The Justus and JZ Chase Families of Ohio - and the Search for our English- Irish Roots

 1893 Family Portrait of Justus Zed Chase, my grandma Inez, Araminta Henry Chase, Uncle Charlie Chase and Roy Chase taken in Findlay Ohio. 
Peg Weaver, in her 1994 Rememberings of a 83 Year Old Grandma, page 1 commented : "My mother, Inez Chase, was born on February 8, 1888, on the Hancock County, Ohio, farm of her parents, Minta and Justus Zedekiah Chase. She hated her name, Inez; she had no middle name I know little about the Chase genealogy, but my mother said that she had Irish and English ancestry."

Inez Chase High School Graduation photo, Findlay High School 1905.
Peg describes her mom again "She attended a one-room country school on a corner of the Chase farm. Her father drove a horse and buggy to take her to Findlay to attend high school, from which she graduated. .........Charles and Roy, my mother's two older brothers, teased her about her red hair, calling her "carrot-top", making her mad. (She determined that she would do what she could to have her red-haired daughter like her hair color.) Because my Uncle Roy died from a "burst appendix" when I was in grade school, every time I had a pain in my right side, I was sure that my appendix would burst."

 

Margaret Glessner with her grandpa JZ Chase in Findlay ca 1918. 

From page 5 of Rememberings "Sometimes my Grandfather Chase would come to my house and take me for a walk to the little grocery store next to the railroad tracks on Main Street, a few blocks from my house. He would buy a lemon and a stick of peppermint candy, cut the lemon in two, stick the candy into the center; then I would suck the sweetened lemon-peppermint juice up through tiny holes in the candy.

My Grandfather Chase built me a beautiful, big doll house, two stories tall with glass windows, a stairway that went all the way up (a closet under the stairway), living room, dining room and kitchen downstairs; a hall, two bedrooms and a bath up. In the living room, a table lamp with glass bead fringe could give light when it was attached to a small battery. A metal sewing machine had a treadle that moved and drawers that opened; in one was a thimble, in the other a pair of shears. In the refrigerator painted, cardboard foods, such as, watermelon and steak, could be removed to place on the dining room table. A doll of the
doll-house-scale lived in the house. (My mother gave my doll house to my Chase cousins.) A small playroom housed my doll house and a built in desk-cupboard. With all the scratch pads, 3x5 cards, and pencils from the Glessner Company I spent a lot of time "playing office"."

In her chapter on Genealogy here on p 149 is the summary of the Chase family from New York as she understood it

***
History of Hancock County, Ohio.    Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. 1886.
Chicago: John Morris Company, Printers. 118 and 120 Monroe Street.
(no author given)
CHASE FAMILY Picture of Justus Chase, p. 412.
Liberty Township, p. 432. George Chase came to the township in 1830, cleared five acres on the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 10, entered by him June 13, 1825, which he planted with corn. He returned to Madison County, Ohio, whither he and his wife, Elizabeth, had emigrated from New York State in 1817, and in the spring of 1831 brought out his family and settled permanently on his land. The mother died in 1832, leaving a family of five children, all of whom grew to maturity, but only three of the number are now living. The father died in 1869, and Justus now occupies the old farm on which he has lived since March 1831. Mrs. Miles Wilson, of Portage Township, is the only member of the family, excepting Justus, living in this county.
p. 793. Justus Chase, farmer, Findlay, was born in New York State, August 29, 1817, son of George and Elizabeth (Wilson) Chase, natives of New York, of English descent, and who moved to Madison County, Ohio in 1817, and from there to Hancock County in 1830, where they remained until their death, Mrs. Chase dying in 1832, and Mr. Chase in 1869. They reared a family of five children, our subject being the eldest. Justus Chase had made farming his business through life, and has resided on    his present farm since March 1831. He is the owner of over 200 acres of fine land, besides property in Ottawa, Denver and North Baltimore, Ohio. Mr. Chase was united in marriage, November 7, 1839, with Mary A. Jones, born in 1821 in Westmoreland County, Penn., daughter of James and Martha (Black) Jones, the former born in Pennsylvania in 1791, and the latter in Maryland in 1799. Mr. and Mrs. Jones moved from Liberty Township, Westmoreland Co., Penn., to Liberty Township, Madison County, Ohio, and afterward to Liberty township, Perry County, and in 1833 settled in Liberty Township this county. To our subject and wife were born nine children: George D., Martha J. (deceased), Elizabeth (wife of Chris Porter), Cerilda M. (wife of Isaac Taylor), Harrison (deceased), James W. (deceased), Mary S. (wife of James H. Chase), Annettia (wife of John R. Osborn) and Justus Z. Mr. Chase is one of the substantial farmers of Hancock County, and he and his wife have been consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church for over forty years."


Justus Chase son of pioneer George Chase was born  August 29, 1817 and raised 9 children. 

In 1993 Peg Weaver and I began a correspondence with Oscar Beasley of Iowa City IA who was working on the Chase Genealogy and published a book which pointed me to following the thread to Nathan Chase in New York..and then to the William Chases, Sr and Jr of Yarmouth MA. They arrived in the colony in 1630, 10 years after the Mayflower.

1790 Census with Nathan Chase ,Pawling Duchess CO, NY