San Joaquin County
Biographies
GILMAN CHASE
GILMAN CHASE, merchant of
Bellota, was born in New Hampshire, October 9, 1835, a son of John Taylor
Gilman and Lucinda (McQuesten) Chase. The father was a farmer in Litchfield,
New Hampshire, of which State he was a native, and died there in 1840, aged
forty years. The mother, also a native of that State, came to California in
1860, and lived here nineteen years. She was born in 1805 and died in 1879, in
the house of her son Daniel, in Murphy’s. This family of Chases traces its
decent from Aguila, who with his brothers John and James, were of the English
emigration of 1630. The subject of this sketch came to California in 1856, and
followed mining for twelve years on the San Antonio river, in Calaveras County,
about three miles from Murphy’s. An older brother, John S., had come out in
1849. He is now an attendant in the Stockton Insane Asylum. Another brother,
Daniel, who came out in 1854, is still mining at Douglas Flat, where he owns a
hydraulic claim, and resides in Murphy’s. When Gilman Chase came out he joined
his brothers in what was known as the Chase Brothers’ Mining Claim, which was
worked by one or more of them from 1850 to 1866. Another claim they worked for
six or eight years, was the one known as the Indian Creek. They got out a lot
of gold, but the claims were expensive to work, and the net result was not very
large. For instance, they ran a tunnel for two years at a total loss. John S.
Chase built a house at a cost of $2,000, for which he was unable to get $150
when the claim was worked out. Another brother, William Walker Chase, went to
sea on a whaler at the age of sixteen, and in 1860 went into the navy. He was
in the navy three years; receiving his discharge at Portsmouth in 1864, he came
to California, but did not like mining, and after one year’s trial went to New
York city, where he obtained a position on one
of the railroads. He died there about 1871, leaving one daughter,
Elizabeth Frances, who came to reside with Mr. Chase at Bellota in 1886. Sarah
E., a sister of Gilman Chase, came to California in 1860, and was married in
1863 to J. K. Doak, then of Calaveras County, and now in the livery stable
business in Stockton. After quitting the mining business Mr. Chase worked five
years as foreman for his brother-in-law, Mr. Doak, and in 1874 came to Bellota,
where he served six years as clerk in the general store in which he is now the
owner. He bought a half-interest in 1881, and the second half in 1883. The
partner had been postmaster for three years, and Mr. Chase has filled the same
office over six years, his appointment dating March 26, 1883.
Mr. Chase was married September 27, 1884,
to Miss Clara A. Willets, a native of Illinois, born in 1854, a daughter of A
----- and --------- (Doak) Willetts, who came across the plains to California
in that year, she and her twin sister being about six months old. They settled
in Calaveras County, two miles this side of Valley Springs, on the Mokelumne
Hill road. Mr. Willetts carried on the Lunch Hill Tavern, and became the owner
of 1,300 acres. The mother died at that place in 1880, and the father died
while on a visit to Illinois in 1882. Mrs. Chase owns 360 acres of the estate
left by her father, which is used by Mr. Chase as a cattle range. Mr. and Mrs.
Chase are the parents of one child, Eva Frances, born November 10, 1885.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 295-296. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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