Kerry Miss Chase

Santa Barbara's Trailblazer
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-911397-88-5
Verlag: Unicorn
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 240 Seiten

This new and comprehensive story of instrumental conservationist Pearl Chase's fascinating life is a tribute to her remarkable achievements. Spending over seventy years pioneering work in preservation, social services, and civic activism, Chase met and corresponded with the most significant influencers of the time. Serving on hundreds of committees and working with organizations, she received over eighty national, state and local awards including two honorary doctorates. Chase was known as Santa Barbara's woman of the twentieth century. Devoted to improving the world around her, Chase was an intrepid, forward thinking, practical-minded leader. Through his meticulous research and with respect for his distinguished American ancestor, British historian, Simon Kerry traces Chase's early life and collegiate years at UC Berkeley through to her return to Santa Barbara and indelible impact on both California and the nation. During a tumultuous period in American history in the early twentieth century, she paved a way for not only the environmentalist movement but also for women's influence in politics in the federal and local civic spheres. Her compassionate, charitable nature extended to many cultural groups and causes, evident in her vocal support of protecting the lands and customs of Native Americans in the southwest.

Simon Kerry was born in 1970 and is an author and businessman. He is also the 11th Earl of Kerry. Kerry is the author of 'Lansdowne: The Last Great Whig' (Unicorn, 2017). He was educated at Eton College and at Cambridge University where he was awarded an MA in Archaeology. He has an MBA from Hult Ashridge and a PhD in History from the University of East Anglia. He is married and has one child. He lives at Bowood in Wiltshire.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kerry, Simon

Leseproben

CHAPTER 1

Early Years

On November 2, 1979, a warm and sunny Friday afternoon, a ceremony was held at Mission Historical Park in Santa Barbara, California: “A Joyous Celebration for a Great Lady,” a community-led memorial service in honor of Pearl Chase.1 The congregation included British aristocracy, Native Americans, Franciscan Friars, Santa Barbara citizens, and local, state, and national officials working in conservation, planning, historic preservation, and community development. The tone was set by a Chumash tribesman, reciting, in his native language, Pearl’s favourite piece of Native American writing, “Great Spirit Prayer.” Superior Court Judge John Rickard, acting as Master of Ceremonies, remarked at the start of the service, “No one likes to imagine what Santa Barbara would have been without her.” The Santa Barbara News-Press described the scene later that week: “Bells rang out at the Old Mission Towers and the invocation was given by Father Virgil Cordano, Pastor of the Mission.”2 After songs and “we remember” talks, Rickard concluded, “Chase was a born leader. A skilful and intelligent one. She earnestly pursued her objective by enlisting the aid of the right people, at the right time, all the time.”3

How did such a life well lived begin?

Pearl, the first child of Hezekiah and Nina Chase, was born in Boston, Massachusetts on November 16, 1888. Her parents deliberately neglected to give her a second name, assuming she would take “Chase” after marriage. Her family was of ancient lineage in both America and England and could trace their roots to Mayflower passengers John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.

4. Hezekiah Smith Chase and Pearl, 1890

Hezekiah was the son of Hezekiah Smith Chase. Hezekiah Smith’s first wife died at thirty-nine in 1855, leaving behind a daughter, Elizabeth. Remarrying a Brookline, Massachusetts resident, Amanda Griggs, he fathered two more children: Hezekiah Griggs, Pearl’s father, in 1861, and Marion, born eight years later. Hezekiah Smith was a half-owner of Chase, Merritt & Co., a manufacturer of boots and shoes headquartered in Boston with factories, in Massachusetts and Maine. Prone to speculating, he invested heavily in transportation, communication, and mining. At his death in 1893, he had enough stock to paper a room.4 A practicing Baptist, serving as Deacon of the Clarendon Street Baptist church, he was motivated by the Puritan belief that work is pleasing to God. He was opposed to slavery, supported Abraham Lincoln, and being too old to fight in the Civil War, advanced money to outfit an entire regiment from Kansas.5

After being awarded a Franklin Medal in Boston’s public schools, Pearl’s father went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.6 His university education was cut short when in 1880 his father lost his sight and Hezekiah was compelled to take on the family business. The following year, upon his mother’s death, he also became head of the household.

Reputed to have slept on a haircloth sofa at the end of his father’s bed with the gas burning to keep warm, Hezekiah found little time for a personal life or recreation.7 It was fortunate that in 1885, through his local church, he met and fell in love with Nina Maria Dempsey. In some ways their meeting may seem unsurprising, given that he went to church twice on Sundays, taught Sunday school, and attended a Wednesday prayer group meeting.

