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The Philander Chase letters were written in the 18th and 19th century and therefore may contain language that we understand today as harmful or offensive. You may encounter paternalist descriptions of Native Americans, racial slurs, or sexism. For more information, see our policy page.
Description
Philander Chase writes to his brother about the kindness of the Sutton, Massachusetts branch of the Chase family.
Date
2-6-1847
Keywords
Philander Chase, Joseph Denison, Sutton, Massachusetts, Chase family
Recommended Citation
Chase, Philander, "Letter to Joseph Denison" (1847). Philander Chase Letters. 1287.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/chase_letters/1287
Rights Statement
Transcript
To Dr. Js. Denison Sen’r
Jubilee College Feb 6 1847
My dear Brother
I re’d your post Script to the good letter of your dear Daughter and Wife my beloved Sister and Niece and thank you most sincerely for your kind manner and candid opinion, in reference to the Story of the Chases becoming heirs to a great estate in England.
Since you wrote you have doubtless read my letter to my namesake--brother Bishop of New Hampshire. Still, I can imagine from the tenor of your letter your[sic] are unaltered in your opinion.
You, I trust, will alow me the same liberty--and while you do so, you will not think me so bound by it as to make me uncivil to such as put confidence in me or so unjust as to betray that confidence or not to exert myself to accomplish to the utmost what they think probably & I think otherwise
My meaning in the above rather obscure sentence will be seen when I tell you what has passed between myself and the more direct branches of the Chase Family in the neighbourhood of Old Sutton Massachusetts.
They had a meeting and concluded after duly weighing all the testimony touching the premises that they would go no further in the subject till they had [consulted] to me as best acquainted with English affairs. They did so through the agency of a Mr Harvey Dodge who is son of Aunt Rawson’s daughter who many years ago married the niece of my Father with whom he is now living on the farm which my Father brought into cultivation and in the house which my Father lived and in which were born my Sisters Mary Louis & Abagail--and brothers Simeon Salmon & Baruch.
Mr. Harvey Dodge who wrote me the letter lives on the farm of his grand Father Old Mr. Rawson many years since dead within a half a mile of his mothers once my Fathers house.
When I had paid him a visit in Co with my good wife he and the whole connexion including Aunt Polly uncle March’s widow treated us with the utmost kindness
Having read over and over again my Reminiscences which they said were all true in what I had said of our ancestry and burying place of Daniel Chase who first moved to Sutton and Uncle March Chase &c they said that they knew all about my and had never ceased to pray for me and the success of all my plans. Who knows but it has been owing to their intercessions at the throne of Grace that God hath been pleased to crown my endeavours with such signal success when I least deserved it? That they asked in true faith of Jesus Christ I have reason to believe from their exemplary piety. I preached to them the word and baptized their Children and to them broke the bread of life being emblems of a Saviours dying love: For they are all Episcopaleans[sic] & give signs of truly renewed characters. Now dear Brother; if I have traveled from the path on which I set our in this letter is is because the subject of the Sutton Chases is so dear to me. Indeed they had well nigh persuaded Aunt Polly to give and settle Jubilee College several Scholarships for the education of the Chases in Sutton and thus make many more of that name instrumental in spreading the blessed Gospel throughout the Mississippi Valley.
I wrote to Mr. Havey[sic] Dodge a letter to the following purport viz
That I felt honoured in being appointed their Agent to correspond with my English Friends on the subject of the [?] in [Chancery] in England; and would do all I could or can to find out the truth of the Matter and altho’ I had never seen anything on which to rest my opinion in favour of success--yet this was not to stand in the way of my fidelity to their wishes and interest.
Let the above explain my blind sentence in the beginning of this letter.
I must confess there is something wonderful in my being unexpectedly inclined to go to Sutton. To my remembrance the thought never passed my mind so to do till in Boston: and even then it wa a seeming casualty that I went by the Worcester line of [Carrs] rather than that thro’ Stonington. If my going thither be the means of any good to the souls of immortal beings I shall be glad. The building up of Jubilee College for the education of Gospel Ministers is all I wish to promote by any worldly wealth that will ever accrue to my your loving Brother
Brother P. Chase