Daniel Chase Collection
From his obiturary in the Dennis Register, Barnstable, MA, Thursday 16 Dec 1971 is the following: “Daniel Chase, 81 of 116 New Boston Rd. died last Tuesday at his home. He was born in Newward, NJ, son of Almont and Lieticia (Simpson) Chase. A retired writer during World War II he worked in military research in Washington, D.C. He was a veteran of World War I and a graduate of Dartmouth College, class of 1923. He had lived in Dennis for 23 years and had done research for Dennis and Holliston historical societies.”
We hope that you enjoy his works!
DANIEL CHASE – A WRITER IN EARNEST – Joanne Hulbert, 2024
The history of Holliston has been recorded in fits and starts ever since the December 3, 1724 decision by the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish us as a town and which also imposed upon the first citizens the name, Holliston. We have had several historians along the way that approached local history in differently: Abner Morse in 1856 relied on genealogy for much of his book; John Mason Batchelder relied on his personal memories growing up in Holliston. In the 20th century, Ernst Chase, who came to Holliston as a child and who was eventually known by his pen name as Daniel Chase, e nurtured his love of history on the local offerings that surrounded him. Each historian was constrained by the challenges of research and writing imposed by the times they lived in, but Daniel Chase made good use of the new tools available – a typewriter and mounds of carbon paper.
Chase’s interest was inspired by land grants and by solving the mysteries that were within them. I sincerely thank Mr. Chase for that kind of detailed research that I would not have had the courage to pursue. Looking at and reading his manuscripts, I wonder, how did he do it? Did he lug a portable typewriter with him when he visited the Registry of Deeds at the Cambridge courthouse and type out the literally hundreds of deeds and their transfers that made up the appendices of his manuscripts? Instead, I would have preferred to tag along as he wandered around Holliston, looking at the landscape and visiting the local characters that he mined for gossip and scraps of history. Amid all the minute data and details, he also left behind a list of 14 questions for future historians to pursue – historical mysteries that he did not have time to pursue and left unanswered. Dan Chase did leave many memorable stories – and mysteries – that enriched Holliston’s history – stories of heroism, grit, humor, complex investigations of boundary lines and deed transfers, and intertwined with anecdotes about life in Holliston.
Daniel Chase also published numerous newspaper articles in the Boston Herald and the Christian Science Monitor. He also wrote five novels written during the same time when he was working on historical research, and those five novels can still be read today. He borrowed many names from Holliston for his characters who lived in the town of “Jaalam” with familiar local landmarks throughout all the books: Flood-Tide, 1918; The Middle Passage, 1923 and Hardy Rye, 1926 (Complete editions of Hardy Rye, and The Middle Passage, are available on Google Books); Pines of Jaalam, 1929; and Backfire, 1931.
We owe Dan Chase a great deal of credit for inspiring us to look deeper into local history and look in ways that are different than his predecessors. In a way he was a man of mystery. We have no photos of him. Although he was a member of the committee that organized Holliston’s 200th anniversary, he skipped the photo session. Apparently, he was very sensitive about his pre-mature baldness – a comment he made in his author biography found in the Bobbs-Merrill publishing company files. He will remain a man of mystery and perhaps he would like it that way, but he deserves credit for unlocking Holliston’s early history, and although he said he lost interest in our local history around 1850, his research will inspire future town historians. He has left us an assignment to continue preserving Holliston’s history.
The Winthrop Grant, 1957– Daniel Chase’s history of the Winthrop Grant describes one of the earliest descriptions of land that is now Holliston. It is also the explanation how and why Holliston’s principal body of water acquired the name. Lake Winthrop, reflecting a link back to the 17th century. In typical Dan Chase style, he meticulously dives into a trove of land grants and deeds. His artfully drawn maps bring to life what we see on the ground even today. Finding what Dan Case envisioned when he wrote The Winthrop Grant provides today’s local explorers a chance to look for historical treasure. https://hollistonhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/THE-WINTHROP-GRANT-1.pdf