Nina, too, came from a well-connected and devout family. She was a Wheeler, also of English origin, a family that settled in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1799, a branch of the family emigrated north to Norridgewock in Maine. Although the Wheelers were quite clannish and kept in close touch with each other, by the 1870s, different family members were living in a number of states such as California, New York, South Dakota, and Massachusetts.

5. Maria Wheeler

Nina’s mother, Maria Wheeler, remained in Maine. In 1849 she married Hugh Dempsey, an immigrant from Northern Ireland. With a common interest in theology, they lived firstly in Newton Centre, a village within the Boston suburb Newton, where Hugh completed his studies at Newton Theological Seminary, and then later in Fairfield, Maine, where he was a popular Baptist minister. A lover of fast horses, Hugh was killed at forty-three in a runaway accident involving his buggy and a skittish horse. Maria was six months pregnant with Nina at the time. She later remarried, but when her second husband died shortly after, she moved back to Boston with her three children. They were privately educated, and Nina then went on to attend the New England Conservatory.8

Aside from her interest in art and music, Nina was a strong Baptist, faithfully attending the Clarendon Street Church where she met Hezekiah. After a brief courtship, spent mainly on streetcars between their respective houses, they were married on December 30, 1886. Nina was a calm, patient woman with a tender sympathy and an iron resolve. She was perfectly matched to Hezekiah, an ambitious, generous, and athletic man. Both believed that they had, in each other, a precious gift from God.

Pearl was born two years after the Chases wed, and another two years later they welcomed a son, Harold Stuart. Among Pearl’s family papers I discovered a photo of Nina breastfeeding the newborn with Hezekiah standing proudly by her side. It’s clear that the Chases were a remarkably close family from the start.

After his father’s death in 1893, Hezekiah paid off his siblings with the valuable part of the estate and took, as his share, the debts of an unscrupulous business partner—debts he knew he would not collect. While America celebrated the Chicago World’s Fair, the nation was also facing one of the worst economic recessions in decades. The Chase family firm was affected by the downturn and labor disputes; Hezekiah struggled to keep the business going and, in his efforts, suffered a nervous breakdown. In a letter to Nina, he told her how God was giving them a chance to make a turning point in their lives.9

6. Chase, Merritt & Company

7. Newton in the 1880s

8. The Chase house at 19 Parker Street

The following year he sold their house in Chester Square in Boston’s South End and moved the family into a substantial mansard roof property on Parker Street in Newton Centre. Newton, then a growing suburb seven miles west of Boston, was within walking distance of Nina’s mother. Living in a large house with a barn, on grounds planted with many fine trees, Pearl enjoyed her new home and a carefree childhood. Surrounded by people who loved her and a variety of domestic animals including a Saint Bernard and a horse, she was never without attention. In later life she fondly recalled many companions, including the housekeeper who read to her, the family coachman who danced with her, and a young neighbour who wrote plays Pearl would act out. She attended the local kindergarten and went to Sunday school where she developed an abiding interest in mythology and the Bible.10

9. Nina, Pearl and Harold, 1893

Despite moving to “the country,” Hezekiah’s condition did not improve and following his doctor’s advice he and Nina took a long vacation in Europe. Upon returning to Boston he sold the family business and in March 1900, freed of this responsibility and motivated by both new economic prospects and adventure, the Chases travelled to Perris, California, where Nina had a cousin.

10. Arlington Hotel, 1880s

After a stay of three months, when it became “too darned hot” for them, the Chases travelled by train, stage and coach, 165 miles northwest to Santa Barbara where it was only seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit. Nina had visited Santa Barbara in 1885 during a tour of California, a year before her marriage, and had stayed with her uncle who was the then manager of the Arlington Hotel. Regarded as one the most genial hostelry men on the coast and a person of deep public spirit, Charles Wheeler ensured Nina had a wonderful stay she never forgot.

Nina, like thousands of other tourists, became enraptured with the city and state.11 Santa Barbara, with its Mediterranean climate, sun-drenched beaches, rolling hills, oak trees, morning mists, and the moral and intellectual atmosphere of a New England community, acquired a reputation as one of the world’s most ideal health and tourist resorts. Acting as the social center for young and elderly, rich and near-rich alike, the Arlington Hotel was justly famous. Its ninety guest rooms featured marble-mantled fireplaces, running water, gas light, and a...