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”.   

Places We Call "Home"

 “Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.” (John 20:10)

 ====

Janice Kapp Perry recently wrote of all the homes where she lived and shared a link to her song, “Coming Home” (Meridian Magazine, April 17, 2014).  

Within my heart there is a sweet remembered place
that I call “home”
A quiet place with memories time cannot erase though years have flown
A place where childhood days
were filled with love and faith
That gave me strength go out on my own
And though I’ve travelled far upon this earth
The things of greatest worth, I learned at home
A place so dear to me
that it will always be
The time and place where seeds of love were sown
With memories of love still burning bright
There’s really nothing quite like coming home
Where the music of my soul
was formed and fashioned
And the rhythm of my life was first begun
And though the years have passed
The memories seem to last
And that’s the joy of coming home 

About 20 Places on this earth I’ve called “Home”.   Each carries with it distinct recollections.  Listing these places becomes a kind of framework for hanging precious memories and future pictures.

Burley, Idaho-I was born in Rupert and lived in Burley where my dad taught seminary and worked with the youth (ages 10-14 years) in a summer ball program (Burley Knothole League).  They had a business, “Owen’s Headgate Company” and made head gates used in irrigation ditches to control water flow.  Then Dad got polio and life changed.  Dad was in the Twin Falls Hospital before being transferred to Salt Lake to the VA Hospital on Thanksgiving Day, 1952.  Mam left on a blustery snowy afternoon and arrived after dark at our next home.   Grandma Moulton had saved some Thanksgiving dinner for us all. 

Salt Lake City, UT-1964 So. 9^th East While Dad was in the VA Hospital, Grandma Moulton’s Basement apartment became our home.  Louise was born while we lived here.  I don’t remember anything, but I have pictures.  Mom would take the bus up to the hospital to be with Dad.  Finally he came home.  The story is I was just learning to walk and as Dad became stronger he learned to walk again by watching me. 

Salt Lake City, UT-3841 Birch Drive Mill Creek home was on the edges of town, high on the hill.  Future Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley was the Stake President (or Bishop?) Dad continued to get stronger and tried to sell vitamins and insurance. Mom was working at Associated Food Stores.  They eventually decided to move to Portland to attend Chiropractic College.

Portland, OR-7010 SE  Flavel  We had swings and a fireman’s pole in our yard (Louise could get up it so fast).  The sewing machine needle through my thumbnail and the ax in my head are two memories I still have.  Sandy and Steven were born in the back bedroom in this house.  I remember infant Steven being dropped somehow and getting stitches in his forehead.  Grandma Owen moved to Portland and helped with babysitting.  Mom worked at West Coast Lumbermen’s Association.  We helped clean the Third Ward chapel as one of Dad's part time jobs. I remember going under the pews with vacuums and sweeping the linoleum floors.  Dad graduated from Western States Chiropractic College in 1959.

Portland, OR  17215 SE Stark  Dad was looking for a location to build his clinic and found this property on the outskirts of Portland.  I attended school in 1959 at Rockwood Elementary.  I remember Mom making me a Pioneer skirt and bonnet to wear for the Oregon State Centennial Celebration.  The city thought the property was a great location to build a Public Library.  So we sold the “chicken coop” and moved closer to town.   Dad began his Chiropractic practice working with Dr. Hill. 

Portland, OR- 207 SE 61^st Street  Here’s where Diane was born.  We had a dog, Trixie, and it broke my heart to have to give up out puppy.  Mt. Tabor Elementary School was close by.  Our neighbors, the Spolstra’s organized a neighborhood Library and we.  At Christmas we had a cardboard chimney with crepe paper “bricks” upon which we hung our stockings.

Portland, OR-6541 East Burnside  We moved here in Feb 1961.  I remember painting all the French Door windows and all the trim white.  Here’s where the powerful Columbus Day Storm of 1962 comes to mind.  We had 13 huge fir trees in our yard.  The powerful wind took down plenty of branches, but none of the trees.  Dad’s practice was located at 7129 NE Sandy Blvd.  Two large windows were shattered by the wind.  Donald and David were born here.   Ralph cut off his three toes while mowing an inclined area in the yard.  I remember that on Mother’s Day we went to visit him in the hospital. 

 

Portland, OR-10 SE 39^th (Burnside) This was “The Mansion House” that had no yard. We used Laurelhurst Park as our playground.  We had a “Look-Out” Club and many great friends in the Portland 12^th ward. I attended Laurelhurst Elementary School (5^th-8^th Grades) and then my freshman year at Washington High School.  It was my seminary class challenge to study and receive a testimony of the book of Mormon.  Teresa was born here on my 13^th birthday.  I have many happy memories of our years attending the 33^rd and Harrison LDS Chapel (Road shows, dance festivals, service projects, and singing in choirs. ) Life was busy and summers were lazy.  We had lots of “parties” with my 8^th and 9^th grade friends who had a “real band”.  Ralph began a skateboard business in the large covered porch area off the living room.  I jumped off one skateboard (barefoot) onto glass and had to have 12 stitches mess with crutches for a while.  Louise and I would go berry picking in the early morning hours many summer days.

