Parley Chase, son of Clark Chase and Phebe Chase, was born on January 3, 1806 (1805) in Rutland, Jefferson County, New York. He was the younger brother of Willard Chase and a near neighbor to the Joseph Smith Sr. family in Palmyra.
Parley’s affidavit against Joseph Smith appeared in Mormonism Unvailed—
Manchester, December 2, 1833.
I was acquainted with the family of Joseph Smith, Sen., both before and since they became Mormons, and feel free to state that not one of the male members of the Smith family were entitled to any credit, whatsoever. They were lazy, intemperate and worthless men, very much addicted to lying. In this, they frequently boasted of their skill. Digging for money was their principal employment. In regard to their Gold Bible speculation, they scarcely ever told two stories alike. The Mormon Bible is said to be a revelation from God, through Joseph Smith Jr., his Prophet, and this same Joseph Smith Jr. to my knowledge bore the reputation among his neighbors of being a liar. The foregoing statement can be corroborated by all his former neighbors.
PARLEY CHASE.[1]
In 1835, Parley was granted a deed from Nicholas Evertson.[2] That same year, he was assessed $1.23 in property tax on his 16 acres valued at $640. Parley was granted a deed from Lorenzo Saunders in 1837[3] and was on a jury list for the Ontario County in 1839.[4] He married Abigail Joslyn Snyder in 1844.
In 1848, Parley granted a deed to Jason S. Sanford.[5] On November 28, 1850, Parley was enumerated while living in Wheatland, Hillsdale County, Michigan.[6] He had a 22 acre farm in Wheatland valued at $700, and 18 acres of unimproved land. He also owned two milk cows, two working oxen, one other cattle, eleven sheep, and three swine. His livestock was valued at $115. He had a hundred and twenty bushels of wheat, eighty bushels of Indian corn, and fifty bushels of oats.[7]
At age fifty-five, Parley was listed in the 1860 US Federal Census as being a farmer. His real wealth was $1,700 and his personal wealth was $300. By 1870, his real wealth had increased to $3,000 and his personal wealth to $1,161. By then, he owned 30 acres of improved land and 10 acres of unimproved land. He also owned three horses, three milk cows, and three other cattle. His livestock was valued at $486. He had ninety bushels of wheat, three hundred bushels of Indian corn, and thirty bushels of barley.[8]
On October 21, 1870, Parley’s wife Abigail Chase died from spinal affliction in Rollin, Lenawee County, Michigan, at age fifty-six.[9] Wilhelm Ritter von Wymetal, in Joseph Smith, the Prophet, His Family and His Friends, wrote that Parley Chase said,
When Smith first told of getting the book of plates he said it would tell him how to get hidden treasures in the earth; and his father, soon after they got the plates, came in to my mother’s one morning, just after breakfast, and told that Joe had a book and that it would tell him how to get money that was buried in the ground, and that he also found a pair of EYEGLASSES on the book by which he could interpret it, and that the glasses were as big as a breakfast plate; and he said that if the angel Gabriel should come down and tell him he could not get this hidden treasure, he would tell him he was a liar.[10]
According to the tax assessment book for 1880, Parley was listed as paying taxes on 40 acres in Rollin Township located at “NE ¼ NE ¼” of Section 31. In 1880, Parley owned 45 acres valued at $2,000. Machinery on the property was valued at $100, and livestock was valued at $215. Parley earned $10 in labor in 1880 and had an estimated value of $250 in farm production.[11]
On July 14, 1894, Parley was mentioned in the Michigan Messenger Newspaper and the Hudson Gazette as being eighty-eight years old and one of nineteen octogenarians residing in Rollin.[12] On August 25, 1894, the following was noted: “Uncle Perley Chase died last Monday, the death being August 20, 1894.”[13] He was age eighty-eight when he died in Rollin Township. On August 24, 1894, the Hudson Post reported his funeral was held at his residence.[14]
[1] Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, pp. 348–349.
[2] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[3] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[4] 19th Century Jury List, Ontario County, 1855.
[5] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[6] US Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedule, 1850–1880.
[7] US Federal Census, 1850; Agricultural Schedule, 1850.
[8] Agricultural Schedule, 1870.
[9] Adrian District Library, Michigan Gendis Death Index Database.
[10] Wilhelm Ritter von Wymetal, Joseph Smith, the Prophet, His Family and His Friends (Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886), p. 276.
[11] Agricultural Schedule, 1880.
[12] Adrian District Library.
[13] Michigan’s Gendis Death Index Database.
[14] Barton Scrapbook No. 60, p. 78.