Clarence Cornell Chase: Businessman and Customs Collector Involved in Teapot Dome Scandal (1881–1948)

Clarence Cornell Chase, businessman and U.S. collector of customs who was involved in the infamous Teapot Dome oil scandal, was born on June 23, 1881, in West Concord, Dodge County, Minnesota, to parents Clarence Jay Chase and Phoebe Townsend (Greene) Chase. He had three siblings and two half siblings. Little is known about his early life or his formal education. The 1900 federal census listed Chase still living with his family in Dodge County, Minnesota, and working as a clerk. Within a few years he had relocated to the Southwest and was in El Paso, Texas, and became involved in the mining interests of his uncle, New York millionaire William Cornell Greene. Clarence C. Chase married Alexina Fall in El Paso on October 24, 1906; they later had six children, one of whom died at birth. A newspaper article in the Nashville Banner detailing the wedding stated, “Mr. Chase is the nephew of Col. W. C. Greene and is now in charge of Col. Greene’s mining interests in Chihuahua.” His wife Alexina was described as “the charming and accomplished daughter of Judge and Mrs. A.B. Fall.” Albert B. Fall was a longtime prominent New Mexico politician who would be one of the first of two senators elected to the United States Senate from New Mexico in 1912. 

The 1909 city directory for El Paso listed Chase as the manager of the Greene Gold-Silver Company. He and his wife apparently lived in her parents’ home. The 1910 census listed Chase as a mining engineer and farmer living in Three Rivers, New Mexico. Within a few years he was splitting his residence between Lochiel, Arizona, (which was listed on the 1920 census) and Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. He was employed by the Cananea Cattle Company which was owned by his (then late) uncle Greene.

In 1921, with the election of Republican president Warren G. Harding, Chases’s father-in-law, Senator Albert B. Fall, was appointed to the position of Secretary of the Interior on March 4, 1921. On March 11, 1921, President Harding nominated Chase to the prestigious patronage position of collector of customs for the El Paso district. This district covered the United States/Mexican border from Del Rio to the Arizona state line. As collector, Chase supervised all U.S. Customs operations along this porous land border. In addition to enforcing import and export laws, he was also responsible for enforcing Prohibition laws against the smuggling of alcohol in one of the most active areas in the nation. While getting his family established in El Paso, Chase, his wife, and children lived for a time at the Fall mansion in the Golden Hill district of the city.

Chase’s father-in-law, Secretary of Interior Fall, was soon at the center of what came to be known as the Teapot Dome scandal. In 1922 Fall, without public notice, leased out at very favorable terms, three massive U.S. Navy oil reserves in Wyoming and California. The lessees were friends of Fall who were private oil producers. These transactions took place in secret and without competitive bidding in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Fall’s sudden unexplained wealth was soon noticed when he began to pay off long overdue property taxes, perform long delayed repairs, and purchase additional ranchland to add to his existing 700,000-acre Tres Ritos Ranch (Three Rivers Ranch) in Otero County, New Mexico. Subsequently, an ensuing investigation by the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys was launched, and hearings began in October 1923. Ultimately, their findings revealed “one of the worst breaches of the public trust in American history.” The investigation disclosed that Secretary Fall conspired with private oil producers to secretly lease public oil reserves to them in return for bribes. The “Teapot Dome” scandal, as it was called, was a lengthy Senate investigation which uncovered widespread corruption between government officials and powerful corporate interests. In the wake of rumors, a Wall Street Journal exposé, and mounting evidence, Fall had already resigned his position as Secretary of Interior on March 4, 1923.

Unfortunately for Chase, his father-in-law involved him in his effort to cover up the bribery scheme. While Chase was collector of customs, Fall enlisted him to travel to Cleveland, Ohio, to entice a friend of Fall’s to falsely testify before the Senate committee. Chase’s mission was to attempt to get the friend to claim that a $100,000 bribe that Fall had received from a co-conspirator was a personal loan from this friend. This ruse would hide the true source of the bribe received by Fall. In late November 1923 Chase made the trip to Ohio for Fall, but the friend refused to perjure himself before the committee, and when called to testify, he testified truthfully that he had not made any loans to Fall.

When Chase was called before the Senate committee in March 1924 to explain his involvement in the scheme, he invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify for fear of self-incrimination. Immediately, the Senate voted 70–0 to prepare and send an impeachment resolution, Senate Resolution 195, to the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. The resolution alleged that Chase had attempted to have a witness lie under oath and sought to remove him from his federal post. On March 24, 1924, Chase submitted his resignation, which was soon accepted by the Secretary of Treasury. The House of Representatives took no further action upon the impeachment resolution and Chase was never charged with any crime.

On April 17, 1928, Chase got another chance to testify about his part in the Teapot Dome scandal when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Lands. Chase told the committee the reason he did not testify when called in March 1924 was that he and Fall had a joint bank account where some of Fall’s illicit funds may have been co-mingled. Chase said that this fact caused him to fear prosecution along with Fall. Chase testified that at his father-in-law’s insistence, he traveled to Cleveland and later with Fall to New York and Atlantic City to solicit help in obscuring the sources of Fall’s sudden wealth. Fall was found guilty of bribery and conspiracy on October 25, 1929. He became the first U.S. Cabinet member ever convicted of committing a felony while in office. He was sentenced to one year and a day in prison and served ten months at the New Mexico State Prison in Santa Fe.

Chase was employed for the rest of his life in ranching, mining, and real estate. The 1930 census listed him in El Paso and as an operator of a cotton gin. By 1940 he was in Ruidoso, New Mexico and vice president and general manager of the Ruidoso Realty Company. Clarence C. Chase died at his home in Ruidoso on May 16, 1948.  His survivors included his wife Alexina,  son Clarence Jr., and daughters Emma Adair and Mary Alexina. Two of his sons, Albert and William, died while serving in the military during World War II. Chase was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in El Paso, Texas.