Wallace Chase was born on February 10, 1837, in Athens, Pennsylvania, to Joseph and Margaret Chase. His father was a farmer who owned $2,000 of real estate and $600 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in South Creek, Pennsylvania, and by 1860, he was working as a farm laborer.
He enlisted in the Union army on September 10, 1864, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 188th New York Infantry on October 5. According to his service records, he was 6 feet, 2 inches tall, with black hair and dark eyes. The regiment took part in the siege of Petersburg, and he mustered out on July 1, 1865.
Chase settled in Ward, Pennsylvania, after the war, and he earned a living as a lumberman. He married Maria Williams around 1873, and they had at least six children: Charlie, born around 1873; Clarence, born around 1875; Mary, born around 1876; Emma, born around 1878; Jane, born around 1880; and Mabel, born around 1887. They lived in Ward, and he served as a justice of the peace. . He applied for a federal pension in October 1879 and eventually received one. By 1890, he was dealing with varicose veins. His wife died on March 28, 1922. He died of “senile gangreen [sic]” in Union, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 1925.