[1] Following the end of the American Civil War, Chidsey pursued a career in rail and heavy industry, working as a clerk in the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, as secretary of the Warren Foundry and Machine Company, and finally as president of the Eastern Railroad Company.

He was elected as an alternate delegate for the 1884 Republican National Convention in Chicago and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives the same year.

He transformed the former Borough's police, fire and electric light departments to enhance their performance and better serve the people of Easton.

Additionally his mayorship was engaged in a heated legal debate with the descendants of William Penn over the ownership of the old court house at Centre Circle, with the city prevailing.

He unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania in 1910, losing the Republican primary to John Merriman Reynolds.