Oliver Chace
{{Short description|American businessman}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Oliver Chace
| image = Oliver_Chace.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1769|8|24}}
| birth_place = Swansea, Massachusetts, British America
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1852|5|21|1769|8|24}}
| death_place = Tiverton, Rhode Island, U.S.
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| known_for =
| education =
| employer =
| occupation = Businessman
| title =
| height =
| term =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| party =
| boards =
| spouse = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|Susanna Buffington|September 15, 1796|July 30, 1827|end=died}}|Patience Robinson}}
| partner =
| children = 7
| parents =
| signature =
| website =
| footnotes =
| relatives = {{unbulleted list|Arnold Buffum Chace (grandson)|Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman (granddaughter)|Malcolm Greene Chace (great-grandson)}}
}}
Oliver Chace (August 24, 1769 – May 21, 1852) was an American 18th and 19th-century businessman. He was the founder of several New England textile manufacturing companies in the early 19th century, including the Valley Falls Company, the original antecedent of Berkshire Hathaway, which as of 2019 is one of the largest and most valuable companies in the world.{{Cite web|url=http://fortune.com/2018/05/21/fortune-500-most-valuable-companies-2018/|title = Here Are the Fortune 500's Most Valuable Companies}}
Early life
Chace was born on August 24, 1769, in Swansea, Massachusetts, to Jonathan Chace and Mary Earle, members of well known Yankee families in New England who had come from England in 1630 in the Puritan fleet with Governor John Winthrop. Chace and his family were Quakers (Society of Friends).Elizabeth Buffum Chace, 1806–1899: Her Life and Its Environment, Volume 1 By Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman, Arthur Crawford Wyman (W.B. Clarke Company, 1914), pg. 21
Career
As a young man, Chace worked as a carpenter for Samuel Slater, who established one of the first successful textile mills in the Americas at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1793. In 1806, Chace eventually started his own textile mill in Swansea, Massachusetts, and then the Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufactory in 1813 in Fall River, Massachusetts, and the Pocasset Manufacturing Company in 1821, also at Fall River.[https://books.google.com/books?id=dsgMAAAAYAAJ&q=history+of+fall+river&pg=PA11 A Centennial History of Fall River] He later acquired and reorganized the Valley Falls Company in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, in 1839.
The Valley Falls Company would eventually acquire the Albion Mills, Tar-Kiln Factory in Burrillville, Manville Mills in Rhode Island, and Moodus Cotton Factory in Connecticut.
Chace's sons and nephews would also be involved in the textile industry of Fall River, Massachusetts, and Valley Falls, Rhode Island, as well as other locations in the area.
He was the father-in-law of Elizabeth Buffum Chace, a noted 19th-century activist in the anti-slavery, women's rights, and prison reform movements.[https://books.google.com/books?id=TIF5ACdkeHQC&dq=oliver+chace+valley+falls&pg=PA43 Elizabeth Buffum Chace and Lillie Chace Wyman: A Century of Abolitionist] Through her, he was the grandfather of the mathematician Arnold Buffum Chace and the author and activist Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman.
Chace died on May 21, 1852, and was buried in the Old Quaker Burial Ground in Providence on Olive Street.[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mcmanigle/22832.htm Oliver Chace Family Tree]
Legacy
In 1929, the Valley Falls Company, and others, would combine with the Berkshire Manufacturing Company of Adams, Massachusetts, to become Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates. In 1955, Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates would merge with Hathaway Manufacturing Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts, to become Berkshire Hathaway.
Chace's descendant Malcolm Chace, Jr. was chairman of Berkshire Hathaway when investor Warren Buffett began buying stock in 1962.{{cite journal|last1=Setton|first1=Dolly|title=The Berkshire Bunch|date=October 12, 1998|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1998/1012/6208110a.html|access-date=August 19, 2015}} When Buffett took control of the company in 1965, Chace refused to sell his share and remained on the board of directors.
Personal life
Chace married Susanna Buffington on September 15, 1796. They had seven children together.[https://books.google.com/books?id=uauYBOCKCS0C&dq=oliver%20chace&pg=PA378 History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, J. W. Lewis & Co., 1883] Chace's two eldest sons, Harvey (born 1797) and Samuel Buffington (born 1800) would later follow their father into the textile business.[https://books.google.com/books?id=NegUAAAAYAAJ&dq=oliver%20chace&pg=PA2157 New England families, genealogical and memorial, Lewis historical publishing company, 1915] Susanna Chace died on July 30, 1827. Oliver's second marriage was to Patience Robinson. They had no children.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.projo.com/business/johnkostrzewa/projo_20060709_jk0709.13efc99.html John Kostrzew, "Rich and richer: Berkshire, Buffett and R.I.'s Chace family," Providence Journal, 7/10/2006]
- [http://www.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/article195.html Chace Family]
- [http://www.woonsocket.org/valleyfalls.html History of Valley Falls]
- [http://homepage.mac.com/joepowers/mill/olchace.html Information on Oliver Chace, with portrait]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chace, Oliver}}
Category:American chief executives of manufacturing companies
Category:American textile industry businesspeople
Category:American philanthropists
Category:Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Category:People from Fall River, Massachusetts
Category:People from Somerset, Massachusetts
Category:Berkshire Hathaway people
Category:People from Swansea, Massachusetts
Category:19th-century American businesspeople