Chase Family Scrapbook

Chase Family Scrapbook 

This weekend I went through the Chase Family Scrapbook that was made by Clarissa Chase Weiss (1900-1991) and probably compiled between the years of 1940 and 1980.  

The scrapbook is about 16 inches by 18 inches and loosely bound with brown shoelaces.  There are about 90 unnumbered pages.

Claire Chase (age 6) is marked in this picture. 

Claire was always interested in her family history and proud to share it.  In 1947 Mrs. Simon Weiss was the committee chair for the event “Chase Cousins Reunion” held at Liberty Park.

The Chase Home in Centerville no longer stands, but the cabin does along with an historical marker.

Clarissa Dean Chase is 7 years old in this picture and sitting next to the piano.  Claire's brother David Harold Chase died at age 10 four years after this photo was taken (gun accident). 

Max Weiss (son of Clarissa Dean Chase Weiss) bought the old Chase upright piano that is shown in the picture above and had it for many years.

This Deseret News article is typical of the many articles Clare pasted into her oversized photo album/scrapbook. Note that this 1942 reunion was sponsored by Chase Cousins Club under the leadership of Mrs. Simon Weiss (Clare Chase Weiss).

About one third of the book is a collection of the Family Genealogical research that was gathered over the years.  Most of it was from Kate Chase’s research.   The George Ogden Chase family had a lifetime membership in the Chase Genealogical Association.

Aunt Kate Chase did much of the temple work for her Chase family.

Note the Life Membership to the Chase Family Organization.

One paper describes how “Kate Chase saves the Chase Mill at Liberty Park” from being torn down.  Another tells of “Christmas at Chase Park” in Centerville.  It looks like some of the contents where items that were passed on to Claire by family members and she collected them all into this scrapbook.

Claire has collected  various newspapers articles referring to the Chase Mill from the 1960-1980’s.  Perhaps these were handouts shared during reunions with the Chase Cousins.  Claire also pasted in articles that had no family history connection but were simply interesting to her. 

George Ogden Chase's sword is now in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneer Museum.

In 1990 Karen Weiss (Claire's daughter-in-law) transcribed and duplicated a 35 page history of Clarissa Dean Chase Weiss for family members.  Most of that material is not found in the scrapbook.

Some pages are typewritten copies of other older documents that Claire duplicated and then pasted into her scrapbook.   A few of the pictures are original, but most are copies.  The entries are not in any chronological sequence and, unfortunately, rarely does Claire reference the source of her  information.

This is the John Alden Home in Massachusetts.  The Chase family was descended from the Mayflower Pilgrims.  This was a quite a status symbol in Clare's day.

Many entries from the Josephine Streeper Chase diary are pasted in the scrapbook.  A wonderful synopsis of the Streeper diaries was written by Fae Decker Dix in the Utah Historical Quarterly (and available as a pdf online.)  The actual diary was given to the Marriott Library University of Utah Special Collections in 1970.

Thirteen pages are simply pasted in pictures of historic buildings along with random postcards.  There are also some pictures of items that are now located in the Salt Lake DUP (Daughters of the Utah Pioneer) Museum.

More pictures of Chase Park and the home (built in 1860).  The cabin was built in 1849.   The woman in the upper right is Josephine Chase Bradshaw who cared for the home for many years.  

Historic Site Marker on 1000 N. (Chase Lane) and Main Street in Centerville, Utah.

Much of the information in the scrapbook was prepared by Josephine Chase Bradshaw (1892-1978) and is also included in the book Centerville-the City In-Between by Mary Ellen Smoot and Marilyn Fullmer Sheriff (1975).   Josephine Chase Bradshaw actually lived in the old George Ogden log cabin after her husband died and she returned west to Centerville.   As the historical plaque reads: "The stately home remained in the Chase family until 1982. In 1989, it began to deteriorate and was torn down, leaving only the log cabin, the granary, and memories of the one grand home at Chase Park."  (1000 N. Main Street).

Max Weiss (son of Clarissa Dean Chase Weiss) writes fondly of his "Aunti Jo" in his biography published in 2013.  Max worked for her picking cherries and painting.  He also bought Aunti Jo's cherry orchard for $2000 when he was 16 years old and sold it just prior to his marriage. 

