Biography - Maurice J. Chase
MAURICE JAMES CHASE, M.D., son of Benjamin Chapman and Eliza (Royce) Chase,
was born in Cornish, Sullivan County, NH, March 4, 1826. His father was a
farmer, and owing to conditions induced by material impressions, was born into
this world bereft of two important faculties - hearing and speech. His mother's
domestic feelings were unusually strong, and her tender sympathies made her
efficient in the care of the sick and distressed.
The first settlement of Cornish by the Chases is quite romantic. About the year
1700, George Gifford, of Massachusetts, ceded the township to Aquilla and
Priscilla Chase, ancestors of M. J. Chase. They took all their personal effects
in a row-boat up the Connecticut River and took possession of the ceded grant.
Formerly in this township, the Chase family was very numerous. Most of the
church and town offices were held by them. It was here that Chief Justice Salmon
P. Chase was born. It is here that he and many of that name can trace their
common ancestry.
Maurice James Chase received a thorough and practical education in the New
England public schools of his time, which fitted him to enter upon a more
advanced course of study at the Kimball Union Academy - an institution of
national reputation. After finishing his academic course, he commenced in 1845
the study of medicine - a profession that he had selected in very early life. He
was a student of the famous Dr. Dixi Crosby, who was president of the Medical
Department of Dartmouth. He attended a full course of lectures at the Medical
College at Woodstock VT and two full courses also, at Dartmouth. He graduated
June 17, 1850, and soon thereafter settled in South Boston MA, in the practice
of his profession. Thinking that there were broader fields of usefulness and
influence in the West, he came to Indiana in February, 1854, and practiced there
for two years. He then removed to Macomb IL and remained there until July, 1859,
when he came to Galesburg, where he has been a successful practitioner for forty
years.
Dr. Chase has earned an honorable distinction in the practice of his profession.
His reputation for careful and painstaking treatment is acknowledged. His
clinical instruction is full and complete, and his diagnosis of thousands of
cases is a proof of his erudition and ability. As a physician, his labors have
been crowned with success, and much of that success is due to the sympathy which
he feels and expresses for his patients. He believes that care and attention are
as important as medicine.
In religious belief, he is a Universalist. His creed is the Fatherhood of God
and the Brotherhood of man. He says of himself: "From my earliest recollections
I have been a firm believer in prayer and communion with God, our Heavenly
Father. It is a great duty and high privilege to keep and revere the first and
the second great commandments of the New Testament."
Dr. Chase is a strong temperance man; nevertheless, politically, he affiliates
with the republican party.
He was united in marriage to Lucy F. Crocker, March 15, 1849. There were born to
them four children, two now living: Henry Maurice, born November 3, 1850, died
March 5, 1854; Ella L., born December, 1853, died October, 1854; Henry Maurice,
2d, born February 9, 1860; Ella L., 2d, born March 30, 1856.
Henry M. Chase was married June 5, 1884, to Jane Ewing Phillips. They have two
children: Phillips M., born April 6, 1886; and Margaret Evertson, born December
22, 1889. Ella L. Chase was married March 30, 1874, to Arthur W. Conger, who
died in 1890. Three children were born to them: Lucy M., born January 22, 1875;
Delia, born December 4, 1886; and Etheline, born October 4, 1888. Her second
marriage was with Hon. Howard Knowles, March 4, 1896.
Extracted from the 1899 Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and Knox County,
Munsell Publishing Company.
