Amos Chase (1718–1818) was the first deacon of the first Congregational Church and one of the founders of Pepperellborough, ME (which is now
Saco, ME).
[Chase, Lonnie, “Chase-L Archives,” (http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/CHASE/2003-01/1043803638 ), Retrieved 10 Feb 2011.]
Dea. Chase was one of the pioneers in the area. He first came to Saco in about 1734, and soon after the division of the Humphrey Scamman property in 1736, purchased a part of the estate at the lower ferry and built an ordinary (tavern) there. He kept the ferry for several years, and was one of the builders of the first bridge on the west side of Indian Island. He drove the first team of oxen to
Saco, ME, and moved there in 1741. His daughter was the first white child born in the town. Due to Indian wars, he moved to Newbury in 1744, then back to Saco in 1753.
He was chosen as selectman at the first town meeting of Pepperellborough in 1762. Chase was active during the Revolutionary War, serving on the town's first
Committee of Correspondence
The committees of correspondence were, prior to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, a collection of American political organizations that sought to coordinate opposition to British Parliament and, later, support for American independe ...
and on its Committee of Inspection.
[”Note from the Chase Chronicles,” Oct. 1910 (http://www.webnests.com/Chase/chronicles/amos.htm), Retrieved 10 Feb 2011.]
He was a lumberman and farmer, and prominent in religious and civic matters relating to the town and the Saco River. Chase was one of the largest taxpayers in the area. He was described as "stately and commanding in figure, six feet in height, vigorous and erect even in old age, eloquent in conversation and pre-eminently so in prayer." "His tongue seemed oiled from root to tip expressing eloquence. I thought him the finest looking old man I ever saw, long hair down over his shoulders, white as snow..." Chase lived to be 100 years old.
Chase's house in Saco, Maine, still exists (as a private residence) and has been recently restored.
[Brooks, William Grant. "Under the Chase Elms," ''Stories in Song and Other Poems,'' Lewiston, ME, 1900.] The house in which he was born, the
Samuel Chase House in Newbury, Massachusetts, also still stands, and is a rare example of a brick house of the period.
References
External links
Saco, ME Web site History pageDyer Library/Saco Museum Web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Amos
People from Saco, Maine
1718 births
1818 deaths
American Congregationalist ministers
People from Buxton, Maine