Warren Chase
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = Studio portrait of Warren Chase.jpg
| name = Warren Chase
| state_senate = California
| district = 3rd
| term_start = January 5, 1880
| term_end = January 8, 1883
| predecessor = Patrick W. Murphy
| successor = George Steele
| state_senate1 = Wisconsin
| district1 = 4th
| term_start1 = June 5, 1848
| term_end1 = January 9, 1850
| predecessor1 = Position Established
| successor1 = John A. Eastman
|birth_date = {{birth date|1813|1|5}}
|death_date = {{death date and age|1891|2|25|1813|1|5}}
|birth_place = Pittsfield, New Hampshire
|death_place = Cobden, Illinois
|death_cause =
|restingplace = Cobden Cemetery
Cobden, Illinois
| residence =
| profession = Pioneer, farmer, politician
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Mary P. White||1875|end=died}}
- Rachel Lukens
}}
| children = 3
| father =
| mother =
| religion =
| alma_mater =
| party = Democratic {{small|(before 1848)}}
Free Soil {{small|(1848–1854)}}
Republican {{small|(1854–1872)}}
Liberal Republican {{small|(1872)}}
Greenback {{small|(1874–1884)}}
Workingmen's {{small|(1879–1883)}}
}}
Warren Chase (January 5, 1813 – February 25, 1891) was an American pioneer, farmer, reformer and politician. He served in the state senates of Wisconsin and California, and was a candidate for Governor of Wisconsin in the election of 1849.
Early life and education
Chase was born in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, on January 5, 1813. He was the son of Susanna Durgin, who was unmarried at the time. His mother was maligned by the community and expelled from the church for giving birth out of wedlock, making it difficult to provide for herself and Warren. Warren's father was Simon Chase, who was married to Huldah Peaslee. Simon Chase fought in the War of 1812 and died at Plattsburgh in the fall of 1814, when Warren was not yet two years old. His mother died only a few years later, when Warren was five.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_ow4AAAAYAAJ |title= The Life-line of the Lone One: Or, Autobiography of the World's Child |last= Chase |first= Warren |publisher= William White & Co. |year= 1868}}
As a child, Warren lived briefly with a Quaker family near Catamount Mountain. But after his mother's death, he became a ward of David Fogg and his family. Warren later described this time as a miserable experience and compared his servitude to slavery. He did not receive an education with the Fogg family, and at age fourteen was still not able to read or write. It was at that age he ran away to his grandmother's home in Pittsfield. Warren's grandmother and other members of the community interceded on his behalf and he was transferred to the care of his paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Chase, where he received a proper education and upbringing.
In 1834 he moved to Monroe, in the Michigan Territory, and then, in 1838, he moved to the Wisconsin Territory, settling in Kenosha (then known as "Southport").
In Wisconsin
File:Warren P. Chase Ambrotype.jpg
In the fall of 1843 the Franklin Lyceum of Southport began discussing the ideas of the French philosopher Charles Fourier and his American popularizer Albert Brisbane.{{cite book|chapter-url= https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/tp/id/46362 |chapter= Sketch of the Wisconsin Phalanx |title= Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at its 50th annual meeting held Dec. 11, 1902 |year= 1903 |location=Madison, Wisconsin |publisher= Wisconsin Historical Society |last= Pedrick |first= Samuel M. |pages= 190–226 |access-date= January 17, 2021 }} Convinced of the applicability of Fourier's "Associationist" prescription, Chase committed himself to the emerging movement without reservation, organizing a series of preliminary meetings to draft a constitution for a local "phalanx."{{rp|192–193}}
On March 23, 1844, a formal meeting of phalanx supporters was held at the Southport village schoolhouse, officers were elected, and a group of three, including Warren Chase, were tapped as trustees of the phalanx.{{rp|193}} A bond sale of $10,000 was approved and stock in the new enterprise began to be sold.{{rp|193}} On May 8, 1844, they decided to purchase 1.25 sections (800 acres) of government land,{{rp|193–194}} located in a valley between two gentle hills. By that fall a total of 1.5 sections (960 acres) were purchased{{rp|194}}which would become Ceresco, Wisconsin (later merged into Ripon).
Chase helped found Ripon College. He was a supporter of the temperance, abolitionist, and spiritualist movements and wrote books and articles.
He served in the two Wisconsin Constitutional Conventions of 1846 and 1847 and was elected to the first Wisconsin Senate from 4th Senate district as a Democrat.{{cite report|url= https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lrb/blue_book/2007_2008 |title= State of Wisconsin 2007-2008 Blue Book |publisher= State of Wisconsin |year= 2007 |isbn= 978-0-9752820-2-1 |editor1-last= Barish |editor1-first= Lawrence S. |editor2-last= Lemanski |editor2-first= Lynn |chapter-url= https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lrb/blue_book/2007_2008/300_feature.pdf |chapter= Feature Article - Those Who Served: Wisconsin Legislators 1848–2007 |page=103 |access-date= January 17, 2021 }} In 1849, he was the candidate of the newly organized Free Soil Party for Governor of Wisconsin, coming in third behind Democratic incumbent Nelson Dewey and Whig Alexander L. Collins.
