The following was transcribed by Beth Hurd to the Rhode Island mailing list. I thought it would be of interest here. Rochelle Jacobs _____________________________________________________ from History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Biographical NY: The American Historical Society, Inc. 1920 pp. 381 - 382: "ARNOLD BUFFUM CHACE -- Three generations of the Chace family have been the owning and managing heads of the Valley Falls Company, a cotton manufacturing corporation of Valley Falls, R. I. The brothers, Harvey and Samuel B. Chace, founded the business under the firm name H. and S. B. Chace in 1839, but on the death of their father, Oliver Chace, in 1852, they incorporated with another brother, Oliver Chace, and organized the Valley Falls Company, to hold the property left them by their father. They located the plant on the Cumberland side of the Blackstone, and also purchased property on the Smithfield side. H. and S. B. Chace bought the Albion Mills, and by a division of the properties of the brothers in 1868, Samuel B. Chace became the owner of the Valley Falls property. He was succeeded by his son, Arnold Buffum Chace, the present treasurer of the Valley Falls Company. And Edward Gould Chace is associated with his father as assistant treasurer of the company. The earlier business experiences of Harvey Chace and his brother, Samuel B. Chace, included a failure with ability to pay but 80 per cent. of their liabilities, but with the founding of the Valley Falls Company came the restorations of their fortunes, and when they had fully regained their financial equilibrium, the old debtors were hunted up and the unpaid 20 per cent. was paid in full with interest. There are other monuments standing to perpetuate the memory of the Chace brothers, but nothing finer than the foregoing. It was under the superintendence of Samuel B. Chace that the curved stone dam across the Blackstone river at Valley Falls was built in 1854, a substantial work which will long stand as evidence of his thoroughness as a builder. Another tribute to the memory is of a different type and offered by one of the great men of the Abolition movement of the ante-Civil War period, William Lloyd Garrison, who said in part at the funeral of Samuel B. Chace, who died December 17, 1870: 'Yet not ten but thirty-five years since one departed friend in the darkest and stormiest period of the Anti-slavery conflict gave his adhesion to the cause. From that day his door and heart were open to the proscribed advocates of the oppressed, and in the face of the iniquitous Fugitive Slave Law, his home was converted into a station house on a branch of the underground railroad running from New Bedford to Canada, and no efforts were wanting on his part to make it a safe retreat; what a blending of moral courage with rare gentleness of disposition.' Arnold Buffum Chace, of the eighth American generation of the family founded by William Chace, who came from England with Governor Winthrop and his fleet in 1630, is a son of Samuel B. and Elizabeth (Buffum) Chace, and a grandson of Oliver and Susanna (Buffinton) Chace; Oliver Chace was a son of Jonathan Chace, son of William Chace, son of William Chace, the founder. Arnold Buffum Chace was born at Valley Falls, town of Cumberland, R. I., November 10, 1845, and is yet (1919) an honored business man and citizen of Providence, R. I. He began his education under private tutorage, then entered a Hopedale, Mass., boarding school, and under private teachers completed preparation for college. He entered Brown University in 1862, pursued a full classical course, and in 1866 was graduated A. B., and the year following graduation he spent in study in the chemical classes of Lawrence Scientific School in Cambridge, Mass. The next year following, he was a student in the chemical laboratory of the Ecole de Medicine in Paris, France. His next period of study was under Professor Shaler, of the Aggariz Museum of Cambridge, Mass. These years of study indicate the passion of his life, and years have not abated his thirst for study and research, although added business responsibilities have been carried constantly since the year 1869, when he was elected treasurer of the Valley Falls Company, founded and developed by his honored father and uncle. He has now held that position for over half a century. He has been a director of the Westminster Bank of Providence since 1871; its president since 1894; is president of the Providence Land and Wharf Company, vice-president and trustee of the old Colony Co-operation Bank of Providence; was for years a director of the National Bank of North America, and is a