Baby Teresa blessed at the 33rd & Harrison Building in 1965.

Portland, OR-7215 SE 13th  When I was a sophomore  we moved to the “Clinic” in the Sellwood/Moreland neighborhood.  Our family lived in the upstairs apartment, the back wing of the main floor, and in the full basement.  I had a former doctors office turned into a bedroom.  The operating room became the laundry.  I made money by doing chores and folded and ironed many sheets and hospital gowns. I worked in the clinic office after school until I figured that I could get “real money” (not printed Owen family money) by working at the Oral Surgeon’s office. 

I attended Cleveland High School and was Seminary class secretary. Mark Weiss was Seminary Class President and we began our 7-year courtship.  We had great friends in the Portland 2^nd Ward and these were happy days. At the High School I served in student government and was part of Clevelandaires, a vocal musical ensemble that traveled to Europe for one month in 1970.  It opened my eyes.  Especially seeing the wall in East Berlin. It was from the Sellwood/Moreland home that I went to Provo to attend BYU.  It was always great to come home at Christmas and in summers.  When I left for my mission in 1973, the family was planning on moving to St. George, UT.  They did, and I returned from my mission to Leeds, UT, feeling “homeless”.  

Provo, UT-Robison Hall  While at BYU I lived in the Heritage Halls for two years with great roommates and wonderful memories of Brigham Young University.  One summer I travelled east to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and decided that I would consider serving a mission.  I served in Relief Society Presidency and met wonderful people.  In 2014 the last of Heritage Halls was torn down to make way for updated student housing facilities.

Italy-Rome, Bari, and Florence  I had 18 glorious months in Rome, Italy South Mission.  I learned to love the Italian people and grew in my understanding of discipleship.  I corresponded through weekly letters with Mark who was serving his LDS Mission in Switzerland.  An unknown author wrote: “You never leave a place you love. A part of it you take with you, leaving a part of you behind.”  That’s how I feel about Italy.

Provo, UT-Canyon Terrace and Canyon    Two more years living in off campus BYU student housing.  Walking up to campus wasn’t too bad except for one 7:30 a.m. class on cold, snowy mornings.  Finished my degree in Elementary Education, except for the student teaching/internship.  Mark came home from his Mission and we decided to unite in Holy Matrimony in the Salt Lake Temple on a very lucky Friday the 13^th.

Provo, UT-Wymount Terrace  “Our” first apartment was only for the summer months in BYU’s  Married Student Housing.  After our honeymoon trip to the Northwest, we settled here.  I rode my bike to work each day in the Administration Building and I was so disappointed when it was stolen one day. (I had left it unlocked.) The new BYU Student Health Center is now located nearby.

Provo, UT-Pearl’s place on 425 N. on 7^th West We then rented a basement apt. in West Provo.  It was there that we brought Allison home from the Utah County Hospital.  Mark worked for his dad selling RV components to local manufacturers in Utah.  I taught school in Springville (Grant Elementary) and later did secretarial work (for cassette recording lending library) until Allison was born.  We graduated from the “Y” in April 1976 (pregnant with baby #1) and moved back to the Northwest when Allison was a couple of weeks old.

Bellevue, WA-Lantern Apts. 16215 NE 8th St. Bellevue, WA   We had a 2 story townhouse and David was born while we were living here.  I made Dad a suit as a project.  We had good friends and played tennis frequently in evenings in the nearby courts. 

Redmond, WA-16650 NE 89^th St.   When David was two weeks old, we moved to our home of 23 years  on Redmond's "Education Hill".  Here Tamarah, Christine, Jennifer, Deborah, Jonathan, Samuel, Benjamin, William, and Joseph were all born.  (William and Joseph were actually born in this home!) We made the decision to homeschool the children and "cherry picked" the music, science and language classes at the Junior High and High School.  Field trips took us to all kinds of wonderful places in the Northwest.  Our spring vacation camping trips to Fort Stevens State Parks were always memorable. Mark was Bishop for a few years, Scoutmaster, and on the High Council (mostly as Stake Mission President).  I served in the Seminary Program and Relief Society.  We decided to expand the ever-shrinking 1900 square feet home into 3800 sq. ft. and began a project that lasted 8 years.  During this time we were far away from the Owen family and loved the reunions that would bring us together every couple of years.  Finally it was decided that it was better to move closer to the corporate offices of the Weiss Company in Portland and we began looking at homes.

