Philander Travels West

Philander Chase, born in 1775, was the son of Dudley and Allace Chase, of the Chase family, a founding family of Cornish, New Hampshire and Bethel, Vermont. The Chases were a farm family, and Philander, the youngest of 13 children, always thought he would farm the family homestead and take care of his parents in their old age. His parents had other ideas, however, and at age 16, Philander enrolled in Dartmouth College in preparation for eventually becoming a minister. Although his family was Congregational, Philander happened to find a Book of Common Prayer, and decided to be an Episcopal minister. At age 17, he convinced his family and neighborhood to change their community church from Congregational to Episcopal. After he graduated from Dartmouth, Philander went to Albany, New York, to study Episcopal theology under an Episcopal minister there.

While he was studying to become an Episcopal minister, Philander taught school in Albany as a way to support himself while he continued his education. Many of his older siblings had settled in Bethel, and Philander often traveled back to Bethel to visit them, especially his favorite older sister Allace. He met a girl there, Mary Fay, fell in love, and married her in 1796, when he was 20 and she was 16.

Mary moved to Albany with Philander, coming home to Bethel to have her son George. Philander finished his studies with the minister in Albany, and was ordained as an Episcopal deacon in 1798. Immediately after his ordination, he was appointed to be an Episcopal missionary to the northern and western parts of New York.

This was an itinerant missionary position, and Philander traveled all around upper New York state, ministering to small congregations in the New York wilderness, as an itinerant minister had held services in the Cornish and Bethel churches ten years earlier. There were many Indians living in this part of New York, and Philander preached to them as well, becoming friends with some Indian families

It was not easy to travel through Northwestern New York at the turn of the 19^th century. Communities were small and the whole area was very sparsely settled. Roads were poor. Many church services were held in log cabins. Laura Chase Smith, Philander's granddaughter, wrote a biography of her grandfather. In her book, she says, “No civilized man greeted the missionary as he passed through what are now large and busy cities, Salina and Syracuse. There were only two cabins to be seen, and these were uninhabited, as they were used for boiling salt. Imagine the desolate picture in winter!”

 

Philander soon after he graduated from Dartmouth

In regards to the reference of boiling salt – Salt is an important ingredient in people's lives, and has always been important economically. The word “salary” comes from the word “salt”. In many areas, ancient people were paid in salt. The word “salad” also comes from the practice of the Romans putting salt on their leafy greens. Near Syracuse, there are salt springs, springs of water that bubble up through salt deposits. This water had a very high salt content, and early settlers boiled it to obtain the salt. Onondaga Salt Springs was the first permanent salt industry in the country, and led the country in salt production until 1878. Much of the impetus to build the Erie Canal came from the need to ship this salt to the rest of the country.

If Laura Chase Smith and Ancestry.com have their dates right, Mary and Philander were married in 1796. He was ordained as a deacon two years later. Laura was 18 years old and a mother already. George was born in 1797. Philander left immediately after being ordained. Laura went home to her family (and Philander's) in Bethel. While Philander was gone, Laura had another son, in April of 1799, named Philander, Jr. In her book, Laura stresses how difficult it was for travelers in Northwestern New York to communicate with their families, and it is very possible that Philander did not know he had another son.

Philander returned to civilization in 1799, arriving in Poughkeepsie in autumn, where Mary and her young sons joined him. The family was together at last, and Philander was ordained as a full Episcopal priest in November of 1799. He took on the administration of an Episcopal seminary in Poughkeepsie as well as his duties in two growing parishes, to support himself, his wife and his sons.

 

Teen Power - 1793

The Chase family was the primary founding family of Cornish, New Hampshire. I try not to follow people who do not stay in the Upper Valley, but Philander Chase had an influence on the Upper Valley, and became prominent nationally, thus I will tell his story.

Philander was the youngest son of Alice and Dudley Chase. He became the first Episcopal Bishop of the state of Ohio, and traveled throughout the United States starting new Episcopal churches and colleges. Laura Chase Smith, Philander's granddaughter, wrote a biography of Philander, and her book, which she wrote using information taken from his own autobiography, letters, and diaries, tells a lot about the life of the Chase family during the early days of Cornish, and in the newly independent United States.

Laura recounts her grandfather's stories of playing on the banks of the Connecticut River, and how he was raised mostly by his sister Alace, since his mother was always either busy or sick. Even so, when he grew up, Philander respected his parents' wishes concerning his education and future. He had planned on staying home, working the family farm and caring for his parents in their old age, but they had other plans. They wanted him to become a minister.

With that end in mind, following in the footsteps of his older brothers, Philander entered Dartmouth College, at age16. During his Sophomore year at Dartmouth, when he was 17 years old, he happened to find an Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. He took it home, read it through, and decided he found the Episcopal way of worship much more beautiful than than what he was used to, and he decided to become an Episcopal minister.

The Chase family was Congregational, and they attended the Congregational Church in Cornish. Laura says, in her book, “Deacon and Alice (notice she uses the modern spelling of her great-grandmother's name) were born and bred in the Puritan faith, but both had the kindly, generous nature which disarmed the rigid laws and practices of those early days”. She also mentions that some of her ancestors, in Puritan Connecticut, were fined for picking peas on the Sabbath.

You have to wonder how strongly attached the Chases were to their Congregational beliefs, because when Philander, at age 17, shared his new religious beliefs with his family, they enthusiastically embraced his new denomination, going as far as to tear down the Congregational Church and build an Episcopal church in its place. I would find this hard to believe if I didn't know it was true. Furthermore, Laura herself thought this was pretty amazing. She says that “Not a voice was raised against this plan in the neighborhood. This is certainly a remarkable event. It is doubtful if anything like it has ever occurred before or since. That a mere youth should have brought this about among his relations is indeed wonderful, but that the whole neighborhood should have consented to this great change seems next to impossible.” Yes, it does.

It seems even more unlikely in view of the fact that America has just won a war of independence from Great Britain, and the Episcopal Church was (and is) the Church of England, the established church of the monarchy and everything it stands for. Philander's Uncle Jonathan was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War and his father served in the Continental Army as a private under Jonathan. This makes the fact that this family was willing to abandon their Congregational beliefs and become Episcopalian even more remarkable.

All this occurred before Philander had even begun training to be an Episcopal minister. He graduated from Dartmouth three years later, at age 20. The Chase family was affiliated with two Episcopal churches, one in Cornish and one in Bethel, which is not surprising, in light of the fact that they were the original settlers of both towns. Neither church had a permanent pastor, but two traveling preachers held services at both places. One was the brother of Vermont's Governor Chittenden. There was no Episcopal seminary in the United States at the time, and through these ministers, Philander learned that there was an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York who would be willling to provide him with religious instruction in an apprenticeship type arrangement.

He went to Albany, the first city he had ever seen, knocked on Reverend Ellison's door and introduced himself. He was welcomed with open arms. Soon he had a teaching job in the city of Albany, so that he could support himself while he was studying theology. In her book, Laura mentions that he made $400 a year.