 In 1998, a Chase family historian,  William V. Saunders, published two biographies (one about Isaac and the other about Phebe) that contains more accurate Chase family information than that found in Claire's scrapbook.  

Pictured are children of Brigham Young and Claire Ross (Isaac and Phebe's daughter), who became one of Brigham's many wives (marrying in Nauvoo in 1844?) and bore him four children.  She died in 1858 and sister wives helped raise her children.

One of the treasures in the scrapbook was the actual recipe from the chicken and biscuit meal that was served frequently to Brigham Young and Heber K. Kimball in the Old Chase Home in Liberty Park.  There are no notations about who recorded this recipe.

Chicken and Biscuit Dumplings were served to Brigham and the Twelve.

Christmas Dinners in the Centerville "Chase Park" were a held until Aunt Kate Matilda Chase died in 1937.

Following the death of Grandma Claire, Betty called family members in California to let them know.  One letter from Rose Cross was particularly kind and found its way into the scrapbook as a kind of final tribute to Claire.  Aunt Betty probably wrote the note in the upper left of page one.

The Pioneer Chase family and the Jewish immigrant Weiss family seemed to get along just fine.

This letter tells how Rose Weiss Cross (granddaughter raised by Max and Annie Weiss) adored her Chase relative Claire Chase Weiss who married into the Weiss family in 1917.

Upon the death of Claire Weiss (1990) Betty Dean Chase Lillywhite Olson gave the Chase Family Scrapbook into the keeping of David Mark Weiss, grandson of Claire. Betty wrote in a card to her nephew Mark in 1989, "I am unwilling to fill out the 'tribal' information sheets.  I respect your interest.  The genealogical interest is not at all a priority in my understanding of life..."  Maybe that is why Betty so freely gave her mother's scrapbook to her nephew.

You are all invited to come and look through the scrapbook the next time you visit the Mark Weiss family in Logan, Utah.  Meanwhile, we will continue to search for a way to scan and share the important pages of “Grandma Claire’s Scrapbook”.   

The LDS Seminary Teaching Tradition

James Austin Owen was a “religious educator” for a little over four years.  As an LDS Seminary teacher Brother Owen made a difference in the lives of high school aged youth in Burley, Idaho between September 1948-November 1952.   

 The Burley, Idaho Seminary building in 1948.  Note by Maxine Owen, the Seminary Teacher's wife.

He was really one of the “pioneers” in a program that began in 1912 and continues to evolve.  After teaching for four years in Burley, he contracted polio.  He was moved from Idaho Falls Hospital to the Veteran’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT and never returned to a full time seminary teaching position.

In the summers, Dad helped keep the youth in Burley out of trouble by organizing the “Knothole Gang” and playing baseball.  He also coached in a basketball league.

When we were younger, Dad loved to have a family gospel sharing time on Sundays.  We each had small black notebooks with our initials monogrammed on the side in white. My favorite time was when we just asked gospel questions and he would answer them using the scriptures.   Much of my understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ came from these question and answer session.

Maxine Owen, James Owen, and Ida Ellen Fish Owen, Jim's mother, holding Ralph Owen in Burley, Idaho in 1950.  Jim had been teaching seminary for 1 1/2 years when this picture was taken.

Photo shows a young Boyd K. Packer, left, as a seminary teacher at the Brigham City, Utah, Seminary in 1953. (Deseret News archive)  We don’t have any pictures of Jim with his seminary students.

In January 2012, a worldwide broadcast was held to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the beginning of the seminary program.  The website says that today the seminary and institute programs teach over 700,000 students in 143 different countries through the efforts of nearly 50,000 full-time, part-time, and volunteer teachers and administrators.¹

 Over 100 years ago the first released-time seminary program was launched at Granite High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. Begun largely as an experiment by a single stake, the program has since grown into a worldwide system of religious education, bringing gospel instruction to young members of the Church throughout the entire world. From small beginnings, the seminary program and its collegiate counterpart—institute of religion—grew to become the primary educational entities in the Church, with a larger enrollment than any other LDS educational venture and a wider reach than almost any educational organization worldwide.

