The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Chase, Irah

CHASE, Irah, D. D., an American clergyman, born at Stratton, Vt., Oct. 5, 1793, died at Newtonville, Mass., in November, 1864. He was educated at Middlebury college and Andover theological seminary, and was ordained in 1817. After laboring as a Baptist missionary in the western part of Virginia, he became in 1818 professor in the theological school at Philadelphia, which was soon after transferred to Washington. In this office he remained seven years, one of which he spent in Europe, and in 1825 he was prominent in establishing the theological school at Newton Centre, Mass., with which he was connected as professor till 1845, when he resigned, in order to devote himself to theological and literary studies. During a visit to Europe in 1830 he aided in founding the Baptist mission in France. He published “The Life of John Bunyan,” “The Design of Baptism,” “The Work claiming to be the Constitution of the Holy Apostles, revised from the Greek,” “Infant Baptism an Invention of Man,” and many sermons, essays, and contributions to reviews on questions of church history and doctrine.