase was thrice married. His wives were all ladies of the State of Ohio. His first wife was Catharine J. Garniss, whom he married March 4, 1834. She died December 1, 1835, leaving a little girl, who lived only four years longer. September 26, 1839, he married his second wife, Eliza Ann Smith. They had three children: Kate (later Mrs. Governor Sprague) was the only one who lived. Mrs. Chase died September 29, 1845. A third marriage took place November 6, 1846, with Sarah Bella Dunlop Ludlow. Two children were born to them, of whom the only one that lived was Jeanette Ralston (later Mrs. Hoyt). On June 13, 1852, Mr. Chase was again bereft of his wife. Thence- forward he lived a widower to the end.
His last visit to his native town was in July, 1866. A reception in honor of him was held July 24 at Chester Pike's, where, as chief justice, he met his townsmen and friends in pleasant social reunion. The occasion was one of great interest and enjoyment, as the writer, who was there, can testify.
The activities and responsibilities of his strenuous life were proving too much for his physical constitution, and after a second paralytic shock, on May 6, 1873, he died May 7, 1873, at the age of sixty-five.
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WINSTON CHURCHILL.
Winston Churchill, the author of "The Celebrity," "Richard Carvel," "The Crisis," "The Crossing," "Coniston," etc., was born in St. Louis, Missouri, November 10, 1871, only child of Edward Spalding and Emma Bell (Blaine) Churchill. He is of old New England ancestry, being ninth in descent from John Churchill, the ancestor of the Plymouth branch of the Churchill family in America, and on the maternal side is descended from Jonathan Edwards, "the most eminent graduate of Yale College," and amongst whose descendants are numbered the presidents of ten colleges and universities, a remarkable and unequalled record.
Mr. Churchill was educated at Smith Academy, a well-known private school in St. Louis, connected with the Washington University, and later was appointed to the United States Naval Academy at the age of eighteen and graduated in the class of 1894. The year after he entered the Naval Academy, he organ- ized and was captain of the first eight-oared crew which repre- sented the navy and revived at Annapolis the sport of shell racing which had been dead since the seventies.
The chief qualities which are inculcated into a youth at the United States Naval Academy are self-reliance and determina- tion, and those graduates of it who have not chosen the navy for their career have usually made eminent successes of what they have elected to do. This is signally true of Mr. Churchill. He had not been a year at the Naval Academy before he became interested in American history and American problems, and before he had finished his course he made up his mind to devote his life and energies to these,-not only with the pen, but as an active participant. Much of the atmosphere and some of the material for "Richard Carvel" was gathered by him while he was still a midshipman, and in the brief intervals between the scien- tific studies and drills he began to read at the Naval Academy library some of the history which he used in that and subsequent books.
Upon graduating, Mr. Churchill became the sub-editor of the Army and Naval Journal, and within a year was managing editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine at Irvington. In order to devote his time exclusively to the book "Richard Carvel," at which he was then at work, he resigned from the Cosmopolitan. Just
copyright 1907 by HAESELER
WINSTON CHURCHILL.
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about this time he wrote the first of his well-known novels, a humorous sketch called "The Celebrity," and this he submitted to the Macmillan Company. The immediate result of this book was a contract with the Macmillan Company for "Richard Carvel," then unfinished. This book, published in 1899, the first of a series dealing with vital epochs in American history, was so far above the class of the so-called historical novel, the craze for which was then at its height, that it at once raised the author to the front rank of novelists, a place which has been well sustained by his subsequent books, as Mr. Churchill is a painstaking writer. The publication of "Richard Carvel" was followed, after an interval of two years by "The Crisis." Two years later came "The Crossing," that wonderful tale of George Rogers Clarke's conquest of the Northwest, and in 1906 he published "Coniston." We of Cornish feel more than a passing interest in the story of Coniston, this true picture of New Eng- land life and politics. From our hills we can look on Coniston Mountain, can follow the myriad windings of Coniston Water; can even see on a clear day what was once the home of "Jethro Bass," that wonderful, rugged figure around which the story of Coniston is woven. Those of us, and there are many, who hold in loving memory "Jethro Bass" and his wife, "Aunt Listy," are grateful to Mr. Churchill for immortalizing them. "Jethro Bass" had his detractors, but Mr. Churchill is not one of them.
In 1898 Mr. Churchill bought from Leonard Spalding, his farm house, barns, etc., and about one hundred acres of land, this property being formerly known as the Ayer homestead. A part of this land overlooked the Connecticut, and Mr. Churchill cleared the woods at this spot and erected "Harlakenden House," considered to be one of the finest residences in New Hampshire. In 1903 Mr. Churchill purchased the adjoining property, known as the Freeman homestead, and he has now something over five hundred acres, mostly of excellent timber land. Mr. Churchill is gradually foresting this timber land on scientific principles. The Freeman house has been practically rebuilt and is now one of the most attractive and commodious houses in the neighbor- hood. Since making his home in Cornish in 1898, Mr. Churchill has been actively interested in the town's welfare. He has done much for it in the matter of good roads, and any appeal to
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him for the betterment of the town's interests is always met with a hearty response.
Mr. Churchill represented the town of Cornish for two suc- cessive terms in the Legislature from 1903 to 1907. At the con- clusion of his second term, he had planned a temporary rest and retirement from polities, but he was appealed to by prominent men in Claremont and surrounding towns to be the candidate for the state Senate from this district. Looking upon this appeal as a duty not to be lightly disregarded, he acceded, making it a condition, however, that if he were elected he would do his utmost to aid in any movement tending to "put the power of govern- ment into the hands of the people where it belongs." The direct result of this announcement, strengthened by the effect of "Conis- ton," which had just been published, was an invitation signed by such eminent and conservative citizens of the state as the Rev. W. W. Niles, bishop of New Hampshire, Prof. James F. Col- by, head of the law department of Dartmouth University, and others, asking Mr. Churchill to be a candidate for governor on a reform platform. Mr. Churchill was a young and courageous man, and an indefatigable worker during his terms in the Legislature, and it was believed that his name would give the reform move- ment an impetus which could be gained in no other way. And so it proved. Mr. Churchill, as the candidate of the Lincoln Republican Club, inaugurated campaign methods which were an innovation to New Hampshire, delivering on an average of ten speeches a week, besides writing weekly articles for the news- papers. It was a short campaign-of only six weeks duration, -- but the results of that vigorous six weeks were far-reaching. Mr. Churchill and his associates in the campaign had no idea that he would be elected-that was not the end for which they were work- ing, but the people were aroused, as the people will be at times, and here was the opportunity to lay facts before them, which they did. The sole issue, as it is almost needless to say here, was the control of the state government by the Boston and Maine Railroad, a control which had existed for so long, that by most people it was accepted as a state of things which must be endured because it could not be cured. Never was such a convention known in New Hampshire as followed that memorable campaign of six weeks. Unlike previous conventions, the results were not known the night before. The principles of the Lincoln Republi-
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