History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of their prominent men and pioneers.

6441e,

E. V. CHASE, of Elsie, Clinton Co., Mich., was
born in the township of Gustavus, Trumbull Co.,
Ohio, Sept. 16, 1833. His parents were poor, and
had a hard struggle to support their family. His
father was a millwright, and would have educated
the son to the same trade, but for an accident which
nearly crippled him for life. This determined the
father to put his son at school that he might lay the
foundation for a profession. Mr. Chase taught school
as soon as he was competent, and thus assisted himself until he had acquired not only an academical
but also a professional education. He read medicine
three years with Dr. G. W. Willey, of Spencer, Ohio;
attended lectures in Michigan University; and in the
spring of 1857 settled in the small village of Ovid,
Clinton Co., on the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad.
He married, in the fall of 1857, Miss Emily Wilkinson, an estimable young lady, to whom his success
may, in a measure, be attributed. In the spring of
1860 he removed to the village of Elsie, where he
resided until the commencement of the civil war.
He enlisted as a private in the First Michigan Cav

airy, was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant,
and at the close of the war went with the regiment
across the Plains to Salt Lake City, Utah. In the
spring of 1866 he was mustered out of the service,
and returned to Elsie, where he has since resided, in
the active discharge of his professional duties. He
has been six years supervisor of the township in
which his village is located. In the fall of 1876
he was elected representative to the State Legislature,
by the Republican party, from the first district,Clinton County. So well did he serve his constituents that he was re-elected in 1879. He served upon
several committees, among them that on insane
asylums, in which he held the office of chairman.
His duties necessarily called him away much of the
time from the representative halls, but when present
he was arduously engaged in duties which rank him
among the foremost, always striking at the heart
of any measure to which he was opposed sharp and
effectual blows, that produce more effect than the bold
speculations and fantastical theories which, to a certain extent, characterize many of the representatives.