A bit might be of general interest to those of Windsor County & CT River Valley. Harriet Chase ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lonnie Chase" <chase1858@bwn.net> To: <CHASE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 10:43 PM Subject: [CHASE-L] Note from the chronicles | A note from the Chase Chronicles - Apr. 1926 | "Yielding to the solicitations of the executive committee I have prepared | this article upon Cornish. | | The calendar announcing the Annual Reunion of the Association at Cornish was | sent to members and a few friends the last of March. One of them I sent to a | good friend of mine not a Chase but possessing many of the Chase attributes. | He acknowledged its receipt and congratulated the Association upon its | selecting Cornish as the meeting place for its reunion of 1926 but admitted | he had no idea where Cornish was. Fearing that there may be others in the | same predicament perhaps I can do no better than to locate it | geographically. | | I have heard at some time or other of a gathering of some organization where | toasts were being given to the United States. One member responded | with "the glorious United States bounded on the north by the Great Lakes and | British America, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Mexico | and the Gulf of Mexico and on the west by the Pacific Ocean." One of the | members thinking these boundaries were not broad enough to be in keeping | with "The Grand Old United States bounded on the north by the Aurora | Borealis, on the east by the rising sun, on the south by the procession of | the equinoxes, on the west by the day of Judgment." As this incident | occurred before the passage of the eighteenth amendment, it may be assumed | that the gentleman who tendered it was unnaturally exhilarated. | | In locating Cornish geographically, I shall not attempt any such extravagant | boundaries. It is situated about 43 1/2 degrees north latitude and 72 | degrees west longitude from Greenwich and 5 degrees east of Washington. | | It is practically 6 miles square and contains 23,040 acres. Its northern | boundary is the town of Plainfield in which town is the village of Meriden | where Kimball Union Academy is located. Its eastern boundary is Croyden and | a part of Grantham, its southern boundary is Claremont and its western | boundary is the Connecticut River at low water mark. The low water mark of | the river is 212 feet above sea level. On the opposite side of the river is | the town of Windsor, Vt. Windsor is connected with Cornish by a toll bridge | across the Connecticut River. The nearest R. R. station to Cornish is | Windsor and the P. O. address of many Cornishites is R. F. D. Windsor, Vt. | | The Chase family is entitled to the distinction of giving to Cornish its | first settler, - Deacon Dudley Chace having migrated from Sutton, Mass., in | 1765. His daughter Alice, born Oct. 17, 1765, was the first white child born | in Cornish. Deacon Dudley Chase and Alice (Corbett) Chase were the parents | of fifteen children, - eight were born in Sutton and seven in Cornish. Their | fifteenth child was the great Episcopal Bishop, Philander Chase. | | This family of fifteen in prominence compare favorably with that of any | family that ever lived. Ithamar the father of Salmon Portland chase, sec'y | of the treasury in Pres. Lincoln's Cabinet, was the seventh child of Deacon | Dudley Chase. Deacon Dudley was not the only Chase to rear a large family, - | Judge Samuel Chase was the father of eleven children. Gen. Jonathan eleven, | Solomon eight, Samuel ten, Peter six, Ithamar eleven, Jonathan eleven, Bela | five, George six, Oran Corbett ten, Caleb thirteen, Caleb ten, Joseph ten, | Stephen ten, Daniel nine, Joseph six, Thomas eleven, Moses fourteen, John | fourteen, Paul Davidson who is now serving his thirty fifth term as town | clerk of Cornish. Caleb M. nine, Moody thirteen, Moses nine, Clement | seventeen, Moses eight. | | >From the above statistics it would seem that Cornish furnished sufficient | Chase sentiment to justify our family association in holding an occasional | reunion in the town which contributed to the world so many great and good | men and women. | | The charter for Cornish was granted by George the Third June 3, 1763 and was | incorporated as a town in 1767 and the first town meeting was held March | 10th of the same year. Of the five selectmen elected at this meeting, four | were Chases viz. Judge Samuel, Gen. Jonathan, Dudley and Moses. Judge Samuel | served in that capacity ten years, Gen. Jonathan eight and Moses nine. | | Of the first fifty three years of the town's existence the moderators at | town meetings were Chases on every occasion except nine. These facts prove | conclusively that the Chases of that period at least were leaders not | followers. Many have wondered | why Deacon Dudley in migrating from Sutton went so far north. Why did he not | stop at a more southerly location in the beautiful Connecticut River Valley? | It is not for us to answer this question. The descendants of our ancestor | Aquila located at Newburyport and the Newburys and after populating those | towns with Chases; Daniel Chase commonly called "Miller", Daniel migrated to | Sutton, Mass., where he and his descendants reared large families. | | The question has often arisen in the minds of many of our friends. What | motives could have entered into the minds of the Chases who left Sutton and | went to Cornish? They were evidently well placed where they were. A fertile | country, good water power, and so far as we know, congenial homes. Who told | them of the beautiful town of Cornish in the charming Connecticut River | Valley. We have no evidence that they knew anything about the country to | which they were journeying before they started for it. Was it wholly the | spirit of adventure? Was it the same desire that comes into the minds of | many a young person who has migrated into an unknown western country to make | a home there? | | In the latter case, there has been some good reasons assigned but nothing of | the kind is in evidence in regard to the migration of the Chases from Sutton | to Cornish. Sometimes people remove from one locality to another to rid | themselves of bad neighbors or uncongenial associations. Sometimes to get | into a locality where their children can have better opportunities for | obtaining an education. None of these things explain why Deacon Dudley Chase | migrated from Sutton to Cornish. Our ancestors saw the cloud capped granite | hills of New Hampshire and directly across the Connecticut river the first | and grandest mountain I ever saw, magnificent Mount Ascutney." | Lonnie Chase | chase1858@bwn.net