Duval County FlArchives Biographies.....Chase, Frank Emanuel 1866 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 11, 2008, 8:00 pm Author: B. F. Johnson (1909) Frank Emanuel Chase While every business enterprise demands a high degree of energy, watchfulness and careful development before it shall have reached a successful stage, yet much also depends on the environment selected as a basis for business operations. Many localities, by reason of the position, are in many ways inaccessible thus necessitating high railroad rates and often insufficient railroad connections while the character of citizens who compose a community are often a powerful influence in determining business success. The city of Jacksonville, Fla., is admirably adapted to a high class of commercial enterprise. Geographically, it is centrally located and is in direct rail communication not only with all portions of the State, but with all parts of the country. In addition it has water facilities which create a competition in the transportation line and naturally gives better rate adjustments for the merchants. Then, too, the people of Jacksonville are of a high degree of cultivation. They are often natives of other parts of the country where the development has most rapidly advanced and their tastes and inclinations are, therefore, such as to require certain conditions in their new home such as they left in the old. This demand has naturally raised the standard of demand for manufactured articles and has served in a great measure to cultivate and create needs which might not be so keenly felt by a less cosmopolitan population. The people, however, who are natives of Florida have had always the advantage of this wider contact, and it has served to make the State the peer of any, even the most populous one in the Union. The mercantile life of Jacksonville can be statistically proven to far excel in point of financial return, that of any other city of its size in the South, and it is this growing commercial importance which has attracted to the city men of progressive and aggressive business methods. That they have found here the very field for which they sought and in so finding it have remained to reap the rich harvest which waits only to be gathered is amply borne out by the records of those who have selected the city as a place of permanent residence, and a point from which they may trade not only with the surrounding country, but with all other parts of the South as well. Commercial enterprises which involve much capital and whose output is of the very highest order are numerous in Jacksonville, and one of those which has shown marked success in its management and which owes its growing success to the intelligent guidance of its President is the Cable Piano Company of which Frank Emanuel Chase is the President. To many it might seem that the business of managing a piano company would not differ in many particulars from that of any other business enterprise, but this business is of so exacting a character and it presupposes so large an outlay of capital in its every transaction that it requires many years of careful training in this particular line to enable any man to reach success in this field. Mr. Chase comprises in himself many of the elements which unite in creating for his business a certain high character and with his years of training, his charming and cultivated personality, he has proven not only an acquisition to the business world of Jacksonville, but to its social life as well. He has lived, as it were, in a sort of musical atmosphere, his father being a music teacher, and he himself having never been engaged in any other business. He was born in Columbus, Ga., December 9, 1866, his parents being Geo. W. and Abie (Hoyt) Chase. He began his business life in the town where he was born, and at the early age of twenty, he was a piano dealer of no mean proportions. In fact, so successful was he in this business that he soon received an offer to act as general agent for the largest house in Atlanta which he accepted and in which capacity he served his employers with the utmost satisfaction until he decided to become the Florida manager of the famous Cable piano. This necessitated his moving to Jacksonville, which he did in 1898, since which time his business has grown steadily until it is today one of the leading music houses in the entire State. Mr. Chase received his education in the public schools of Columbus, Ga., and so well did he avail himself of what he learned there and what he has since acquired in the world of men and of affairs that he is one of the leaders in all prominent affairs in Jacksonville, and is one of its most respected citizens. He believes that the best interests of the State and of the nation can be best subserved by applying honest business methods to their management, and he declares that business success is won only by energy, hard work and the closest attention to every detail combined with an unflagging ambition to make his own enterprise the very best that could be had under any and all circumstances. He is an ardent advocate of all reform which tends toward the betterment of mankind, and he daily practices his own theories in this particular. He believes that one's fellowman can best be helped by the constant application of common sense and strictest honesty to conditions as they confront one day by day, and his own career is a striking illusration of this ideal. He is a man of broadest humanitarianism and he holds the position of President of the Jacksonville Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, while he is also an influential member of the Jacksonville Board of Trade, and the Jacksonville Base Ball Association. From these diverse positions it will be seen that Mr. Chase is a man of varied and cultured tastes, progressive and enterprising as well as an advocate of judicious sport. He is a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Elk's Club of Jacksonville, but is affiliated with no church. He is a man who has given considerable thought to civic affairs and, especially to those relating most directly to the State of Florida and the result of his observations is the belief that the State would be materially helped by a system of good roads extending over it in all directions and that it would also be improved by some small reforms in the convict lease system, and by better educational facilities. Mr. Chase was married November 17, 1891, to Miss Jessie J. Watt, a daughter of the postmaster of Columbus, T. J. Watt. They have one child, a daughter, Bessie May Chase. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. JOHNSON Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/duval/photos/bios/chase67gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/duval/bios/chase67gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 7.6 Kb