Jesse Earl Chase was born on June 2, 1888, in Centerville, Utah, to Joseph Edwin Chase and Mary Theresa “Minnie” Perry Chase. His siblings were Charlotte “Lottie” Fletcher, Joseph LeRoy, Vera Lola Young Carr, Eleanor Ruth “Nellie” Schellenberg, James Henry, and Walter Perry. For his schooling, Jesse Chase rode 12 miles to the Burnt Fork to school through fourth grade. He was on the 1900 census with his father and two brothers in Uintah County, Utah near Vernal while cowboying for Selatha L. Swift in Washam, Sweetwater County, Wyoming.
As he grew up, Jesse worked for different cow outfits as a ranch hand and at general ranch work. He came to Sublette County, when he was 12 years of age with his father and two brothers. After haying for Jim Nicholson, Sr., they landed on Cottonwood. It was not long until he returned to Henry’s Fork and started running wild horses. Mark Mickelson remembers being told the story that Jesse Chase herded the cattle on the Red Desert then they drove them up to the head of the Green River in the spring as the snow melted. They went over into the Gros Ventre country and then down the Wyoming Range. This was a cycle of a year for the cattle grazing before fences.
On the 1910 census, Jesse Chase was cowboying for William B. McNaught at Halfway, Wyoming. Jesse E. Chase married Elsie Ann Johnson at Big Piney, on March 22, 1912, and they had two daughters, Nora Baldwin Teague and Virginia Fields. In the 1910s, he also freighted from Opal to Big Piney. Starting at least as early as the 1920s, Jesse cowboyed for the ranchers in the Big Piney Roundup Association along with running wild horses off the desert and breaking them. After the hard winter of 1920, Jesse and Elsie worked for many of the Big Piney ranchers, including the James Mickelsons, Jr. and Sr.; at the 67 Ranch when John Angus was foreman; and at the Big Piney Roundup when Al Osterhout, Al Davidson, and John Angus were foremen. They work at the Circle and the Beck Places when Jim Jensen was foreman of the Circle. This was for a period of 12 years around 1925.
In 1930, he was still cowboying according to the census, and the 1940 census had him as foreman of the roundup association. Ken Fear remembers his dad telling him that he went to cow camp with Jesse Chase for two summers until school started and Buss Fear, a Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame inductee, learned a lot about cowboying along with handling cows and horses from Jesse in the 1930s. When Tuffy Davis and Bill Budd, Jr. were just kids, they also rode for Jesse Chase when he was foreman for the Big Piney Roundup Association. Through 1942 Jesse Chase cowboyed and was foreman for the Big Piney Roundup Association. Elsie would also ride with Jesse for the Association.
Jesse was a very nice, quiet, and gentle person with no mickey mousing around, according to Ken Fear. He was very calm and quiet handling cattle and horses. The 1950 census had Jesse as a ranch hand on Cottonwood, so he was cowboying and helping Micklesons on the Winkleman place and then Jesse and Elsie would go to the cow camp and cowboy on Cottonwood for Mickelsons. Jesse and Elsie lived and cowboyed from the old Ranger Station on North Cottonwood, where Mickelsons had a cow camp from 1950 to 1965 when Jesse’s health stopped him from going back in 1966.
When Toni David married Al Gilchrist, they went to work for Micklesons on the Winkleman place in November 1961 and lived there until Nov 1966. Jesse and Elsie Chase were there off and on during those years. Toni was in awe at what good and capable cowboys they were at their age. She said Elsie would ride all day and then come in and start preparing the meal. Toni said Jesse Chase was great with handling cows and horses and she admired him as a cowboy
Corliss Mickelson Carlson remembers when she was young and riding with her grandfather, Jim Mickelson to roundup and cow camp. Corliss described him as follows: “Jesse Chase was a little, tiny guy who wore batwing wooly chaps bigger than him. He would ride through the trees looking for cows and when he emerged from the trees what Corliss saw first were the chaps. Jesse wore high heeled cowboy boots and always had a smile. Jesse rode for the brand and was a horseman, who knew horse sense and could handle horses with ease.” From the documentation and recollections of people who knew Jesse, he cowboyed for at least 66 years and at least 56 years in Wyoming and in what is Sublette County. Chase died October 7, 1969, in Pinedale.