Vancouver, WA-18204 NE 23^rd St.  What a wonderful home we finally found on 1.25 acres in East Clark County.  We did a bridge loan and finally sold the Redmond home.  Jennifer finished her Senior-year at Redmond High School and David was courting Launna Richardson when the family moved south.  The Harmony Ward members were welcoming and the children found good friends quickly.  It was wonderful to have room for all the boys projects and Tamarah & Jeff’s wedding reception in the back yard was magical.  It was hard to watch the trees come down and all the new homes built during the 8 years we lived there.  The Weiss Company made some decisions that required us to seek other employment.  We tried to sell the Vancouver home, but in the end rented it out and made the “faith” move to Logan, Utah to attend USU.

Logan, UT – USU Student Housing- San Juan Hall 1359 E. 1000 N. Apt. #101
For five months we lived in tight quarters in the 3 bedroom apartment made for the dorm parents in San Juan Hall.  William and Joseph attended Logan High School.  Mark worked on his Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology and learning sciences and we all worked hard and started looking for a home.  Ben and Jenn also lived here.

Logan, UT-1657 E. 1080 N.  We found a “Grandma house” in the Lundstrom Park area of Logan.  It had a nice back yard and would work great for our family.  We signed papers on my birthday in Jan. 2009.  David and Launna came to stay with us for about five months.  Isaac was born while they lived with us in Logan.  While here, Mark was called to serve as the Bishop in the YSA 46th Ward for 3 years.  Cyndy worked at Sunshine Terrace Foundation.  It took two eventful trips to clean up the house in Vancouver in preparation to sell it.  We were grateful when it finally sold in July 2013.

Each place I’ve called “home” has imprinted my soul with memories both happy and sad.  Now I am 62 years old, we have lots of empty beds, and the bank doesn’t own our home.  We are blessed to have a roof over our head and we praise the Lord for His unending providence as He has provided for all our needs and most of our wants all these years on earth. 

There is great joy in returning to these places where I have lived.  In 2000 we had a sister’s reunion (near Port Townsend, WA) and we spent the day before driving to north to Kala Point in the Portland area.  Ralph was with us and I have tapes of our conversations at each home, remembering the years gone past. 

As Sister Perry sings:

Where the music of my soul
was formed and fashioned
And the rhythm of my life was first begun
And though the years have passed
The memories seem to last
And that’s the joy of coming home 
(See http://ldsmag.com/article/1/14225 to link to the song).

Two Temples in Salt Lake City

Clarissa Chase Weiss’s heritage was that of a strong “pioneer family” (see blogpost: From Quaker to Latter-day Saint) but she fell in love with a handsome Jewish boy from Salt Lake City named Simon Solomon Weiss.   Isaac Chase’s great granddaughter, Clarissa Chase, didn’t have the same kind of deep belief of the Temple’s eternal importance.  She chose a different path from that of her Mormon ancestors.

Simon S. Weiss

Claire’s grandmother, Josephine Streeper Chase, was in Salt Lake City the day the statue of the Angel Moroni and capstone were placed on the Salt Lake Temple in 1892. That same year, Claire’s mother, Emma Amelia Croft Chase, was married in the Logan Temple (March 2, 1892).  These women loved the temple and all it represented.   Mrs. Chase and was very concerned as she watched her eighteen year old daughter’s growing interest in this Jewish boy, Simon.   

Simon’s Orthodox Jewish mother, Annie Weiss, was likewise concerned about their relationship.  “Hannah” had come across the ocean in 1903, with Simon and his two brothers when he was 6 years old.  Annie’s husband, Max, had left Belarus to seek a better life in America eight years earlier.  First they lived in Vernal/Roosevelt area, but she wanted to be closer to the synagogue—her Jewish Temple. 

Montefiore Synagogue-1957
M. Wise (probably our Max Weiss) of Vernal bought a pew in Congregation Montefiore Synagogue on September 4, 1904.  Brooks, Juanita, History of Jews in Utah & Idaho, p. 141.

So in 1907 my husband’s great-grandfather Max Weiss built his wife a home in Salt Lake City (828 Washington Street) and continued to build his business in Northeast Utah.  Imagine commuting between Vernal and Salt Lake in the early 1900’s. 

The Montefiore Synagogue in Salt Lake City was the center of Grandma’s life, and she was so happy when her oldest son, Abraham, was married to Lizzie Benchick in the “proper Jewish way” in their Jewish Temple (Montefiore Synagogue) by Rabbi Zorach Bielsky.

Michael & Hannah (Max & Annie) Weiss Family

Standing L to R:

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Benchick Weiss, husband, Abraham (Abe) Weiss,

Simon Solomon Weiss, Samuel George Weiss

Front L to R:

Annie (Hannah) Wahrhaftig, Morris Weiss, Max (Michael) Weiss

But Simon didn’t feel the same way about his mother’s Orthodox Jewish beliefs. As Annie watched her son fall in love with Clair, the beautiful Mormon girl, she was deeply concerned about his choice.

