Chase was born in
Pittsfield, New Hampshire, on January 5, 1813. He was the son of Susanna Durgin, who was unmarried at the time. His mother was maligned by the community and expelled from the church for giving birth out of wedlock, making it difficult to provide for herself and Warren. Warren's father was Simon Chase, who was married to Huldah Peaslee. Simon Chase fought in the
War of 1812 and died at
Plattsburgh in the fall of 1814, when Warren was not yet two years old. His mother died only a few years later, when Warren was five. As a child, Warren lived briefly with a
Quaker family near Catamount Mountain. But after his mother's death, he became a ward of David Fogg and his family. Warren later described this time as a miserable experience and compared his servitude to slavery. He did not receive an education with the Fogg family, and at age fourteen was still not able to read or write. It was at that age he ran away to his grandmother's home in Pittsfield. Warren's grandmother and other members of the community interceded on his behalf and he was transferred to the care of his paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Chase, where he received a proper education and upbringing. In 1834 he moved to
Monroe, in the
Michigan Territory, and then, in 1838, he moved to the
Wisconsin Territory, settling in
Kenosha (then known as "Southport"). == In Wisconsin ==