Stephen Henry Chase was born in Fryeburg, Maine in June of 1813.
He graduated from Bowdoin College in the class of 1832 and then studied law, practicing that profession in his native Fryeburg until he left for California in the gold fever of 1849.
He served terms in both the Maine House and Senate, being elected President of the Senate in 1846.
When he left Maine at the age of thirty-six he was destined never to return, but his departure did not remove him from the world of politics or law.
Sometime after 1850 he left California and settled in Aurora, Nevada where he became a District Judge, a position which he held until his death in 1869.
Prior to becoming a Judge he served a term in the Senate of the Territory of Nevada just before that State’s entry into the Union.