Wednesday Evening, July 2, 1924
Reminiscent And Historical
The following clippings from the Messenger and Visitor (now the Maritime Baptist) of May 10, 1905, refer to the lives and death of Rev David Chase and his wife, in the year 1844, of whom reference was made in an item in last week’s issue of the Register. Mrs. Mansfield Nichols, granddaughter of Rev and Mrs. Chase, has requested us to publish these clippings, which should prove of great interest, especially to the older settlers of Western Kings.
Rev. David Chase
(Messenger and Visitor, May 10, 1905)
Often when reading accounts of the lives and grand deeds of departed ministers, such as William Hall, Dr. Welton, and others, my mind invariably turns to one noble man of God, and the wife also being worthy of such a husband. This man was the Rev. David Chase, the first person granted a license to preach from the Second Cornwallis (now Berwick) church. His wife was Jane Morse, a sister of Daniel Morse of Nictaux, after whom her son, also D. M. Welton, was named. No family, I think, is better known today in the Annapolis Valley among Baptist people. Old Mr. Daniel Morse of Nictaux was grandfather of Rev. L. D. Morse, of Wolfville. One sister was Mrs. Sidney Welton, mother of Dr. Welton, another, Mrs. Abel Parker, mother of Rev. D. O. Parker and Rev. David Freeman’s wife. This makes Mrs. Parker grandmother of Mrs. L. D. Morse, also of Mrs. Dr. Trotter of Acadia.
But the one of this family that my letter is especially intended to bring before our minds is gone, the baby of the household, who became, at the age of seventeen, the wife of the Rev. David Chase, left her home and went to a distant part of New Brunswick. In those days it seemed as far away as the North West or British Columbia does now. There at Jemseg this noble couple, rich in faith toward God, worked and prayed, forgetting their own health in their anxiety for the salvation of souls. In many places there were no carriage roads and they went on horseback through paths in the forest. Twice Mrs.. Chase took her wedding ring off her finger and put in the mission box because she had no money to give. The ring was dear to her heart as her husband knew, and once he planned and bought it back, but the second time it had to go. How many would do the same today?
After eight or ten years of hard work, exposure and anxiety, broke the strong constitution, and the faithful child of God laid down the cross and went to receive from his Master the crown. The young wife could not stand the blow (though she thought of her four little ones) and in less than two months they laid her beside her loved one. Mr. Chase died March 24th, and on the 22nd of May the same year, she closed her eyes to earthly scenes to behold the glories of heaven.
Over the graves of this devoted couple the church erected a beautiful monument with told how much they thought of them. One of the sons died at the age of 22. Another son is doing business in England. The two daughters, one Mrs. Jonathan Sanford, the other Mrs. Reuben Loomer, still live in Weston, a branch of the Berwick church. Two gentlemen asked Mrs. Sanford for her father’s license to preach, as they wished to place it in the museum of Acadia College, I suppose it is there today.
DEAR EDITOR: - I have read with interest the sketch of my uncle the Rev. David I. Chase in the MESSENGER AND VISITOR of May 10th. His paternal home was in Welsford, a few miles northward from Berwick. In my early boyhood I remember him visiting my parents, feeble and wasting away in consumption. I send you as a relic of the past a copy of the License given to him in the old Pleasant Valley meeting house seventy-one years ago. I am holding the original, in the Rev. Wm. Chipman’s hand-writing, and characteristic style of composition, with a number of other relics for the Acadia University museum among which is correspondence of Rev. Wm. Chipman and his son Isaac, when Isaac was a student at Waterville, Me., and his youthful autobiography, and journal when a student, and the last letter he wrote to his father, pleading for the college a few days before his untimely death in Minas Basin.
LICENSE OF THE 2ND BAPT. CHURCH FOR BRO. D. I. CHASE
These may certify that our dear brother David I. Chase a member of the 2nd Baptist church in Cornwallis having improved his gifts for some time past in Prayer Exhortation and Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that being satisfied that he has public gifts, do now license him to improve the same in manner as heretofore and wherever the Lord in his wise providence may be pleased to direct his steps. And our prayer to God is, that he may be directed in infinite wisdom, and guided by his Holy Spirit into the mysteries of Redemption, and prove himself to be a good minister of Jesus Christ, and his labors of love hereby be abundantly blessed of the Lord.
Signed in behalf and by order of said church,
ALFRED SKINNER.
Done in Conference, 26th July, 1834.
July 2, 1924
Bluenose Sailor’s Greatness
Nova Scotia’s compelling influence on those who visit it or live in it is illustrated by the hold it has taken of Archibald MacMechan of Halifax, who has been revisiting his native Ontario for a few days. Prof. MacMechan has been at Dalhousie University for over thirty years, and in spare minutes has written entertainingly and with enthusiasm of his adopted Province. His conversation has the same flavor, and it will not be his fault if the "Bluenose" province does not receive due recognition. He was born at Kitchener, and went from Prince Edward County, in Ontario, which has no little pride and tradition of its own, to a Province which is older and as different as the seacoast can be from the interior.
"Traverse the Province from end to end," he once wrote in his little pamphlet, "The Nova Scotia-ness of Nova Scotia," watch the groups at the railway stations, and your chief impression will be of sturdy men, comely women and chubby children, with the good red blood coursing through the clear skin. The cosmetic is fog, perhaps, and sea air. The face of the Nova Scotian girl is often like the face of the wild Nova Scotian rose."
But it is of the sailors of Nova Scotia that Dr. MacMechan is most proud. Last year he published a little book to their glory, called "Sagas of the Sea," real stories of adventure derived from family records and memories, and from documents. The book is a remarkable record of true stories from an adventurous life, and will be followed by another volume in the near future. The following paragraphs from one of the stories. "The Captain’s Boat," reflect the author’s own views of the high place earned by these brave men:
"The deep-sea captains of Nova Scotia took their wives with them on their long voyages; and these stout-hearted women shared with their husbands the perils of great waters. The ship was their floating home; the big, comfortable cabin, the nursery. Nova Scotia children had memories of sliding down the tilted cabin floor in a storm, of ‘northers’ in Valpariaso, of watching a vast expanse of sail against the sky as they lay on the cabin top in halcyon weather.
"No stauncher vessel ever floated than those built in Nova Scotia ship-yards of Bay of Fundy spruce. Their keels furrowed every sea. The master mariners of the Province were a race apart, intrepid, skilled, resourceful, strong in character, strict in discipline, kings of the quarterdeck. They met every chance of the treacherous sea with unshaken hearts. They might be dismasted in the Indian Ocean, or crushed in Arctic ice floes. Yellow fever might carry off their crews in Rio, or their cargo might catch fire off the Horn. One and all they proved equal to every emergency. Wrecks and disasters only threw into relief the heroism of captain and crew. They lived to tell the tale. But the common form of epitaph for many an able ship was "Never again heard of." – Toronto Globe.