Isaac H. Chase Biography


	This biography appears on pages 660-663 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				ISAAC H. CHASE. 

	One of the prominent residents of Rapid City is Isaac H. Chase, 
merchant and capitalist, whose well formulated plans in business have 
been carried forward to successful completion and whose investments 
have been most judiciously made. He was born in Kingston, New 
Hampshire, in October, 1843, a son of Amos and Hannah (Hook) Chase. The 
former was a well known carriage manufacturer and business man in that 
state. Our subject attended the common schools of his native town and 
in 1867, when a young man of nineteen years, came to the west, making 
his way first to St. Anthony, Minnesota, now a part of the city of 
Minneapolis. He began his business career there as a clerk in a 
clothing store and was thus engaged when he heard stories concerning 
the Black Hills and the finds there made. He was among the earliest 
pioneers of the Black Hills country, going to Deadwood in July, 1877. 
He started his first store there in the following September and the 
venture prospered from the beginning. Such was the success of the 
undertaking that he gradually extended his trade connections through 
the establishment of branch stores and for many years was proprietor of 
the leading mercantile houses of Deadwood, Lead, Hot Springs, Sturgis, 
Newell, Rapid City and other places in the western part of the state. 
At the present time he is proprietor of stores in the last five named 
cities, and he has built nineteen stores in the Black Hills in which he 
has sold merchandise at different times. He is well known throughout a 
district one hundred miles square. 

	Outside of his commercial interests, Mr. Chase is one of the 
state's extensive landowners. He has probably done more for the cause 
of dry farming than any other one man in South Dakota and is, in fact, 
as he expresses it, "a dry farming crank." He is the sole owner of 
sixty-three quarter sections of land and on his several improved farms 
has produced results that are incontrovertible proof of his theories 
regarding dry farming. He is thoroughly convinced that the Hills 
country is the best place to make realty investments and is always 
ready to buy more land, believing that it will double in value several 
times during the next ten years. Mr. Chase was one of the leading 
figures among the pioneers of early Deadwood in the days when it was 
known as a bonanza camp, when the placer diggings were returning rich 
rewards to the miners. The richness of the pay dirt may be imagined 
from a statement by a Mrs. Hildebrand, who did washing for many of the 
miners. She stated that the gold washed from the miners' heavy woolen 
shirts paid her more than they did for the work and this at a time when 
laundry prices were many times the present rates. Mr. Chase has always 
been more or less interested in mining ventures but his energies have 
largely been devoted to his extensive mercantile interests. 

	Mr. Chase has been twice married and has six children and seven 
grandchildren. He first wedded Newell Gilman, a daughter of John 
Gilman, one of the earliest and prominent pioneers of Minnesota and 
later of the Black Hills, where he arrived in 1877. The second wife of 
our subject bore the maiden name of Frances Stevens and is a daughter 
of Colonel John H. Stevens, known as the father of Minneapolis who was 
the first settler where Minneapolis now stands, a statue being erected 
to his memory there. He took part in the Mexican war and was prominent 
in public life, serving as senator, as a member of the house of 
representatives and in many other offices of honor and trust. Mrs. 
Chase can trace her ancestry back to Mayflower passengers in both the 
paternal and maternal lines. The children of Isaac H. Chase are as 
follows: Elizabeth, the wife of F. E. Steele, manager of the Sturgis 
store; Fannie, the wife of Fred Knockenmuss, manager of the Rapid City 
store; Blanche, the wife of George Williams, an attorney of Rapid City; 
Nellie, a teacher of elocution in the Oklahoma State Normal School; 
Isaac H.; and Newell Helen, now attending school. 

	Mr. Chase is one of the strong characters whose energies and 
business acumen have counted for much in the development of the Black 
Hills country. He has been conspicuously successful as a result of 
close application, hard work and the utmost conformity to 
straightforward business methods and ideals. He has some very valuable 
paintings in his home, and his wife is one of the social leaders in 
their community.