[2] At the time of the 1860 United States census, Chase lived with his parents and two older siblings in Ann Arbor.

During the Colorado Labor Wars, Chase was the commander of the National Guard forces in the Lake City, Cripple Creek and Trinidad strike districts.

When a Colorado judge issued writs of habeas corpus for some of the detained prisoners, Chase sent the prisoners to the courthouse accompanied by 300 troops and posted a Gatling gun in front of the court house and sharpshooters on rooftops of the National Hotel and other buildings with a view of the courthouse.

[9][10] Chase was court-martialed for his actions,[11] but Colorado Governor James H. Peabody restored him to the command of the National Guard.

[13] When the labor leader known as "Mother Jones" came to Colorado to support the striking workers, Chase initially arrested her and put her on a train heading out of the area with a warning not to return.

When she returned to the area, Chase detained her for two months under armed guard at a local hospital and refused to allow her to be seen by visitors or a doctor.

The detention of Mother Jones led to demonstrations, including one in which a hundred women surrounded Chase, demanding her release.

"[15] In April 1914, violence between the striking miners and National Guard forces under Chase's command escalated.

"[10] On the morning of April 20, 1914, the National Guard opened fire on the strikers at a tent colony occupied by 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado.

The confrontation, which became known as the Ludlow Massacre, resulted in the death of 21 persons, including two women and eleven children who were asphyxiated when the tent colony was burned.

He was also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and served as the president of the organization' Colorado Society in 1906.

[19] At the time of the 1910 United States census, Chase lived at the same location in Denver with his wife Anna, their six children, and one servant, Marquis Jordan.