My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM CHACE, M.D., a well-known physician of Mayville, of thirty-two years’ continuous practice, was born at St. Catherines, in Lincoln county, province of Ontario, Canada, January 4, 1833, and is a son of Dr. William C. and Celinda (Holden) Chace. The Chace family was one of the early settled families of New York and in every generation from its first settlement in the Empire State to the present time it has numbered among its members one or more physicians. Dr. William Chace (grandfather) was born in Coventry, October, 1754, and became a resident of Washington county, this State, where he practiced medicine for many years. He served as a physician and surgeon in the Continental armies during the Revolutionary war and after its termination resumed his practice in Washington county, where he afterwards died. One of his sons was John Chace, who was a lawyer, practiced at Mayville for some time and then went South. Another son, Dr. William C. Chace (father), was born in Easton, Washington county, N. Y., August 19, 1795, and came about 1814 to this county where he studied medicine under Dr. Jedediah Prendergast, of Mayville, and attended Geneva Medical college from which he was graduated. After graduation he went to southern Indiana where he remained two years and then went to St. Catherines, Canada, upon the urgent solicitation of Hon. W. H. Merritt, who married a daughter of Dr. Jedediah Prendergast, and who was at that time largely interested in various business enterprises and quite prominent in Canadian political affairs. Mr. Merritt desired Dr. Chace’s assistance as a partner in the manufacture of salt on a large scale, but about this time salt-brine was found in abundance at Syracuse, New York, and its subsequent manufacture into salt, with which the market was filled rendered the Canadian salt wells unprofitable property. Dr. Chace soon withdrew from the company in which he was interested and engaged in the general mercantile business which he followed for several years. While engaged in salt manufacturing he made the discovery of the medicinal properties possessed by the water which is left after extracting the salt from the salt-brine. Dr. Chace was engaged in the mercantile business and practice of medicine at St. Catherines until 1855, when he returned to Mayville, where he practiced for some years and where he died in 1876, at eighty years of age. He was a republican and a vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was married three times. His first wife was Marv Brundige, who died and left him one child: James B., now deceased. He married for his second wife Celinda Holden and after her death wedded Susan Evans. By his second marriage he had five children: William and Mary, who died in infancy; Eliza (deceased); Dr. William, and John (dead). Mrs. Celinda (Holden) Chace was born August 30, 1802, and passed away in the spring of 1834. She was a daughter of William Holden (maternal grandfather), who was a native farmer and life-long resident of Tompkins county.

William Chace received his literary education in St. Catherines academy and read medicine with his father. He entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York city, and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1858. Immediately after graduation he came to Mayville where he remained ever since and has been engaged successfully in the practice of his profession. August 7, 1861, he married Mary L. Green, daughter of William Green, of Mayville. They are the parents of four children: three of whom are of age and graduates of Hobart college, Geneva, N. Y.; Dr. William H., a resident physician of Buffalo, who read medicine with his father, was graduated from Buffalo Medical college in the class of 1887, and is the physician in the fourth generation of the Chace family of New York; Clarence H., read law with Williams & Potter, was admitted to the bar in 1888, married Alice, daughter of William P. Taylor, of Buffalo, and is a member of the bar of that city; John O., book-keeper for the Buffalo Storage company, and George.

Dr. William Chace is a vestryman in the Protestant Episcopal church — the church of his forefathers. He is a democrat and a Fellow of the New York State Medical Association. He has a large and remunerative practice at Mayville and the surrounding country. He is interested, to some extent, in agricultural pursuits and owns farms in the immediate vicinity of the county seat. He belongs to an old and worthy family, and his Christian name, William, appears in each one of its generations since it was founded in the Empire State, and in every instance has been borne by a physician of ability and reputable standing. Dr. William Chace is a Past Master of Peacock Lodge, No. 696, F. and A. M., a Past Master and High Priest of Westfield Chapter, No. 239, H. R. A. M., and a member of Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar.