San Francisco County
Biographies
GEORGE
CHASE
GEORGE CHASE, deputy Treasurer of Alameda county,
was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts,
April 17, 1841, a son of
Moses and Emily (Stickney) Chase. The Chase family was founded in New
England by Aguila, William and Thomas
Chase, who were among the early immigrants. Great-grandfather Chase, a resident
of Maine, made a visit to Newburyport
at the age of ninety-eight, to visit his descendants settled there, and lived a
few years longer, dying at his home in Maine. Grandfather Moses Chase, for many years a
resident of Newburyport, Massachusetts,
lived to the age of seventy-four. His
son, Moses, the father of George Chase, born July 31, 1806, in Newburyport,
was bred to a seafaring life, and being taken with the gold fever in 1849 set
out for California by the ship
Capitol from Boston, January 24, 1849, around the Horn,
arriving in San Francisco on the 19th
day of July. He went to mining for a
while, but was driven out of that pursuit by the mountain fever. Returning to San
Francisco he came across the bay and put up a tent at
West Oakland Point, supporting himself chiefly by hunting. Later he moved his tent to what is now the
foot of Broadway, and finally to what has since been known as Clinton,
where he put up the first frame house, 14 x 24 feet, still in existence as the
extension of his son George’s house at the corner of Fourth
avenue and Ninth street, East Oakland. He and three brothers Patten leased from
Peralta a body of land extending over and beyond what became Clinton. After a few years the land was sold by
Peralta subject to their lease, and they obtained “Clinton”
in settlement of their claim, which they subdivided into building lots and
which was known as Clinton. They also built the first hotel in what is
now known as East Oakland, and the largest on this side of the bay. It was called the Clinton House. This was burned during Mr. Chase’s absence in
the East in 1853, and proved a total loss, there being no insurance in those
days. He returned in 1853 by the Isthmus
route, and his son George followed in 1854, in company with his aunt Mary and
her husband, James Allen. The mother,
Emily (Stickney) Chase, died in Newburyport,
May 11, 1841, when George
was but three weeks old. Grandfather
Enoch Stickney lived to the age of ninety-one.
Moses Chase died February 17,
1891, at the age of eighty-four years, six months and sixteen days.
George
Chase went to school in Newburyport
in his boyhood, and for a few terms, whenever school was held, after he came to
Clinton. In 1856 he worked as an assistant to the
toll-collector on the Twelfth-street bridge, an institution
of those days. He attended the Durant
College and went through the
preparatory department. He then helped
his father on the sloop he owned and used in freighting to and from San
Francisco until 1860.
At the age of eighteen Mr. Chase began to learn the trade of
carriage-painter with A. H. Cochran, receiving $300 the first year, and for the
second year one-third interest, he paying for half the stock. The third year Mr. Cochran went out of the
carriage-painting business and kept a store in which Mr. Chase was a helper for
about one year. He then went to work for
Bangle Brothers, carriage-painters, and in 1965 went to house-painting for
them, the pay being better in that line.
In 1867 he went to work on his own account and hired his former employer,
Cochran, for one day, when they formed the firm of Cochran & Chase,
continuing to August 27, 1868. Mr. Chase then went East, by the Panama
route, chiefly for the rest and recreating, visiting his three maiden aunts
Stickney in Newburyport, going also to Portland and Hallowell, Maine and
Boston, Massachusetts. After an absence
of five months he returned, and having squared up
accounts with his partner he occupied himself in hunting “divers,” for which he
was paid $1.25 each by the manufacturers of ladies collars and muffs. In May, 1869, he formed a partnership with Bransom Bangle, a former employer, under the style of
Bangle & Chase, house-painters and contractor, their Field of labor
covering San Francisco, Oakland
and Alameda. The firm continued
until 1878, dissolving mainly on account of an injury to Mr. Chase’s ankle. He
then obtained the position of copyist under P. R. Borein,
County Recorder,
which he held three and a half years, when he was appointed deputy Treasurer by
James A. Webster, remaining with him from October, 1881, to December 31, 1886. He was appointed to the same
position by Socrates Huff, taking office "the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in January," 1887, and is still filling the position of
deputy to Mr. Huff. Mr. Chase is a member of Orion Lodge, No. 189, I.O.O.F., of
East Oakland. He was married in Clinton,
now of Oakland, December 25, 1869, to Miss Mandana
E. Boynton, born in Hallowell, Maine,
about 1843, of an old New England family. Both parents
lived to an advanced age. Mr. And Mrs. Chase are the parents of three living
children: Mary Emily, born December 20, 1870, a graduate of the Oakland high
school in December, 1889; George Moses, born June 15, 1873, now six feet two
and one-half inches in height (his twin sister, Gertie,
died at the age of eleven months); Albert Boynton, born August 29, 1879.
Transcribed 1-23-05 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 285-286, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2006 Marilyn R. Pankey.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library