Biography of 	Thomas B. Chase, New Orleans & Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by	Suzanne Shoemaker January 1999

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Thomas B. Chase, president of the Merchants & Farms Bank, broker and
insurance agent, is a native of Florida, born on November 29, 1843, and 
is the son of George E. and Elizabeth (Flower) chase, the father a 
native of Boston, Mass., and the mother of New Orleans, La.  The father 
was an army officer and held the rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel of 
the United States army, stationed at Pensacola, Fla.  He had been 
stationed at Pensacola for a number of years previous to his death, 
which occurred in 1844.  The same year his widow, with the family, 
removed to New Orleans, La., where her death occurred in 1862.  They 
were the parents of three children:  Mrs. Anna G. Hodges (of New 
Orleans), William F. (of Shreveport), and our subject.  Thomas B. 
Chase, the youngest of this family, secured a good education in the 
schools of New Orleans, and then clerked for a short time, or until the 
breaking out of the war.  In 1862 he enlisted in Crescent Regiment, and 
served two years.  He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh, was 
captured, and recaptured by his own regiment while in the Federal
lines.  He was taken to New Orleans, was there when the city was taken 
and was again returned to the Federal line, but was paroled.  The last 
year of service he was detailed by Gen. Kirby Smith at headquarters.  
Returning to Shreveport after the war, he kept books for seventeen 
years, eleven years for Hicks & Howell.  He then embarked in the 
insurance and brokerage business, and has carried it on ever since.  He 
represents nine insurance companies, whose combined capital is nearly 
$30,000,000, while he is agent, has a capital of $100,000,000.  he was 
made president of the Merchants & Farmers Bank in February, 1890.  He 
is a member of the board of administrators of Charity  Hospital, and is 
one of the board of managers of the Y. M. C. A.  He is a Knight Templar 
in the Masonic fraternity, and is past master.  He is also a member of 
the K. of P., and represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge, and was 
recently elected vice-president of the Shreveport Cotton Exchange.  He 
is secretary and treasurer of St. Mark's Episcopal Church.  Mr. Chase 
was married in 1868 to Miss Helen S. Ckline, a native of Mississippi.  
He has been a resident of Shreveport for twenty-six years, and is 
interested in the city's advancement in many ways.  He is the owner of 
some real estate.

Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890