Biographical Sketch of

Perley Groves Chase

Transcribed by Sandy Boudrou



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 520 - 521 


Perley Groves Chase, real-estate broker and money loaner, is a pioneer of Berlin of 1852.  He was born in Bridgeton, 
Cumberland Co., Maine, September 22, 1810, and is a son of Joseph and Sabra Chase.  The Chase family was founded in 
America by three brothers.  Thomas, William and Aquilla, who emigrated from England to America in 1628, only eight 
years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, and settled in the Plymouth Colony.  They soon afterwards separated, 
however, one going to Virginia, another to New Hampshire, while the third, Aquilla, remained in Massachusetts.  He is 
the progenitor of the branch of the family to which our subject belongs.
 
Joseph Chase, father of Perley, on attaining his majority wedded Miss Sabra Wheeler, the only child of Gen. Rufus 
Wheeler, one of the valiant soldiers of the Revolutionary War.  Her family was one of the old established families 
of the Massachusetts Colony and for many years resided in Boxford.  
 
Our subject passed his early life upon a farm and assisted his father in milling until he had attained to man's estate, 
when he began working at the carpenter's trade.  In 1834 he left home and went to Bangor, Maine, where he was employed 
at his trade for three years.  In the meantime, he was united in marriage with Miss Caroline, youngest daughter of Asa 
Colby, Esq., the wedding being celebrated on Nov. 15, 1837, in Brownfield, Oxford Co., Maine, where Mrs. Chase was born 
Oct. 18, 1812.  Their union was blessed with a family of five children, two sons and three daughters, but only one son 
and one daughter are now living--Orland F., the eldest, who was born in Belfast, Waldo Co., Maine, married Addie Jones 
of Berlin and is now employed as traveling agent for Yates & Forbes of the Berlin Wood Polishing Machine Works; Ella, 
the surviving daughter, is the widow of Elwin A. Thomas, late a merchant of Berlin, who died leaving a wife and two 
children--Lute, now fifteen years of age, and Jessie T., aged thirteen years.
 
Soon after his marriage, Mr. Chase removed with his young bride from Bangor to Portland, Maine and on account of physical 
disability was forced to abandon his trade.  This led him to seek employment elsewhere and in the spring of 1838, he 
engaged with the firm of Hayes & Covill, manufacturers of and dealers in hats, caps and furs, at that time the heaviest 
firm in that line in the United States.  After becoming thoroughly acquainted with the business, he went on the road, 
traveling for the same house for seven years, in all the New England States, Canada and New Brunswick.  At the expiration 
of that time he removed to Denmark, Oxford Co., Maine, and embarked in business for himself in the manufacture of hats, 
caps and furs, which he sold from wagons through the country.  He continued in that business until 1852, and during that 
time served six years as Deputy Sheriff and also discharged the duties of Town Clerk and Justice of the Peace.  In the 
spring of the year last mentioned above he determined to try his fortune in the West and emigrated from Maine to Berlin, 
Wis., then known as Strong's Landing.  On his arrival he leased the warehouse of Harvey Stedman and engaged in business 
in that line for two years, while during the winter season he bought grain and packed pork.  In the fall of 1845, he 
bought an $8,000 stock of goods in New York City with which to open a general store in Berlin.  The goods arrived in 
Sheboygan too late in the season for transportation by water and had to be hauled eighty miles by team to their 
destination.  In order to reduce the cost of transportation Mr. Chase purchased wheat in Berlin at fifty cents per bushel 
and hauling it to Sheboygan sold it for ninety cents on the Lake, paying only eight cents per bushel for hauling.  He 
made seven trips, driving one team himself and found at the close that the profit on his wheat and salt (having brought 
that commodity when he did not have full loads of goods) came within $47 of paying his freight bill of $700 and the cost 
of transportation from Sheboygan.  He began mercantile business in Berlin in the fall of 1854, in company with Benjamin 
J. Phillips, with the Hon. A. M. Kimball, now of Pine River, as clerk.  He also became interested with Benjamin J. 
Phillips in a saw mill at Mukwa, on the Wolf River and for a while did an extensive lumber business, the lumber being 
boated down the Wolf and up the Fox to the Wisconsin and marketed in the large cities of Iowa on the Mississippi.  In 
1885, he sold out his interest to his partner on account of ill health, but when matters were arranged it was found that 
he had lost nearly everything.  For a few years, he lived a retired life, when after somewhat recovering his lost health, 
he traveled for a year and a half in the interest of Howe Scale Company, during which time he sold and set up fifty-two 
Howe hay scales, and many other scales, in Wisconsin.  Later he invented a bed bottom which he sold for a while.  He next 
bought a patent right and manufactured washing machines during 1860-61 in Augusta, Maine, but finally sold the right in 
Maine for $8,000.  The succeeding two years he was again out of business, and at the end of that time engaged in 
auctioneering.  In 1864, he was elected County Surveyor, and in 1856 was appointed postal route agent of the old Milwaukee 
& Horicon Railroad which he resigned after one year in favor of his son.  While serving as County Surveyor, he became 
interested in the real-estate business and has continued in that line more or less ever since. During the years 1880 and 
1881, he served as Under Sheriff of Green Lake County, and in that position as in all public offices which he has filled, 
discharged his duties in an able and prompt manner.  He is a warm supporter of the Democratic party, with which he has 
cast his ballot since attaining his majority.
 
Socially, Mr. Chase is a Master Mason, belonging to Berlin Lodge, and was previously an Odd Fellow.  He was reared in 
the faith of Baptist Church and contributes liberally to the support of that religious organization.  He has always been 
ready to aid the sick and afflicted and his services have been sought extensively in the laying out of the dead and in 
conducting funerals, more so than falls to the lot of most people.  He has closed the eyes of seventy-four dying people 
and has conducted eighty-two funerals.  Mr. Chase is now seventy-nine years of age and is the oldest of a family of 
twenty-four children, ten of whom belong to his mother, while the remaining eleven were by a step-mother.  Sixteen of 
that number are yet living.  Mr. Chase is well preserved both physically and mentally and is actively engaged in business. 
He has led an industrious and useful life and is held in high regard by his fellow citizens.  He is as active as many men 
at the age of fifty.






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