Warren Chase was ahead of his time with many of his ideas. He advocated for women’s
rights, land reform, opposed capital punishment, along with restrictions on voting and all
laws for the collection of debts. He participated in both State Constitutional
Conventions, was Town Supervisor, Wisconsin State Senator, Candidate for State
governor, one of the founders of Ripon College as well as leader of the Domain of The
Wisconsin Phalanx.
Warren was born to an unwed mother in Pittsfield, NH. His father had disappeared and
presumably died in the war of 1812. His mother was ostracized from her community and
died when Warren was four years-old. When he asked why his mother died he was told
God had taken her away. To a four year-old that meant God had taken the only person
who loved him. Suspicion of religion and improving the lot of women would become
ongoing themes throughout Chase’s life.
Held as an indentured servant until he escaped at age fourteen, local village women
appealed to the court to free him from servitude. Since his master had not educated him
as written in his contract he was let go. He spent the next several years learning to read
and write.
By the 1830s he had made his way to Michigan where he married Mary White. They
traveled and arrived in Southport (now Kenosha), Wisconsin around 1838 where began
meetings that would lead to the organization of the Wisconsin Phalanx in the winter of
1843-44. Chase then traveled separately but was a part of the first group that arrived at
what he named “Ceresco” after Ceres – the goddess of agriculture, May 27, 1844. His
wife and daughter joined him in Ceresco in August of that same year. Warren Chase
became the leader of that settlement, if not always an officer.
Warren was elected to represent Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin in both the first and
second Constitutional Conventions in 1846 and 1848 and was elected one of the first
senators for the new State of Wisconsin. He was assigned to the judicial committee and
secured the right of married women to hold property; real and personal. As part of this,
the divorce laws were greatly changed from the Report of the Commissioners and
nearly how Chase wished them, but not quite.
Warren Chase then changed his party affiliation from Democratic to Free Soil and
nominated for Wisconsin Territory Governor but finished third in the election.
Following the Phalanx experiment he renewed his interest in Spiritualism which had
begun during his Southport, Wisconsin years. He lectured for months at a time, leaving
his wife and three children in Ripon. Two of his children were attending the Lyceum of
Ripon learning institution. Prejudice against his interest in Spiritualism forced him to
leave Ripon in 1855, returning in 1856 only to gather the remainder of his family’s
personal possessions.
He authored his autobiography Life Line of the Lone One as well American Crisis, The
Fugitive Wife, and a print copy of his lecture series The Gist of Spiritualism. He
continued lecturing for the next 30 years and lived in Michigan, Missouri and California,
re-entering politics where he was elected to the California Senate in 1879, before
settling in Cobden, Illinois where he died in 1891.