director of the Manufacturers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Providence. The study of mathematics has been a favored one with Mr. Chace all his life, and one of his published works is a treatise upon 'A Certain Class of Cubic Surfaces Treated by Quarternions', which first appeared in the 'Journal of Mathematics'. He was elected a member of the board of trustees of Brown University in 1876, was chosen treasurer in 1882, serving until 1901, and on October 9, 1907, was elected chancellor of the University, succeeding William Goddard. He yet serves his alma mater in offical capacity, and is a devoted friend of the University, from whence in 1892 he received his degree of Doctor of Science. He is a member of the Review Club, formerly the Browning Club, and is an ex-president, and has contributed many articles on mathematical problems and subjects which were read before the club. While in college he stood second in rank in his class, and all through his life he has retained that position among men of intellectual, scholarly tastes, his nature serious and thoughtful. His characteristics have stood the acid test of the years and high position, and no man in his city is more genuinely respected and honored. Mr. Chace married, October 24, 1871, Eliza Chace Greene, daughter of Christopher A. and Sarah A. Greene, they the parents of three sons: Arnold Buffum, Jr., Malcolm Greene, Edward Gould, and a daughter, Margaret Lily. This review deals with the cause of the youngest son, Edward Gould Chace, of the nine American generation of this ancient and honorable family of New England, long seated in Rhode Island. Edward Gould Chace was born in Providence, October 16, 1882. After completing the courses of University Grammar School in Providence, he attended Morristown School, Morristown, N. Y., whence he was graduated in 1900. He entered Yale University in 1901, continuing until 1903, and was a student at Williams College during the years 1904 and 1905. He then selected a business course, entered the employ of the Valley Falls Company, of which his father is treasurer, as his assistant, so continuing until 1910, when he formed a connection with the Fort Dummer Mills of Brattleboro, Vt., was elected treasurer of that corporation in 1911, a position he yet fills. In 1913 he again became assistant treasurer of the Valley Falls Company, and still retains that connection. In 1918 Edward G. Chace was elected a director of the Westminster Bank of Providence, being there again a contemporary with his father. A Republican in politics, Mr. Chace served as tax assessor of the town of Lincoln, R. I., during the years 1903-08, but in 1912 he joined the progressive movement, and being then in Vermont served as chairman of the Windham County Progressive Committee. He is a member of the Hope, Agawam, Rhode Island County [sic], Yale and Alpha Dela Phi clubs, the Alpha Delta Phi Greek Letter Society, and in religious faith is a Unitarian. Mr. Chace married, at Newport, R. I., October 17, 1906, Christine MacLeod, daughter of Angus and Jessie (MacKenzie) MacLeod. They are the parents of five children: Christine, born April 14, 1909; Eliza Greene, born June 20, 1913; Jessie Macaulay MacKenzie, born Aug. 14, 1914; and Margaret Ward, born Dec. 20, 1917." (transcriber's note: only four children listed) from the RI Historical Cemeteries Database Index: CHACE, SAMUEL BUFFINGTON 1800 - 17 DEC 1870 PV003 CHACE, ELIZABETH (BUFFUM*) 1806 - 12 DEC 1899 PV003 CHACE, ARNOLD BUFFUM 1845 - 28 FEB 1932 PV003 CHACE, ELIZA (GREENE*) 1851 - 9 DEC 1924 PV003 CHACE, ARNOLD B., JR. 1872 - 1 JUL 1950 PV003 CHACE, MALCOLM G. 1875 - 16 JUL 1955 PV003 CHACE, EDWARD GOULD 1882 - 6 APR 1935 PV003 CHACE, CHRISTINE M. (MCLEOD*) 1879 - 24 JUN 1940 PV003 This info is from the internet: Arnold Buffum Chace was chancellor of Brown University from 1907-1932, and was the author of the "Rhind Papyrus", published in 1927. Transcriber's Note: There is a home for battered women in Warwick, R. I., named "Elizabeth Buffum Chace House", or E. B. C. House. She was well known for her anti-slavery activities, and fought for women's suffrage in RI. For more info: http://www.state.ri.us/womens_comm/elizabeth_buffum_chace.htm http://www.osv.org/education/docs/childhood/lovell.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Hurd Johnston, RI USA [email protected] http://www.the-hurds.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ==== RIGENWEB Mailing List ==== Kent County RIGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~rikent/kent.html Search the RIGenWeb Pages http://www.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/search.html