Frederick Chase

Frederick Chase and a Place Called Prospect

This article is the fourth in a series of four articles celebrates Frederick Chase and his family who owned much of the peninsular, now known as The Heights, from early in the Eighteen Century until 1871, when the estate was purchased by a consortium of Brooklyn men. Chase created a village at a Place called Prospect in 1836. This year, 2006, is the 170th anniversary of that event.

All four of these houses were at a place called Prospect in 1872 when the Shelter Island Grove and Camp Meeting Association bought the place called Prospect from Frederick Chase’s estate. Burro Hall was located where 2 Summerfield Place stands today; it was dismantled and moved to where it stands today in 1876. The house at the corner of West Neck and West Neck, across from the golf course at Shelter Island Country Club was the Wiggins’ farmhouse, located originally about where Oxford Street is today. The house with the tower was Lydia Chase Boardman’s house and that lot was sold “developed” in 1874; the tower was added. The house at 4 Clinton Avenue was Albert Chase’s house; the lot was sold as “developed” to William Booth of Brooklyn in 1873.

    In the decade following Squire Chase’s death, the only real estate transfers at the Place called Prospect were in 1859 when Rebecca Chase Beebe sold to her sister Lydia Chase Boardman her half of the block they owned together, bounded by Washington, Fair, Adams, and Cedar streets, and then in 1864, Lydia sold the entire block to Robert McGayhey.
    Before we proceed into the year 1868 it is helpful to review the family’s names, their ages, and where they lived:

    Rebecca Cartwright Chase, his widow, age 80, Shelter Island
    Ruth Chase, 60, Shelter Island. She died, unmarried, in 1869 at age 61.
    Lydia Boardman, 57, Shelter Island
    Rebecca Beebe, 55, Shelter Island
    Elizabeth Wood, 53, Greenport
    Albert Chase, 50, New York City. His wife was Nancy.
    Emeline Skillman, 48, Shelter Island
    Harriet Barteau. Died in Brookhaven in 1853. Left two children and her husband William.
    Margaret Walters, 44, Shelter Island
    Catherine Mosier, 42, Brooklyn

    There is no question in our minds -- the Reverend John E. Searles, the agent of the Brooklyn group that would eventually purchase the Chase peninsula, appeared on the doorstep of the Widow Chase in late 1867 or early 1868. There is no other explanation for what happened next.
    On July 15, 1868 the eight living children and the Widow Chase jointly sold the Homestead and 70 acres and the part of Esther Sarah Dering’s farm north of City Road, about 63 acres, to Albert. They sold the King farm (land previously owned by B.B. Wiggins), about 65 acres, to Margaret Walters.
    On that same day, they also conveyed to John Burns about 24 acres south of the City Road, one quarter acre to William McGill, four acres to Rebecca Beebe which that same day she sold to John Burns, 8 1/4 acres to Bernard Walther, and about three acres to Thomas Beebe.
    On October 15, 1868, they sold a 15 acre tract south of City Road to Rebecca Beebe which she sold to Albert G. Havens of New York City on August 17, 1869.
    William Barteau, Harriet’s widower, responsible for his two minor children’s share in their grandfather’s estate and a share of Ruth Chase’s estate, on February 22, 1869 petitioned the Court of Suffolk County for permission to sell their interests to Rebecca Beebe. The report of the referee on May 28 stated that the “buildings and fences are out of repair and the premises lie at waste and produce no income.” The total value of the estate was estimated at about $10,000. On August 15, with Court approval, he sold the children’s interest for $1,227.26 to Rebecca Beebe.
    On October 5, 1869, Albert and his wife Nancy sold the Homestead and its 70 acres to Rebecca Beebe for $2.333.33, and four days later Rebecca Beebe and the widow Rebecca Chase sold the 30 northerly acres to Nancy Chase for $600. Three days later, Albert and Nancy sold the Prospect block containing lots 17, 18, 19, and 20 to Lydia Boardman for $33.33. That same day, Albert and Nancy also sold three additional blocks to Lydia for $100.
    On January 20, 1870, Lydia sold to Joseph Congdon of Shelter Island and William and James M. Wells of Southold, for $100, a tract of land south of City Road which included what is now called Weck’s Pond.
    On February 15, 1870, Lydia sold a Prospect block to David Conklin for $80.
    That’s 20 deeds between July 15, 1868 and February 15, 1870! Surely, the Chase family was reorganizing for a big sale. It just seems a bizarre way to have done it.
    Actually there are two other indications in the records of what everyone on the Island knew was about to happen to Squire Chase’s estate:
    • William Barteau’s February 22, 1869 petition states that “some portions [of the premises] are occupied by the widow and some of the heirs,” “the buildings are very much in need of repair” and “the adult owners thereof are about to sell and dispose of their share...”
    • In 1869 the Town fathers voted to build a new bridge across Chase’s Creek connecting the now laid out State Road to Chase’s property. They appropriated $100 provided they could obtain a right-of-way “to the old dock at Prospect.”

