Brown County Biographies
From "The Annals of Brown County", Grant Harrington, 1903
Thurston Chase.
It will probably always be a
mooted question as to who was
the first white settler in Brown
county. For years it was supposed
to be Thurston Chase although there
is evidence now to show that a
party of Powhattan settlers beat
him in about thirty days. On May
llth 1854 he took up a claim on the
southwest quarter of 11 3 18. Presdent Pierce had not yet signed the
act organizing the territories of
Kansas and Nebraska. In February
1855 Mr. Chase brought his family
here from Missouri. This claim he
sold the next year and bought one
northwest of Hiawatha. He was a
free state man and canvassed the
county during the border ruffian
trouble with a free soil petition
which was forwarded to President
Buchanan. At the breaking out of
the rebellion he took a party of
twenty-five men to St. Joe where
they enlisted in the Missouri militia,
Mr. Chase being elected second lieutenant of the company. In the
spring of 1862 he returned and help
recruit Company H. of the 13th Kansas and came within two votes of
being elected captain of the Company. He served as a private in
this Company for about three
months when he was discharged
on account of sickness. Upon his recovery he helped recruit Company H.
of the 14th Kansas Cavalry and
served with it as Orderly Sergeant
to the end of the war. When he was
mustered out he returned to his
Brown county farm where he continued to reside until about 1890 when he
moved to Hiawatha. Here he died
in 1892 and was buried in the Hiawatha cemetery. Mr. Chase was an
original member of the first Methodist Church in the county, a member
of the first school board organized
in the county and a member of the
first jury summoned in the county.
He was married four times and a
number of his children still reside in
Brown county.
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Brown Co. KHHP
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This website created Jan. 11, 2012 by Sheryl McClure.
� 2011 Kansas History and Heritage Project
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