Cumberland County NJ Archives Biographies..... Rufus Messenger CHASE, 1814 - 1879
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 August 10, 2015, 8:33 pm

Source: See Below
Author: Eliza E. Chase

        RUFUS MESSENGER CHASE, M. D.
     Communicated by His Daughter Miss Eliza E. Chase.

     Dr. Rufus M. Chase was born in Bridgeton, Maine, October 1, 1814. His
father was Rev. Rufus Chase, a Baptist minister. When a lad he attended
Bridgeton Academy. Afterward the family home was at Portland, Maine. He prepared
for college at Kennebunk Academy, but owing to impaired health he did not enter
as intended upon the regular college course, but attended medical lectures at
Dartmouth, N. H., graduating at Bowdoin in the year 1840.

     For twenty-one years he practiced among the Maine hills, one year in
Winslow, Maine, twenty in Somerset county in the village of Canaan. Often, in
after years did he say that he regretted the twenty-one years he rode over those
hills, enduring the hardships common to a country doctor during a New England
winter, but the people of that Somerset county town and adjacent villages did
not regret any of the years he dwelt among them, only his departure. Yet do many
of the old people recall the time when he was their physician, although in the
days he lived among them he differed with many of them often.

     A Republican from the formation of the party, a worker during the early
agitation of the temperance question in Maine, he seemingly made many enemies as
well as friends, yet even the former, in sickness and trouble, would have 110
other physician and in after years gave him a heart}r welcome when he visited
his old home. Dr. Chase was married twice. The death of an infant son was soon
followed by the death of the mother. On February 17th, 1853 he was married to
Abby H. Rollins.

     On account of the ill health of his wife, in 1863 he decided to remove to a
warmer climate. He learned of Vineland and visited it in the early spring of
1863. He was not at all impressed by the appearance of the new town. In New
England the spring was exceedingly backward. The northern states were visited by
severe snow storms as late as the first week of April. In Somerset county,
Maine, the snow was deep, covering the fences. Ox teams could and did travel
across country on the frozen crust of the snow. The contrast between Vineland
and his Maine home was great. There he had left winter; here, during most of his
visit, was nearly summer weather. The edge of those storms may have reached
Vineland, for when Dr. Chase arose one morning the ground was covered with snow.
The chill of the atmosphere added to his previous lack of enthusiasm regarding
the place, determined him to leave at once. He was prevailed upon to stay yet
one more day. By noon the sun was shining, the snow had disappeared and the
place appeared to him in a more favorable light. When he returned home, he was
the possessor of a Vineland farm, a few acres, uncleared. He was going to
Vineland, not as a physician, but as a farmer. He had always delighted to work
in the garden, to raise flowers and fruits. In a number of places where he
boarded when a young man, trees he planted, half a century old stand now as his
monuments. In his old home, what had been a brick yard had become one of the
best gardens in the county. I have a remembrance of pans of peas in the house to
sprout and thus bring forward an early crop, usually by July 4th. When he
returned from New Jersey he brought samples of Vineland soil. Instead of pans of
peas to sprout that spring there were pans of dirt, samples of Vineland sand and
good old Maine loam, baked, to illustrate in some way, that perhaps was clear to
those most interested, the superior virtues of the new land.

     In November, 1863, Dr. Chase and family moved to Vineland. Until a house
could be built on his land on Park Avenue, west, he was glad to be able to
secure two rooms on the second floor of the building on the northeast corner of
Landis avenue and the Boulevard. He might try to see to his land but patients
would come; there were calls for the doctor, and he soon realized that a
physician was needed even in Vineland. That corner room that was sitting room
and sleeping room also had to be office. The following summer he occupied as
home and office the rooms on the first floor of the same building, on the Landis
Avenue side. His plans being changed, for a village home he purchased a lot on
the west side of town. Soon seeing his mistake, he bought on the northwest
corner of Landis Avenue and Sixth Street. A small house was on the lot, which he
remodeled; the main part of the house then, is, I think, now the ell of the
building on that lot.

     Of his practice in Vineland I know this, that in times of much sickness he
was a very busy man. At one time when there were many fevers, he practiced and
rode continually day and night, for days not having rest or sleep. His horse
showed the strain first, but another horse was procured. So many very sick
patients had he, however, and the calls so urgent, that there was no time for
rest for him, until at last, feverish and sick himself, Mrs. Chase was obliged
to drive for him when he paid his last visits to his patients before going home
and to bed, from which he did not rise for many weeks. Owing to the hard work
and illness at this time, he was afterward obliged to give up his practice, and
that was the reason for his leaving Vineland.

     He was one of the organizers of the Baptist Church, of which he was clerk
and trustee; when first organized, superintendent of the Sunday School and a
bible class teacher. In the town where he had lived in Maine he had long taught
an adults' Bible class and did all in his power to keep up the Sunday School. In
Vineland the home had often to be a house of entertainment for the ministers who
were to fill the Baptist pulpit on the coming Sunday. Usually honored guests, an
occasional one there might have been himself anxious to be heard. It was
probably one of the latter, who expressed surprise, and, the hostess thought,
disdain, because strawberries were offered him at breakfast. He said he had
never heard of strawberries for breakfast.

     Dr. Chase was ever true to Vineland's interest. When a New England paper
published the communication of a former visitor to Vineland, ridiculing the town
and much misrepresenting it, knowing the untruthfulness of the statements made
Dr. Chase, when the paper was sent to him, felt it his duty to give the readers
of that paper a different view of what, by that time, was a promising town. An
anecdote he enjoyed telling was of his interview with a stranger, who inquired
as to the mental capacity of the people who were opening up the tract. "Were
they intelligent?" Dr. Chase pointed to two men who were working for him. "You
see those men?" Fire had been through the woods; the men were employed clearing
the land; the timber was black with smoke; the undergrowth tore their clothes;
they were dressed roughly, for their work; soot, dirt, and torn clothing did not
make them any more presentable. "Those men," said the doctor, "are both college
graduates."

     In the spring of 186S Dr. Chase sold to Dr. Ingram. In 1869 he opened a
drug store at Clayton, N. J., where he continued in business until his death. At
Clayton, there being no Baptist Church, he was a regular attendant of the
Presbyterian Church, and a teacher for some time in the Sunday School. With his
wife he joined the Presbyterian Church there some months previous to his death.

     A man of kindly manners, never aggressive where he differed yet it is not
likely that anyone ever held doubt for a moment as to his opinions on any
important question. He met everyone in a friendly spirit. Men who differed with
him on leading questions were among his friends. Of all who trusted him none
were more sure of his friendship than the children and the young people. The
young mechanics of Clayton, the children in the families where he practiced, the
friends of his daughters, all were his friends; he was always interested in what
concerned them, all were sure of his interest and sympathy. A sincere Christian;
a man strongly attached to his family, loyal to his friends; gentle and kind in
disposition, while the trouble of others might make him sad and cause him to
feel worried, it could truthfully be said of him that to outward seeming he was
never unhappy; always generous and helpful to all he could help. Two weeks
before his death he said of his profession: "Had I my life to live over again I
should follow the same profession."

       After a sickness of ten days he passed into the other life December 28th,
1879, with the words on his lips, "All is well."

       Plainfield, N. J.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

THE EARLY PHYSICIANS OF VINELAND, N. J.
Published by the VINELAND HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY 
1903


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