Champion S. Chase

Champion Spalding Chase (March 20, 1820 – November 3, 1898) was an American lawyer, politician, and pioneer of Wisconsin and Nebraska. He was the first Attorney General of Nebraska and served seven years as mayor of Omaha, Nebraska. He also served two years in the Wisconsin Senate, representing Racine County, Wisconsin, and served as a Union Army officer during the American Civil War. His name was sometimes abbreviated as He was a first cousin of U.S. Supreme Court chief justice Salmon P. Chase.

Early life and career Champion Chase was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, and raised there on his father's farm and obtained his primary education in the a common school. He was then sent to the Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, and returned to teach school in Cornish for three winters. In 1841 he was employed as a teacher at the Academy in Amsterdam, New York. After two years, he moved to Otsego County, New York, where he was hired as a vice principal at the West Hartwich Seminary.

In the mid-1840s, he went to Buffalo, New York, where he studied law at the office of Barker & Sill for three years. While studying there, he was appointed by the governor of New York, John Young, to serve as a delegate to the National River and Harbor Convention in Chicago. In 1850, he ran for Wisconsin Senate, but lost a close election to Free Soil Party candidate Stephen O. Bennett. He sought the Whig Party nomination for Congress in Wisconsin's 1st congressional district in 1852, but received only one vote at the convention, the nomination going to Henry S. Durand.

During this time, Chase was also involved in other nascent civic organizations. In 1853, the Wisconsin Historical Society was founded and Chase was one of the original society members. Also in 1853, he was a member of Racine's first school board. He was then a delegate to the convention which formed the state Teacher's Association (now Wisconsin Education Association Council) in the summer of 1853. In December 1853, Chase was appointed brigadier general of the second brigade, first division of the Wisconsin Militia.

In March 1854, Chase played an important role in the Joshua Glover affair. Glover had escaped slavery in Missouri and came to Racine via the underground railroad. He was recaptured in Racine by federal officials, pursuant to the Fugitive Slave Act, creating an uproar among the population. The night of Glover's capture, a meeting was held in Racine in which the city expressed its outrage. Chase was a leader of the meeting, and assigned to the committee to draft resolutions. On the issue of Glover, the resolutions declared: "we look upon the arrest of said Glover as an outrage upon the peaceful rights of this assembly" and "we, as citizens of Racine, demand for said Glover a fair and impartial jury trial, in this, the state where he has been arrested, and that we will attend in person to aid him, by all honorable means, to secure his unconditional release, adopting as our motto the Golden Rule." They further opined on the Fugitive Slave acts: "That, inasmuch as the Senate of the United States has repealed all compromises heretofore adopted by the Congress of the United States, we, as citizens of Wisconsin, are justified in declaring, and do hereby declare, the slave-catching law of 1850 disgraceful and also repealed." That fall, Chase was a candidate for Wisconsin State Assembly on the new Republican Party ticket, but he lost the general election to Democrat Thomas Falvey. He was elected president of the Racine Board of Education in 1855, and then again in 1857. He defeated Democratic nominee Nicholas D. Fratt in the general election and went on to serve in the 1857 and 1858 legislative terms.

During his second year in the Senate, he served as chairman of the judiciary committee and supervised the revision of the statutes of the state. In 1858, rather than running for re-election to the Senate, Chase ran for district attorney of Racine County; he defeated Nehemiah H. Joy and won a two year term. He took office in January 1859. Later that year, he was again appointed brigadier general of the Wisconsin Militia, by Governor Alexander Randall.

He served four years in the Union Army and during this time he was on special duty in the West and Southwest. He was at the sieges of Knoxville, Mobile, and Vicksburg, and in the later part of the war he was headquartered at New Orleans for nearly two years and would receive a brevet to Lieutenant Colonel from President Andrew Johnson late in 1865, for his meritorious services in the Gulf Campaign. In January 1866 he was honorably discharged.

Nebraska

After mustering out of the Army in 1866, Chase moved to Omaha, in the Nebraska Territory, and resumed his law practice. He also became an investor in the incorporation of the Omaha Street Railway Co. In 1867, Nebraska would be admitted to the Union as the 37th state, and in that same year, Chase was appointed by Nebraska Governor David Butler to a two-year term as the first Attorney General of Nebraska.

In 1869, he was appointed to a six-year term as regent of the State University of Nebraska, also by Governor David Butler. In 1886, he was unanimously chosen president of the Nebraska State Humane Society. Chase died as the result of a fall on November 3, 1898, at the age of 78.

He was devoted to the memories of his native town, often expressed his loyalty and love for it. He was buried alongside his wife at the Prospect Hills Cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska.

Legacy Chase County, Nebraska, and the unincorporated community of Champion in Chase County, are named after him as a complimentary act on the part of the Legislature of Nebraska.