Frank Evans Chase, 1866–1940

Dr. Frank Evans Chase arrived in St. Louis in 1891 after graduating from Chaddock College in Quincy, Illinois, in 1890. Frank’s father, Marcellus L Chase, attended McKendree College in O’Fallon, Illinois, and was a land baron in the 1860s before returning to Quincy.

William Chase arrived in America in 1630 and his first recorded records were in the First Church of Roxbury, Massachusetts. The Chase family migrated west from the Cape Cod area in 1829 with a brief stopover in Pennsylvania. In 1830, Charles Chase left Washington, Pennsylvania, and made his homestead in Quincy, Illinois, where Marcellus L. and Frank Evans Chase were born.

Dr. Frank Chase was a physician and resided on Chouteau, Gibson, and Portis Streets in St. Louis. In 1901, Frank married Wilhelmina Steiert who was from Indianapolis. They had two children: Marcellus and Helen (Chase) Doerr. All resided in St. Louis until their passing in 1985 and 2002. Marcellus married Agnes Ohmer and raised his family of four in Webster Groves at their Lilac Avenue home from 1949 to 1989. Helen and Otto were not blessed with any children. All are buried at the family plot at the Sunset Memorial Park in Affton.

Frank belonged to the Wagoner Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church and was a grand president of the Missouri Protected Home Circle. Frank was called to active medical corps service for WWI and was sent to Oglethorpe, Georgia, to take charge of the flu epidemic there. He then was transferred to Rahway, New Jersey, to serve the leg amputation division.

Frank retired from his Portis home just south of Tower Grove Park around 1937 and moved to his University City residence on Gannon Avenue, where he lived until his passing in 1940. Frank passed away in Chicago while receiving some cancer treatments and from pneumonia complications from the treatment. His wife, Wilhelmina, passed in 1950 while residing in University City with Helen and Otto at their Melrose Avenue address.

Written by Michael Chase
November 2020

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