 In 1977 Elder Boyd K. Packer commented, “In the history of the Church there is no better illustration of the prophetic preparation of this people than the beginnings of the seminary and institute program. These programs were started when they were nice but were not critically needed. They were granted a season to flourish and to grow into a bulwark for the Church. They now become a godsend for the salvation of modern Israel in a most challenging hour.”²

Today on the website for Seminary and Institute it states:  Our purpose is to help youth and young adults understand and rely on the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ, qualify for the blessings of the temple, and prepare themselves, their families, and others for eternal life with their Father in Heaven.

I think Dad would have agreed that was his purpose although the program has changed and evolved into something quite different than it was in 1948.

 L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said,

“I know the power that comes from associations in the seminary and institute programs. It has enriched my life, and I know it will do the same for you. It will put a shield of protection around you to keep you free from the temptations and trials of the world. There is a great blessing in having a knowledge of the gospel. And I know of no better place for the young people of the Church to gain a special knowledge of sacred things than in the institute and seminary programs of the Church.” 
Ensign, Nov. 1997, 61-62

The tradition of working with youth in the Seminary Program has continued in our extended family.  If we counted the number of Jim Owen’s posterity who have attended Seminary it would be a significant percentage.  Many are four year seminary graduates and have attended Institute classes while in college. 

Craig Ostler, husband of Sandy Owen Ostler, worked for the LDS Seminary program for many years before joining the faculty at Brigham Young University.

As Volunteer Teachers, Mark and Cyndy Weiss have served a combined 22.5 years in teaching Seminary and Institute classes.  Mark taught seminary one year in Kirkland, Institute 3 years in Redmond, Institute 3 years in Vancouver, and Institute 5 years in Logan.

Cyndy Weiss taught seven years in Redmond, Washington, was one of the first Stake Supervisors ever called (as it was a new position in the Church), and supervised teachers for 1.5 years in Redmond and then again for 2 years in Vancouver.  When I was teaching, I would sometimes bring the younger children to watch their older brothers’ or sisters’ classes.  These young siblings loved scripture chasing and were oft times quicker at finding the passages than the older students.

Getting up early for a 6:00 a.m. Seminary class was just something you did during your high school years.   When we moved to Logan, UT, William and Joseph Weiss didn’t have that opportunity to arise extra early as they participated in a released time Seminary program. 

Mark Weiss also worked for three years for Seminary and Institutes (S&I) creating a system for a fourth option for seminary instruction.  Along with released time, early morning and home study seminary, now some students will be allowed to do on-line seminary classes.   Along with Tyler Griffin, Mark worked created the original curriculum for the on-line Book of Mormon Class.  

Recent Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual

I am thankful for the scripture mastery verses that I have retained over the years.  I know they have helped my own children in making important decisions.  Now as Mark and I have the opportunity to serve in a Young Single Adult Ward and we see yet again the difference regular attendance in religious education classes can make the lives of USU students.

It is fun to imagine “Brother Owen” standing at the chalkboard with his scriptures open in his hand.  I’m sure he was respected and well liked.  It is easy for me to visualize him doing similar teaching in the spirit world.  He was a gifted teacher and served as Gospel Doctrine teacher for many, many years.   His love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ is part of his legacy to us.

The Culture of Christ-“All are Alike Unto God”

We were living in Redmond, Washington in 1978

June 8 in 1978 was a Thursday afternoon. I still remember that day when we received a phone call from our church friend.  We lived in Redmond, Washington at the time and he told us to turn on the radio.  He said we should prepare ourselves to stand in holy temples and pray with our black LDS members.  We learned that LDS Church leaders had just announced that all worthy male members were now invited to be ordained to the Holy Priesthood of God.

From the mid-1800s until 1978—the LDS Church did not ordain men of black African descent to its priesthood or allow black men or women to participate in temple endowment or sealing ordinances.  The announcement of June 8th was received with joy!   No more trying to justify a false tradition that had been passed down since the days of Brigham Young.

