Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Chase, Hattie 1897
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net July 30, 2010, 3:16 pm

The Belding Banner, Thursday, September 16, 1897
In the death of Mrs. Frank R. Chase, who died at Smyrna on Thursday, September 
9th, this whole community has lost a dearly beloved and most valued friend.  
Mrs. Chase had the happy faculty of endearing herself to everybody who had the 
good fortune to know her.  It was indeed a privilege to be admitted within the 
circle of this lady’s acquaintance.  It would be no extravagance to say that 
none knew her but to love her, while within the more restricted circle of her 
intimates this love sent its roots deep down in the heart and with some it 
amounted almost to idolatry.  It can be truly said of her that she loved 
humanity, and that she manifested this love in a thousand different ways.  She 
was genial, kindhearted, charitable, not in the perfunctory way that so many 
are, but actively, and in ways that took much of her time as well as money.  
No one ever appeared to Mrs. Chase for aid and went away empty handed.  She 
had that rare and delicate sympathy for those who were in distress, either 
from poverty or crushed down under the burden of some great sorrow that made 
her seem a ministering angel to many: and indeed it would be difficult, in 
searching the entire community in which she lived, to find a single person who 
had not at sometime or other received a kindness at her hand.

All the children and young people loved her.  She took such a hearty interest 
in their sports and pleasures.  They felt her death deeply, and when the sad 
announcement was made the flag upon the school house was placed at half mast 
as a touching testimonial to the fond place she will ever hold in their 
memory.  It may be mentioned too that during her long illness the village 
band, which she had asked and encouraged ever since its organization, used to 
come and play before the house the tunes she liked best.

During the last few years of Mrs. Chase’s life , when she knew that sooner or 
later she must fall the victim to an incurable and malignant disease, she 
would go about just the same, performing her kind offices of sympathy and 
love, and no one into whose presence she came ever felt that she brought with 
her and atmosphere of gloom.  No one could tell, if left to judge, from the 
sweet serenity of her lovely face, that the dread disease was slowly but 
surely eating away her vitality and strength.  Carefully this noble and heroic 
woman hid the sad fact from her friends and it is doubtful if those even who 
were the nearest and dearest to her, knew much concerning it.  She knew that 
at most she had but a few years to live, and yet she was determined that no 
gnawing grief of her own should cast its shadow over the household, or make 
sad the hearts of those she loved.  Her face ever wore its pleasant smile and 
she always had a cheery word for everybody.  This heroism, this patient 
suffering, is as noble as it is pathetic, and the recollection of it will not 
be the least of the many tributes that affection will pay to this almost ideal 
character.

It is needless to say that Mrs. Chase was a loving and affectionate wife, a 
true and devoted mother and sister.  The bereavement that has come upon this 
family is almost too sacred to dwell upon in public print, but those whose 
hearts are aching with their great sorrow will perhaps feel something less of 
bitterness in the consciousness that they have the deepest and most tender 
sympathy of all their friends.

Mrs. Chase (nee Hattie Flood) was a daughter of Gen. Martin A. Flood and 
Prudence D. Flood and was born at Brooklin, Wisconsin, September 28th, 1846.  
She was married to Major Frank R. Chase at Warsaw, Illinois, October 6th, 
1870, and at the time of her death was nearly fifty-one years of age.  There 
were three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Chase: the first, Bertha Lou (Daisy) 
died when an infant of two years and was buried at Warsaw; the second, Dora 
D., who was married four years ago to Dwight C. Sheldon, and the third, 
Carroll Flood Chase, who was living at home at the time his mother died.  Mrs. 
Chase left surviving her, three brothers and one sister: Capt. R. E. Flood, 
St. Louis, Mo.; Martin A. Flood, Tustin, California; Ed. E. Flood, Chicago, 
Ills.; and Mrs. Mary A. Fitfield of South Lancaster, Mass.

The funeral ceremony was conducted at the home of the deceased by Rev. D. E. 
Hills of Greenville upon Sunday last and the interment was in the cemetery at 
Smyrna.  The service was very impressive and the silent tear drop which 
moistened the eyes of many of the large number in attendance freely attested 
the love and respect they bore the deceased.  The singing was by the 
Greenville choir under direction of Miss Fish, a lifelong friend of the 
family, and the remains were borne to the cemetery by Wm. Sheldon, Carroll 
Chase, Wm. Just, Dwight Sheldon, Geo. Hoppough and E. E. Flood.


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