Summary Information
Warren Chase Papers
1836-1944
Micro 837
1 reel of microfilm (35mm)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Warren Chase, a spiritualist, social reformer, and politician who was an active participant and leader of the Wisconsin Fourier movement in the 1840s. Chase was also active in Wisconsin, California, and national politics as well as in the abolitionist, feminist, and temperance movements. His papers include correspondence, clippings, certificates, photographs, and two editions of his works in which he expounds on his sentiments on family life, spiritualism, and politics.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-micr0837 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Warren Chase was a spiritualist, social reformer, and politician. Orphaned at an early age and raised as a ward of the village of Pittsfield, N.H., Chase moved to Monroe, Michigan in 1834 and to Southport (Kenosha), Wisconsin in 1838. Interested in Fourier's theories, in 1843-1844 he became a leader of the Southport discussion group which developed into the Wisconsin Phalanx. Chase remained one of its leaders from its move to Ceresco (near Ripon) in 1844 until its dissolution in 1850. Warren Chase carried his reform ideas into politics, serving as a member of the 1846 and 1847-1848 Wisconsin State Constitutional Conventions, as a state senator from 1848-1849, and as an unsuccessful Free Soil gubernatorial candidate in 1849. He opposed political inequalities based on race, sex, or religion, and argued against capital punishment and the alienation of public lands. He was active in the abolitionist, feminist, and temperance movements and earned his living lecturing on spiritualism. After the Phalanx was dissolved, Chase helped found the lyceum of Ripon (1850) and Brockway College (1851) before leaving Wisconsin in 1853 for Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and California. He served as a presidential elector for Horace Greeley in 1872 and in the California Senate from 1879-1882.
Scope and Content Note
The papers consist of two editions of Chase's published works, correspondence of his relatives and descendants, various certificates relating to different aspects of his life, an autographed book, several photographs of relatives, and newsclippings of family obituaries. The volumes, each with a unique inscription by the author, include Chase's sentiments on family life, spiritualism, and politics.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Originals loaned for microfilming by Mrs. Martha Williams, Cobden, Illinois, May 1980. Accession Number: M80-222
Processed by Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, October 1980.
Contents List
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Reel 1
Segment 1
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Correspondence
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Reel 1
Segment 2
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Newsclippings/Obituaries
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Reel 1
Segment 3
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Certificates
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Reel 1
Segment 4
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Photographs
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Reel 1
Segment 5
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Autograph Book
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Reel 1
Segment 5
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Works of Warren Chase, 1856 and 1864
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