So much has happened since that moment 36 years ago.  I was a young mother of three and just 26 years old.  I only partially realized the impact of this historic announcement.  I attended the General Conference on September 30, 1978 when N. Eldon Tanner read the letter from the first presidency now known as “Official Declaration-2”.  We rejoiced that this would no longer be a divisive issue.

Between 1970 and 1976 I attended BYU-Provo when BYU athletic teams were banned from playing competitions because of the church’s position on race and the Priesthood.   It was a very hot political topic and demonstrations against BYU teams were common.

I later found out that my own grandma Moulton from Heber Valley and Salt Lake City was so concerned in 1948 that her daughter, Maxine, would be marrying a boy from the state of Nebraska.  In her small-minded Utah world, people from the “east” lived in a place where there might be “negro blood” in their lineage.  She was simply concerned for her daughter.

When I attended High School in Portland, Oregon from 1966-1970, the racial mix (white to black) seemed about 75/25 my freshman year (Washington High School) and about 80/20 my junior-senior years.  I just grew up with great black friends and didn’t think that much about the racial issues.  I thought that was a problem mostly in the southern United States and maybe over at Jefferson High School.  Now, looking back, I can see we were still working out difficult racial problems even in Portland, but I was fairly ignorant of the challenges my black friends were still facing once they left High School.

I do see that cultural intermarriage is a challenge and it would require hard work to create a truly united partnership.   Now, however, I see that that it takes hard work to create unity in all marriage relationships.  My pioneer heritage is full of Americans marrying Danes and Welsh marrying English, etc.  These young couples seemed to be able to join the culture of Denmark to the culture of America and work out their relationship challenges because they loved one another decided to build the "Culture of God".  I have lived long enough to learn the truth that all of us are children of God and we ought to be “inclusive” in all our relationships (Ballard, M. Russell - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/10/doctrine-of-inclusion).

Cyndy Weiss-Senior Year at Cleveland High in Portland, Oregon

My senior year in High School (1970), I travelled to Europe and saw that people were basically the same everywhere on earth.  Then I served for a mission for 18 months to the Italians (1973-74) and grew to love them.  The Book of Mormon declared that the gospel message of salvation should go forth to “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” (Mosiah 15:28; 1 Nephi 19:17). 

We have been fortunate to meet wonderful families from all over the world.  Here is Ben with a family he taught and loved from Argentina.

In the last 15 years we have met and loved the people in the lands where my children have served as LDS missionaries:  Chileans, Brazilians, Hispanic Americans, Euadorians, Taiwanese, Germans, and Argentinians.  Recently we returned from a visit to the Holy Land and saw and felt the tensions between the Arab Palestinians and the Israeli Jews.  It is a sad state of affairs to see the divisions that have caused such heartbreak and war for thousands of years.

Because of our travels, it is now my own personal knowledge that all people from all cultures on the earth hunger for basically the same things for their families.  It is Satan who has succeeded in dividing us one from another. Christ would help us to understand that as children of God, there is a place in His church for all peoples of the earth.

3 generations of Argentines with their friend, Ben Weiss

And so we celebrate June 8 even in 2014.  It has been 36 years since that day and I have lived through an historic time period. In December 2013, the LDS church put a document online that clarified the reasons why this false tradition was changed:

Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.23

Since that day in 1978, the Church has looked to the future, as membership among Africans, African Americans and others of African descent has continued to grow rapidly. While Church records for individual members do not indicate an individual’s race or ethnicity, the number of Church members of African descent is now in the hundreds of thousands.

The Church proclaims that redemption through Jesus Christ is available to the entire human family on the conditions God has prescribed. It affirms that God is “no respecter of persons”24 and emphatically declares that anyone who is righteous—regardless of race—is favored of Him. The teachings of the Church in relation to God’s children are epitomized by a verse in the second book of Nephi: “[The Lord] denieth none that cometh unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; . . . all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.”25  (https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood)

Sign we saw in Argentina in March 2012

Sometimes it is difficult to see the significant changes that take place during one’s own lifetime.  I have lived through this one.  I am thrilled that my children and grandchildren might grow up in a world where the brotherhood of all mankind will one day become a Millennial reality.