Thornton Chase in the newspapers

Scholarly work understanding Thornton Chase has a long history that largely started in 1930. Recently a number of newspaper "hits" on his name have turned up in the unfolding period of newspaper collections online searchable by OCR technology. Following is a summary with links to these articles with some notable examples highlighted. This should be taken as tentative as more newspapers are digitized and made available quite possibly in more than one venue. A more complete picture therefor awaits more sources coming online.

Brief review

Stockman makes the point that earlier in his life Thornton Chase went by the name James B. Chase especially during and before his "war" years as a soldier in the Civil War. Thus "James" Chase or his unit appears a couple times in newspapers and sources on the civil war covering 1864 and or the United States Colored Troops of which Chase was an officer either Lieutenant or Captain.

"Thornton" Chase first appears in the newspapers (so far) on 21 June 1883, well into his life at 36 yrs old already having won and lost much. As noted in Stockman's work Chase is noted for his poetry in the 1880s. A "hit" finds this 1883 mention when he appears in newspaper review of a poetry collection magazine submitting "Lo! The Ranks are Thinned and Thinning" in the Grand Army Magazine June issue.

Again Stockman notes that from 1888 Chase was hired by the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company and this becomes the basis of most of his mentions in the newspapers. From 1888 through 1901 Chase regularly appears almost annually working or traveling for the company or the association of agents and their conventions. In addition to such coverage his second wife, Elenour, made the papers when the family lived in Santa Cruz California a few times circa 1891 to 1892 before the family moved to Chicago.

Addresses being noted

Though at a personal level he had intensely been investigating churches, as Stockman shows, the newspapers coverage do not mention his religious aspirations until late in his life. However, starting in 1895, about the time he joined the Bahá'í Faith, references to his comments at meetings of the insurance agents begin - more than just stating he addressed the audience. In September he is noted as supporting the development of local and national levels of organization of the association with responsibilities and areas of effectiveness. In January 1897 his address was described as "beautiful…, bright and sublime in its imagery", about attaining to noble ideals over "killing time". In February 1897 he uses an editorial commending the agent association for "inviting men in various walks of life to its banquets to speak to the members on topics that inspire, elevate, and encourage" and expands on the theme, quoting his words:

"If we are only business seekers, traders, worshipers of the calf of gold, Caesar is our tax assessor and God to us is nothing; but if we are teachers and bearers of "good will to men," we shall keep the laws of humanity with heart and act, helping men to help themselves, teaching them the beauty and wisdom of unselfishness, of laboring for others, of providing a certain hope for their own futures, of protecting those dependent on them, even after earthly interests shall cease.

Let us hope that we may urge their minds so close to the border land of the life to come that they may look across the line of division between earthly affairs and eternal ones, and grasp ideals of the greater beauty and grander wisdom of striving for the fulfillment of God's promises to men, and of providing for a permement home in the kingdom of their Creator."

A whole level of spiritual endeavor is clear in the aims and priorities he is seeking to uphold, with phrasing both available to Christian mindsets and beyond.

In early 1899 he submitted an essay to the association's competition.

Orienting to the Bahá'í Faith

Main article: Thornton Chase

Stockman reviews developments among the Bahá'ís and Chase's involvement:

• From late 1899 Chase was elected to Chicago-based boards of Baha'is that still in his lifetime became named as the House of Spirituality which continued to evolve to their current name, the Local Spiritual Assembly.
• In 1900-1901 there was the controversy over the unity of the Bahá'ís towards Abdu'l-Bahá with several official teachers of the religion traveling among the Bahá'ís to clarify the understanding of the Baha'is in the west.

After 1901 the only appearance in newspapers to do with the insurance company or agent association is his notice of death which appeared in 1913. From 1903 he appears in other contexts - he is noted as an officer of fellow Bahá'í Arthur Dodge's company for building locomotives. In 1908 he joins associations for aid to the poor and speaks to local Bahá'ís in Cincinnati, appearing for the first time, (so far) as a Bahá'í in newspapers, about his (as Stockman notes) 1907 pilgrimage to see Abdu'l-Bahá, then in Syria. He also wrote an article In Galilee about the pilgrimage. In February 1909 Chase addressed the University of Chicago International Club students on the imminence of the age outlining a number of expected changes coming - the downfall of nationalism/rise of internationalism, universal peace instead of battleships, and war becoming seen as a "deed of inhumanity" and in March appears listed as a Bahá'í publicly in Chicago. Stockman notes Chase was given a choice to accept moving to Los Angeles in 1909 as the company hoped it would decrease the time he spent on the religion but he helped the religion still establishing monthly meetings among the small group of Bahá'ís that soon was fostered there. However as yet no newspaper accounts of him there have arisen.

His last days in the West remained letters exchanged between him and others. After his death, Stockman notes, his book The Bahai Revelation, published in 1909 continued to be reprinted until the 1920s, it shows up appearing donated to a library in 1933 and has re-appeared online in this day. Abdu'l-Bahá promulgated his status as the first Bahá'í in America.

Further reading

• Chase, Thornton (1847–1912), 2009, by Robert H. Stockman, published by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States.