    By early 1870, the Chase family and the Town were ready for the Reverend Searles.
    Let’s take one final look at the Place called Prospect in 1870. Thanks to Ralph Duvall who in the 1920s wrote a tour of all Island houses that existed in 1870, we know: (See Peninsula in 1870, Illustration 3)

    * The old Chase Homestead, of course, overlooking Chase’s and Griffing’s Creek, is where the Widow Chase lived.
    * The Brinson Wiggins house. Squire Chase had purchased that farm in the 1850s, and in 1870, his daughter Margaret Walters lived there with her husband Lorenzo.
    * A small house on the lot Lydia Boardman sold to Robert McGayhey in 1864.
    * On the site of the present Michael Gray house on Summerfield Place was the home of a businessman, Mr. Cobb, who had lived there year-round. It was later occupied by his sister Mrs. Webb.
    * Albert Chase’s house.
    * On Chequit Point, Duvall reported that there was a small bungalow where Michael McCabe and Michael McCall lived.
    * Lydia Boardman’s house.

    Finally, let’s get a feel for the Island itself through the 1860 and 1870 Censuses.
    In the decade following Frederick Chase’s death in 1857, the population of the Island increased from 547 to 650, 103 people. This was a big leap, and the 1870 census information suggests that many of the farmers, the majority of landowners, were now hiring and housing day laborers.
        The railroad had arrived in Greenport in 1844, and occupations that had provided subsistence now offered markets. Farmers and fishermen could now sell their produce and catch in New York City.
    Benjamin Sisson was running a regular ferry to Greenport, and David Clark described himself as a ferryman to Sag Harbor.
    A number of men were fishermen, seamen, and mariners. Others were working in the fish oil and guano works. John Bowditch was the captain of an ocean steamer, and Thomas Preston was a vessel cook. William Dutcher was a ship carpenter, and Samuel Wood was a steam engineer.
    There were four school teachers, and a number of women were seamstresses, although most women were “keeping house.” There were several carpenters and stone masons, and Albert Havens was running a wholesale and retail lumber business.
    Martin Prince, Archibald Havens and Benjamin Cartwright were retail dry goods and grocery merchants. Joseph Congdon was the blacksmith. Louisa Bowditch was a telegraph operator. (You have to wonder if she went elsewhere, like Greenport, to do her work, or was there already a telegraph line under the Bay?)
    Isaac Downs was a basket maker. John Scott was a baker. Charles Fordham was keeping a boarding house. Thomas Harries was the Presbyterian Church minister.
    Black families on the Island included Henry Hempstead, a farm laborer working for Samuel Nicolls, his wife Sarah and their three children, and James Hempstead and his household, Naomi, Mary and Charles. Eva Patterson was a domestic servant in Sylvester Cartwright’s home, and Cornelia Faster, a domestic servant in the home of Joseph Bowditch.

Note: Marvin Shiebler, who was a member and secretary of the Planning Board appointed by the Town Board in 1931 to assemble a tax map for the Town and who spent a great deal of time in 1931- 1933 attempting to understand land ownership on Shelter Island from 1652, wrote to Ralph Duvall on January 27, 1932: “In reply to your request for the exact date of the purchase of the Prospect property from the Chase family, it is rather difficult to answer. The deed from Rebecca to John E. Searles is dated December 12, 1871, but the records show that it evidently took the Chase family nearly two years to partition and to reassemble all of the parcels in the name of Rebecca C. Beebe.” Shelter Island Historical Society.

Note: One of four manuscripts written by Ralph Duvall in about 1927-1928 giving a tour of houses on Shelter Island in 1870, on file Shelter Island Historical Society.
        The Brinson Wiggins house was purchased by Smith Raynor and was moved to the City. According to Shelter Island House Trail: Houses Built Before 1870, revised in 2000 by the Shelter Island Historical Society, it is now located at 45 West Neck Road.
        The Cobb-Webb house, according to Duvall, stayed in place until at least 1875, but was finally dismantled and reconstructed at the top of Menantic Road. In the 1920s Duvall said it was “now the home of Kate Walther.” Alice and Richard Moser purchased the house and farm from Kate Walther in 1946. It was extensively renovated in the 1960s and is now known as Burro Hall.
        Albert Chase’s house was located on Lot 103 on the 1872 Copeland map and the lot was sold to William C. Booth in 1873 with a “dwelling on it.” A careful look at the present house suggests it is the original house with an addition: it was never in the shape of a cross as all early Prospect Grove houses were, and it has the lines of an early 19th Century farm house. There is little question in the minds of the authors that the house is the original.
        Lydia Boardman’s house sat on Lot 117 on the 1872 Copeland map. Duvall said in the 1820s that the house had been there a long time. The house is not in the shape of a cross. It is possible that after 1877, the original house was dressed up with gingerbread and a tower, which now leans, to fit into the neighborhood.
        The Homestead was torn down after it passed from the Chase family in 1907, and the disposition of the remaining houses is unknown.

Frederick Chase
Lighthouse Years
A Place Called Prospect
Family Activity after Chase's Death