In 1918, the Jewish boy and the Mormon girl decided to elope.  They each knew that they couldn’t get their family’s permission to marry outside of their respective temples, so they planned to get married at the City/County Building. 

Salt Lake City and County Building

Claire tells about her wedding day in 1918 in a video interview in 1981 at the age of 81:

The temperature was so that my new high heels sunk into the asphalt on Main Street.  It was so hot!  And then we went not to the Hotel Utah or the bridal suite or anyplace like that, we went to what was really a tavern then, a businessman’s hotel that used to be on the south side of 2^nd So. Between Main and West Temple called Killen Hotel.  And he got a room and we took all our things up there and got dressed and went down to the city County building and got married.  The County Clerk signed our marriage license.  We were just married by the County Clerk of Salt Lake County in the old City/County Building.

Marriage Certificate from June 5, 1918

And we walked out and as we started walking up the hall of the Justice Building and ran right into my Uncle Milton Croft, my mother’s brother.  And he said, “What have you kids been doing?” 

We were caught in the act.  So we just said, (Si said), “I just registered for the draft and Clair and I just got married.”

“You didn’t!”

We said, “Yes we did” and I showed him my wedding ring.

And he said, “Now, I want you to do this.  I want you to go straight home to your mother—right now—and tell her.”  And so we did.  We said, “We will.”

First we went right up to my mother’s and walked in the house and Si said, “Mrs. Chase, Claire and I got married.”

“You what?”

“Claire and I got married.”

And my mother (Emma Amelia Croft Chase) broke down sobbing, sobbing, sobbing and she just kept sobbing so you couldn’t even talk to her.  She just kept sobbing, sobbing.

And my husband, Simon said, “Mrs. Chase, don’t cry, please don’t cry.  I love Claire and I’ll always take good care of her.  I’ll never forsake her.  I will always take care of her and treat her wonderfully and you’ll like me for it.”

So we finally go her calmed down enough so we could leave after an hour or two.  We were there about two hours trying to calm her down.  My father (Frank Leslie Chase, on the other hand, gave his blessing.  He said, “I hope you’ll just be as happy as can be.”  Because we HAD gotten married. 

Clarissa Chase Weiss-about 1976

I’m sure it nearly broke the heart of Mark’s Jewish great-grandmother to see her son Simon marry out of the Jewish faith.*   Simon Weiss and Claire Chase’s union was among the first Mormon-Jewish marriages in Salt Lake City.   In 1918 it was quite rare to have interfaith marriage.  Today, many of their descendants are less active or non-members in the Mormon faith and know very little about the Jewish faith of their fathers. 

How thankful I am for Holy Temples and for those who sacrificed so much to build them. 

When I take part in the ordinances inside these Holy Temples I remember the pioneers who sacrificed so much to build these grand “houses of God”.

 

Mark and I like to tell our children that we had a “Temple Courtship”:  He proposed to me in the Manti Temple, gave me my ring in the Provo Temple, and we were married in the Salt Lake Temple.

It is my belief that what goes on inside these modern Holy Temples truly matters.  It is, however, what goes on inside of you that matters most.  It is a decision to have an eternal “forever family.”

Carved in stone on east side of Salt Lake Temple-Holiness to the LORD

Outside the all LDS temples on the east side is carved these words:

“Holiness to the Lord-The House of the Lord.”

May we and all the Weiss descendants seek the sacred ordinances and blessings found inside the Holy Temples of God.

=======Notes on Jewish and Mormon views on intermarriage=======

*All branches of Orthodox Judaism view intermarriage as wrong and refer to intermarriage as a "Second Silent Holocaust."

According to the Torah, Jews should not intermarry because their children will turn to other religions. "You shall not intermarry with them: do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. For you will turn your children away from Me to worship other gods..." (Deuteronomy 7:1-3).  (see Lisa Katz, Jewish View of Intermarriage.) 

LDS.org references these passages regarding a man and a woman of different religious beliefs and practices:  You shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites: Gen. 24:3   If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, what good shall my life do me?: Gen. 27:46; ( Gen. 28:1–2; ) Israel shall not marry the Canaanites: Deut. 7:3–4;  We would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: Neh. 10:30; If a man marry a wife not by me, their covenant and marriage is not of force when they are dead: D&C 132:15;

LDS.org says:  To be exalted in the highest degree and continue eternally in family relationships, we must enter into “the new and everlasting covenant of marriage” and be true to that covenant. In other words, temple marriage is a requirement for obtaining the highest degree of celestial glory. (See D&C 131:1-4.)