Phoebe Ross

Phoebe Ogden (Ross Chase) was born to Abigail and Ezekiel Ogden. Phoebe first married William Ross in 1810 in Livingston, New York. William and Phoebe had three children: Charles, Theresa and Clarissa Ross. Daughter Clarissa married Mormon leader Brigham Young as his third polygamous wife.

Her husband William died in 1817. Leaving her a widow. She married Isaac Chase on August 18, 1818 in Sparta, Livingston, New York.Phoebe and Isaac had six children: Sylvia Chase, Desdemona Chase, Maria Chase, Rhoda Chase, George Ogden Chase and Harriet Louisa Chase.

Her husband, Isaac Chase was 54 years old when they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 2, 1847, just a few months after the initial party of Mormon pioneers. Phoebe, two unmarried children, two married daughters with their husbands and two grandchildren traveled with him. Isaac had been a successful miller in his home state of New York and later in the Mormon City of Nauvoo, Illinois.

In preparation to continue his occupation, his daughter, thirteen-year-old Harriet Louisa Chase, drove one of the families five wagons across the plains filled with sawmill irons, gristmill equipment, a pump organ, farm tools and black locust seeds.

Chase built a sawmill and a one room shanty on Emigration Creek. A few years later a Mormon leader, who owned neighboring land, Brigham Young, joined with Chase and built a flourmill and a two-story adobe house in the center of their 110 acre farm. That farm became Liberty Park. The Chase home became the Chase Museum of Utah Folk Art.

During pioneer times the Chase Home was considered a great "out-of-town" place for entertainment. Visitors came by horseback in the summer and by sled in the winter for afternoon teas with lively conversation and fine organ music. On many evenings the kitchen would become a dance hall where neighbors gathered to dance a Cotillion or a Scottish Reel to the sweet sounds of oldtime fiddle music. The home was a favorite for Brigham Young and his associates, And many stories have been handed down about the wonderful parties that took place in this beautiful structure.