The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-29
memories OF
uncle SOLON Chase
The Maine Greenbacker in
a Reminiscent
Mood.
INDIAN GRANDMOTHER
Tells of His Ancestry and
Early Life Glimpses of
Pioneer Days.
INDIAN GRANDMOTHER

I have lived in this busy world more
than so years. When 1 was SO years
old knew so much I could not learn
any more. Now that l am past 80, /
see so much to learn that I am hardly
sure of anything -only the Sermon on
the Mount and the multiplication ta-
bic. In my so years 1 have marked the
progress Of the human race, sometimes
with slow and uncertain steps, some
times with giant strides. A year that is
past is only one more thread in the
skein of human life tied back in the
records of the gone forever. A life of 81
years is only dot In the scale Of
time. / have seen small saplings grow
to large timber sticks without care OF
culture The law Of Nature that makes
a sapling grow to timber stick is In
the line of progress, and those things
that have come to us that make life
sweeter and better have come through
a better understanding of the laws and
forces of Nature Natures storehouse
is hardly yet unlocked, but the door
will be swung wide open when we
learn to love our neighbors as our
selves.
1 have lived 81 years on the farm
where 1 was born-a hill farm at the
falls of a river. Chase's Mills took it's
name from my father who came here
in 1920 and built sawmill, kept a
store and cleared up farm, and was
known through the country side as the
cold esquire. My mothers maiden
name was Eunice Chase. Ny mothers
father and my fathers father were
half brothers, sons of Eleazor Chase,
who came from Newburyport, Mass,
to Maine to hunt Indians; he did not
return to NeWburyport, but settled in
Windhan, Me-, Eleazor married a sec
ond wife and my two grandfathers
We're half-brothers.
My grandfather on my mothers side,
Elder Nathaniel Chase, was Calvin
Baptist preacher of the old style; he
was a farmer preacher: he lived the
/ Sermon on the Mount in his every day
! life, but he preached the gospel Of hell
fire and he believed it. After I grew up
l enjoyed his sermons because he be-
lieved what he preached. I had rather
hear man preach hell-fre, if he be-
lieves it, than to hear him preach
brotherly love if he don't believe 1t.
! In 1916 there was frost in every
month of the year and bread famine
seemed inevitable, money was scarce
and corn was scarcer than money. Ell
der Chase was a forehanded farmer
for the times. When young man he
packed gun, an ak and all his pos
sessions on a handsled and walked with
the handsed in tow from Windham
to Buckheld and built a camp in the
wilderness. He cut down the primeval
forests, put in the fire and planted
corn. In 1916 he had rs acres Of burnt
Hand corn and he had corn to spare for
the next wear of frost and famine, but
The would not sell corn to anybody who
had any money. He sold corn only to
the poor, who could not pay, and took
his pay in corn the next year, bushel
for bushel; he sold corn to the man
who stole his sheep at the same rate
he did the rest. No questions were
asked only If the man who wanted corr
had no money. Those who had money
could buy corn elsewhere. He was or
thodox in his creed but in his life, his
heart reached out to the poor and needy
everywhere.
At first he built a log house, then a
small frame house, and later large
two-story house. which to-day stands
as level on it's foundations as 1t die
on the day my mother was born
there.
/ have heard ministers preach who
were so lGng making a point there
would be no point to 1t when they
got there not so with old Elder Chase
He prepared his sermons by talking tc
himself while he was about his farm
work. He preached hell fire so beauti.
fully that you could almost smell the
fumes Of birthstone. If he had lived If
our times he would have squared his
preaching with the life he lived.
Ny grandfather on my fathers side
was Isaac Chase, son of Eleazor half.
brother of Rev. Nathaniel Chase, borr
! in Windham, settled In Standish ant
married a half-breed Cape Cod Indian
The only barbarian blend that 1 know
of in the Chase race dates back to my
grandmother on my fathers side, whose
maiden name was Lois Smith. Hel
father was the master of an East In.
diaman. who sailed out of Salem "a
that time the witch city was bigger
town than Boston, and never returned
leaving his Indian wife and little CIR
on the Cape The Indian mother dice
of a broken heart, and a kind-hearte6
neighbor took the little half-breed In
dian girl to her home and heartstone
A company Of a dozen families on Cap,
Cod gathered up their goods and sailed
by schooner for the Saco river ant
settled in Standish. The family thai
had taken the little half-breed Indian
girl to their home and hearthstone was
one of that company. When the little
Indian girl grew up my grandfather
married the dusky maiden and settled
in the Cape neighborhood. The old
homestead where my grandfather
brought his dusky bride is on the road
from Standish Corner to the Saco riv-
er at Bonny Eagle
When my grandfather had built q
log house and raised crop of burnt
loud ooro ha ranrriad tho Indian cr,rl