The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

CHASE, Mary S. (née WHITE) (1810-1889) and Daniel (1798-after 1873)

A native of Palmyra, Maine, Mary S. White, an older sister of James White's, married Daniel Chase of Fairfield, Maine, in 1831. In the early 1840s Mary joined the Millerite movement together with her parents and some other family members. About 1866 (or 1869—her obituary is ambiguous on this point) she became a Sabbathkeeper. Whether for this or other reasons, her husband became “abusive.” As a result Mary Chase left Daniel in the early 1870s and moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. It appears that for the remainder of her life Mary Chase lived either with James and Ellen White or in accommodation provided by them in Battle Creek. Several of Ellen White's letters after James's death in 1881 describe her efforts to arrange housing for Mary and to solicit financial help from Mary's brother, John W. White. 1EGWLM 808.4

Ellen White was fond of Mary Chase. “Our hearts run together like two drops of water,” she exclaimed in 1855. Later the bitter relations with her husband tended to create a general negativity in Mary. Surviving letters from Ellen White to Mary Chase from the 1870s focus on her need to break with dejection and embrace a positive faith in God. 1EGWLM 808.5

See: Robert M. Sherman, Ruth W. Sherman, and Robert S. Wakefield, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims Who Landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620 (Plymouth, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2005), vol. 20, part 2, p. 423; obituary: “Mary S. Chase,” Review, Sept. 10, 1889, p. 575; Ellen G. White, Lt 2, 1870 (Mar. 2); Lt 6, 1873 (Feb. 6); Lt 30, 1884 (Nov. 21); Lt 61, 1884 (Nov. 27); Lt 19, 1889 (Jan. 8); Lt 2, 1855 (Aug.); Lt 28, 1877 (Oct. 26). 1EGWLM 809.1