Genealogist Mary Henrietta Chase (1908-1997) was born on September 6, 1908, to Jerry and Henrietta Chase of Franklin, Texas. A filer for Gulf Insurance Co. (later Gulf-Atlantic), Chase conducted large amounts of genealogical research on the Chase, Rhodes, and Seeley families of Texas. She wrote an unpublished family history of the Seeleys titled The Saga of the Seeleys from Southern New Jersey to Illinois and Texas . Chase died on August 7, 1997, in Dallas, Texas.
Chase’s great grandmother, Henrietta Seeley Cheek Moore (1842-1926) was born to David S. and Sarah Louise Gray Seeley on August 30, 1842, in Wheelock, Texas. While still young, she moved with her family to Falls County, Texas, where they invested heavily in land and slaves. She married Sylvester Cheek on October 31, 1859, in Franklin, Texas; they had one daughter, Emma Cheek Rhodes (1860-1938). Emma Rhodes was the Chase’s maternal grandmother. After her husband’s death in 1865, Henrietta married Thomas S. Moore on September 5, 1867; they had no children. In 1901, Henrietta went to live with her daughter Emma, the wife of Thomas Jefferson Rhodes, in Franklin. She invested heavily in oil and became suddenly wealthy. Henrietta Moore died in Franklin on April 8, 1926.
Source: “Mrs. Henrietta Moore Is Called by Death.” The Franklin Texas, April 10, 1926.
From the guide to the Mary Henrietta Chase Papers 2000-070., 1710-2000, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
