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Son of Ithamar Chase and Janet Chase
Husband of Katherine Jane Chase; Eliza Ann Chase and Sarah Bella Dunlop Chase
Father of Kate Chase and Janet Ralston Hoyt
Salmon P. Chase was born on January 13, 1808, in Cornish, New Hampshire. In 1849, he was elected U.S. Senator. In 1855, he became the first Republican Ohio governor. He ran for president a few years later, but lost to Lincoln. As Secretary of the Treasury, he implemented the National Banking Act. In 1864, be became chief justice of the Supreme Court. Chase died in New York City on May 7, 1873.
Beginning in 1840, Chase served on the Cincinnati City Council and helped create the abolitionist-oriented Liberty Party, which morphed years later into the Free Soil Party (later largely absorbed by the Republican Party). Under this ticket, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1849.
Though he had an active political life, Chase experienced much personal loss, spurring him to rely more steadfastly on his religious beliefs. He was married three separate times from the 1830s to the '40s, each marriage ending with Chase as a widower: His first wife, Catherine Garniss, died while giving birth to the couple's first child, a daughter who died as an infant; his respective second and third wives, Eliza Smith and Sarah Bella Dunlop Ludlow, both died of tuberculosis. Though Chase had several children, only two survived.
Chase's political ambitions continued to find fruition. He was elected to the Ohio governorship in 1855, becoming the first Ohio governor from the Republican Party, which he'd helped to form. He made a bid for the Republican presidential nomination a few years later, but lost to Abraham Lincoln.
By the end of 1864, however, Chase had begun a new, highly coveted role as the sixth chief justice of the Supreme Court; Lincoln appointed him to the position after the death of Roger Taney. During his time on the bench, Chase oversaw cases connected to the Reconstruction era, deliberating over arguments that enforced the sanctity of the Union while maintaining his support for African-American civil rights. He also handled the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson and made two more unsuccessful bids for the presidency, in 1868 and 1872.
Death
Chase died in New York City on May 7, 1873, at the age of 65, after suffering a stroke. He was buried in Washington, D.C. Chase National Bank was named after him years later, in recognition of his financial accomplishments.