After Wisconsin
After the dissolution of the Wisconsin Phalanx, he moved to Michigan in 1853, then to Missouri, where he was elected as a Presidential elector for Horace Greeley in the 1872 United States presidential election.{{cite web|url= https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS1671 |title= Chase, Warren 1813-1891 |website= Wisconsin Historical Society |date= 3 August 2012 |access-date= January 17, 2021 }}
In 1876 he moved to California and settled in Santa Barbara, where he worked as editor of the Independent. While in California he was elected to the California State Senate on the Workingmen's Party ticket, serving from 1880 to 1883.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rvLxcCIOmncC |title= Memorial Record of the Fathers of Wisconsin| editor-last1= Tenney |editor-first1= H.A. |editor-last2= Atwood |editor-first2= David |publisher= David Atwood |year=1880 |pages= 61–63|isbn= 9781556137013}} In 1880, he was a candidate for Senate President Pro Tempore, losing to Republican George F. Baker by a margin of 15 to 22.{{cite web |url=https://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/7422 |title=Warren Chase |author= |date= |website=JoinCalifornia |publisher= |access-date=7 October 2024 |quote=}} In 1882, he ran for Congress as a Greenbacker.
Chase was a supporter of free silver,{{cite news |author= |date=5 April 1877 |title=The cause of hard times |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SJMN18770405.2.48&srpos=2&e=------187-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22warren+chase%22+silver------- |work=San Jose Mercury News |location=San Jose |access-date=7 October 2024}} anti-monopolism,{{cite news |author= |date=22 November 1877 |title=Currency and legislation |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SJMN18771122.2.26&srpos=8&e=------187-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22warren+chase%22------- |work=San Jose Mercury News |location=San Jose |access-date=7 October 2024}} and Chinese exclusion, although on the latter point he condemned racial violence like the San Francisco riot of 1877.{{cite news |author= |date=6 December 1877 |title=Hon. Warren Chase's Lecture |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SJWM18771206.2.42&srpos=9&e=------187-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22warren+chase%22+chinese------- |work=San Jose Mercury News |location=San Jose |access-date=7 October 2024}} When the California State Legislature convened in 1881 to elect a U.S. Senator, Chase nominated economist and newspaper publisher Henry George. In his nomination speech, Chase eulogized George as follows:
{{blockquote|"He has in knowledge of American and European history no superior in this State. He is a man who can be an honor to the State and nation and to the United States Senate, and an honor to himself; a man whose heart beats in sympathy with the great body of the people; a man who is eminently like unto that greatest of modern men—Abraham Lincoln; a man who, if the people were to select, would be selected as the champion of their rights; a man—a man who has already gained a national reputation as the ablest political economist of America, standing the peer of John Stuart Mill, Ricardo and Adam Smith, and all the writers of history on political economy."{{cite news |author= |date=15 January 1881 |title=Henry George |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=RBS18810115.2.9&srpos=3&e=------188-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22henry+george%22+senate----1881--- |work=Red Bluff Sentinel |location=Red Bluff |access-date=7 October 2024}}}}
George only received two votes out of 40 cast in the State Senate; one from Chase, and the other from fellow Workingmen's Senator Joseph C. Gorman.{{cite news |author= |date=12 January 1881 |title=The State Legislature |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SJH18810112.2.13&srpos=1&e=------188-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22henry+george%22+senate----1881--- |work=San Jose Herald |location=San Jose |access-date=7 October 2024}}
Death
Warren Chase died in Cobden, Illinois, in 1891, and was buried at Cobden Cemetery.{{cite web|url= https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM28285 |title= Photograph - Warren Chase |website= Wisconsin Historical Society |date= December 2003 |access-date= January 17, 2021 }}{{cite web|url= http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/7422 |title= Warren Chase |website= Join California |access-date= January 17, 2021}}{{cite web|url= http://www.ripon.edu/library/archives/exhibits/founders.htm |title= Founders of Ripon College |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120323053314/http://www.ripon.edu/library/archives/exhibits/founders.htm |website= Ripon College |access-date= January 17, 2021 |archive-date= March 23, 2012 |via= Wayback Machine }}
Books
- {{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_ow4AAAAYAAJ |title= The Life-line of the Lone One: Or, Autobiography of the World's Child |last= Chase |first= Warren |publisher= William White & Co. |year= 1868 |location=Boston }}
- {{cite book|url= https://archive.org/details/fortyyearsonspir00chas/mode/2up |title= Forty Years on the Spiritual Rostrum |last= Chase |first= Warren |publisher= Colby & Rich |year= 1888 |location=Boston }}
References
{{reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
|-
{{s-non|reason =Party established}}
{{s-ttl|title =Free Soil nominee for Governor of Wisconsin|years=1849}}
{{s-aft|after =Edward D. Holton}}
{{s-par|us-wi-sen}}
|-
{{s-non|reason = State government established }}
{{s-ttl|title ={{nowrap|Member of the Wisconsin Senate from the 4th district}} |years=June 5, 1848{{spaced ndash}}January 9, 1850 }}
{{s-aft|after = John A. Eastman}}
{{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Warren}}
Category:Abolitionists from New Hampshire
Category:American city founders
Category:American spiritualists
Category:American temperance activists
Category:California Greenbacks
Category:California state senators
Category:Politicians from Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin
Category:People from Pittsfield, New Hampshire
Category:Ripon College (Wisconsin)
Category:Wisconsin Free Soilers
Category:Wisconsin state senators
Category:Workingmen's Party of California people
Category:Writers from California
Category:Writers from New Hampshire
Category:Writers from Wisconsin
Category:19th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature
Category:19th-century members of the California State Legislature