BIOGRAPHY: S. B. Chase, M.D. From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************* S. B. Chase, M. D. Prominent among the early settlers of Mitchell County, the name of Doctor S. B. Chase, of Osage, may be mentioned. Prominent among the most enterprising and liberal spirited of its citizens, continued mention of his name may be made. In all matters of interest pertaining to the development, prosperity and welfare of Osage and Mitchell County, he has not asked others to lead that he might follow, but has lead while others followed -- true followers they have been, co-equal in earnestness and enterprise with the leader -- and the writer means no disrespect to them, but in every case involving public spirit some one must lead, and can succeed only when supported by determined and energetic followers. Particularly has he been prominent in the establishing and building up of the City of Osage. He was one of the first to discover the feasibility of planting a village here -- was ever confident, and his confidence was not misplaced, that this could be made the most populous town in the county, by a proper and well directed effort -- yet it has required a succession of efforts -- but owing to his untiring zeal, and that of men of his ilk, it has become one of the pleasantest and most promising of the towns of Northern Iowa -- made prominent and highly prized for its religious, educational and business advantages. Doctor Chase was born October 4, 1821, in Limington, Maine. With his father and mother, Moses and Mary Chase, he went to Scarborough, Maine, at the age of four years, where he lived until 1849. His father served in the War of 1812, though but fifteen years of age. He is emphatically a self-made man, having labored on his father's farm until 1842, at which time his father died. Enjoying only the advantages of the limited education afforded by a few months country school, his first effort was to prepare himself for teaching, at which he succeeded. He taught school as a means of educating himself, and fitted for college at Parsonsfield Seminary and Limerick Academy. He read medicine with Doctor Larrabee, a distinguished physician of Portland, and graduated from the Medical Department of Bowdoin College, in the Spring of 1840, and entered upon the practice of his profession in the City of Portland, Maine, in June of the same year, where he remained in the enjoyment of a large practice until September, 1855, when he moved with his family to Decorah, Iowa. He remained at Decorah during the opening of the United States Land Office, and moved to Osage--then little more than a prairie--in January, 1856, which, in February following, for himself and others, he laid off and platted what has grown to be the beautiful City of Osage. He was appointed postmaster of Osage in the Spring of 1856; held the office until September, 1857, when he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office, which position he held until September, 1859, when all the public lands having been sold, the office was closed. In the Summer of 1860 he moved to Des Moines, and there entered upon the practice of his profession, but at the urgent solicitation of friends--especially his aged mother and only brother--returned to Osage and resumed his practice there, in which he still continues. He was married Sept. 3, 1846, to Miss Almira B. Cobb, of Limington, Maine. Mr. and Mrs. Chase have four children living, two sons and two daughters. They lost one child--a son--at Osage, in 1856. One daughter is married to Doctor Whitley, and resides at Osage; the other daughter is unmarried. One son, Doctor Frank W. Chase, graduate of Rush Medical College, married to Miss F. C. Babcock, and practicing medicine at Shenandoah, Iowa. The other son, a recent graduate from Ames, now reading law.