52 Ancestors 2019 – 3 – Unusual Name – Marsh Chase

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks has assigned the theme for this week as “Unusual Name.” I have chosen to write about my 2^nd gt-grandmother Lucy Jane (Chase) Shipman's brother, Marsh Chase. His name may not be especially unusual, but seemed to be the most unusual of those ancestor's siblings who were born during this week.

Although Marsh's first name is not all that unusual, those who were indexing the census records for him on Ancestry.com were able to achieve some unusual spellings for his name. It 1870 it became Mash. Then in 1900 it was Massh. They called him March in 1910 and also in 1930. But the most unusual one was in 1920 when his name became Moras Charo. But even with these various spellings, I was able to research him through the years.

Marsh was born 170 years ago, 15 January 1849, in Litchfield County, Connecticut. It was most likely that it was in Goshen township, since he was enumerated on the 1850 census there with his parents, Timothy and Lucy Irene (Howe) Chase, and 5 of his 7 older brothers and sisters. Marsh was the baby of the family, being listed as a 1 year old on that census. By 1860 the family was in Lake County, Ohio, and in 1870 they had moved to Mercer County, Illinois.

By 1874 they had moved again, this time to Saline County, Nebraska where Marsh married Mary Tyacke on 28 November. It must have been near that same time when Marsh filed a homestead application for the north ½ of the southwest ¼ of section 8, in township 6 north, range 1 east, because he was awarded his patent for those 80 acres on 30 June 1879. Apparently his father applied at about that time for the south ½ of that same quarter section. But before the required time to receive his patent, Timothy died 5 July 1877 and the patent was issued to his wife, Lucy Chase, on the same date as Marsh. The 1880 census shows Lucy living with Marsh and his family before her death on 10 March, 1882.

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The land ownership map for Saline County in 1900 shows Marsh as the owner of 160 acres which included his and his parents' homesteads. It does have his name spelled correctly. According to the census, Marsh and his family continued to live in Saline County through 1900, then in 1910 and 1920 and 1930 they were in Furnas County, Nebraska. Mary died there 16 September 1919 and Marsh lived with married daughters until his death 16 August 1935.

Marsh was buried in the Edison Cemetery in Furnas County. An obituary was published in The Edison Echo 22 August 1935. It stated that he and Mary had 4 children, but one died as an infant, so he was survived by a son, John Marsh Chase who was living in Juneau Alaska at that time, and 2 daughters: Mrs. Irene Blauvelt and Mrs. Louisa C. Pearson, both of Edison. There were 15 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. The obituary gave this tribute: He was a kind and loving husband and father and was always thinking of others. His cheerful disposition will be remembered by all who knew him.