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founded the Killingly I
ENCYCLI IPEDIA (
[igh School Alumni
Association, of which he is an ex-president
The following year he spent in his
father's mills, studying the woolen manu-
facturing business. In [896 he wenl to
California and entered I .eland Stanford
Junior University and remained for two
years, taking as his major subject Eco-
nomics, as a preparation for a career in the
woolen business. After leaving the uni-
versity, he entered the employ of Catton,
Bell & Company in San Francisco, Cali-
fornia, and learned the grading and sort-
ingof wool. Upon his return to Killingly,
Connecticut, in 1899, during a slack
period in the woolen business, he became
a reporter on the "Windham County
Transcript," for which he had been a local
correspondent in his high school days.
This work brought him in contact with
Judge Harry E. Back, who came to Kill-
ingly during the absence of Mr. Chase in
California, and the friendship formed led
.Mr. Chase to give up for the time being
his business aims and to take up the study
of law in Mr. Back's office. During this
period he was very active in educational,
military and political matters. He was a
member of Company F of the old Third
Regiment and served as regimental clerk
for two years. On January 1, 1903. he
entered the law office of Edward D. Robbins
in Hartford, Connecticut, to compute
his studies and was admitted to the
bar in June of that year. He remained
with Mr. Robbins until July 1. [906, when
he opened his own law office, and at the
same time became treasurer of the former
Rowe Calk Company. On April 1, 1907,
he joined the legal staff of the New York,
New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company
in Xew Haven as assistant attorney,
giving particular attention to corporate
organization and interstate commerce
matters. In the fall of 1909, Mr. Chase's
business interests became so larsje as to
3'.
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UK KJKAPIIY
require all his time in Hartford, and he
again opened a law office in Hartford and
handled his busini 8 tirs thei e. ( )n
January i. [918, Mr. Chase discontinued
his office in Hartford to give all his att<
tion l" business, and although still liv-
ing in Hartford he can be found daily
at the Plantsville, Southington, Connecti-
cut, office of The Rowe Calk and Chain
Company, of which he is president and '
general manager. He is also president,
treasurer and general manager of the Diamond
Chain Company, of York, Pennsyl-
vania, and vice-president and a director of
The E. Horton and Son Company, of
Windsor Locks, Connecticut. For many
years he was secretary, treasurer and a
director of The Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Company of Killingly, Connecticut, which
he reorganized under a special legislative
act in 1901. He is a member of Moriah
Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons;
Columbian Commanderv. Knights
Templar; Connecticut Consistory, Supreme
Princes of the Royal Secret ; and
Sphinx Temple, Ancient Arabic Order
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Chase married, September I, 1906,
Elizabeth Spencer Ward, daughter of the
Rev. Charles W. Ward, of Xew Jersey, and
granddaughter of Commander James
Harmon Ward, of Hartford, the first
Union naval commander killed in the
Civil War, and for whom the United
States named the destroyer "Ward"
launched at San Francisco, June 2, [918,
and great-granddaughter of Colonel James
Ward, who was largely identified with
the early life of Hartford. Mrs. Chase is
a direct descendant of Andrew Ward,
who. curiously enough, came to Xew England
in 1030 with Governor Winthrop on
the same boat with Mr. Chase's pio-
neer ancestor, William Chase. Children :
Charles Ward, born February 28. 1908,