Transcribed verbatim to the best of my abilities. Appreciate attention to any gross errors. That in ( ) my notes. Chapter II Settling IN New Hampshire ...... From Bishop Chase's "Reminiscences" we learn the couple (his parents) lived after their marriage in Sutton (MA) for ten years, before entertaining the idea of going into the northern wilds to seek for a home and lands broad enough to support their rapidly growing family. Even ten years seems too short a time, since the marriage of this young couple, to allow for the birth of seven children "before going to Cornish" We will allow twelve years, and that will bring the date of this fateful journey up to summer of 1765. There were no settlements above Fort No. 4 on the Connecticut River. It seems that Samuel Chase (Dudley's father) and several of his brothers among them Jonathan, who afterwards was a General in the war of the Revolution, accompanied him, or perhaps followed him in his perilous journey through the wilderness, or as far as Fort No. 4, now Charleston in New Hampshire. The men, the descendants of Aquila, must have had the courage of the true pioneer, a courage and faith in the future of their country which have been since fully justified. This beautiful valley of the Connecticut was then a vast forest of evergreens, maples, beech, and birch. The higher hills in Vermont and New Hampshire, clad as they are today in dark hemlock and spruce, were almost Alpine in gloom and mystery, especially when wintry winds and drifting snow clothed everything with their wildness, and the fear of the lurking and savage foe was too real a danger not to dread. Into this land, which had been reached from Mendon or Newbury Sutton (MA), came this colony of Chases. We wonder how it was done, especially by Mistress Allace with her seven children, all of her tender age. Probably the journey of about a hundred and forty miles was made by means of oxen and the two-wheeled carts used by the peasantry in Germany still, and which were used by Vermont farmers in the first half of the nineteenth century. They might be made comfortable for the women and children by means of fur skins, of which the early settlers of Massachusetts had good store in hand. It is quite possible that for a part of the way canoes may have been used, at least above "the narrows" of the Connecticut at Bellows Falls. No doubt these thrifty people had horses and saddles for the women, and a pillion (?) for the older children. ....... I t seems that Dudley Chase and Allace, his wife with seven little children, reached Fort No. 4 at the early summer time, the mother remaining remaining at the fort while the father with his band of workman went up the river sixteen miles to that land of promise, "the township of land," just across from what is now Windsor in Vermont, and in full sight of the dome of Ascutney. It was no wonder that mistress Allace Chase "shuddered" as she reluctantly gave her consent to remain behind at Fort No. 4, while the husband and father went forward with his men, prepared to cut down the trees and build the first home for his family above this little outpost....... (After waiting what would seem a lifetime, Mrs. Chase saw one of the workmen come back in a canoe. She convinced him that she and her children were to go back with him , though that was not the intention. He had been sent to the Fort to get supplies and to find out how the family was) Mistress Allace resumed her story in this way "Pilot Spaulding made fast the canoe to the willows (where Mr. Chase was) and asked us to wait his return. Your father could get no direct answer to his inquiries, ' Is all well? and have you brought us a supply of food? -- "Come and see replied, Spaulding, and as they stood upon the bank he saw beneath the frail bark in which were his wife and children. The emotion of the moment was almost too much; I sprang forward, the little ones following. He received us with joy mixed with agony: 'are you come here to die, ' he exclaimed, 'before your time? We have no house to shelter you, and you will perish before we can build one!' "'Cheer up, my faithful,' I replied, let the smiles and the rosy cheeks of your children, and the health and cheerfulness of your wife make you joyful" If you have no house you have strength and hands to make one. The God we worship will bless us, and help us to obtain a shelter. Cheer up! cheer up! my faithful' (YOU GO GIRL!) (to be continued) Harriet M. Chase hatchase@uswest.net