A resident of Brazos county since he was six years of age, James Otis Chance is descended from one of the original Austin colony, and during the past thirty years has played a varied and important part in his community as a business man, extensive farmer, and manager of land, and in many useful ways has advanced the prosperity and welfare of his locality.

James Otis Chance was born in Caldwell, Texas, February 9, 1862. When he was a child both parents died, and he grew up under the care of an uncle, Milton Parker, a brother to his mother. Grandfather J. B. Chance was a surveyor, and came into Texas as a follower of Stephen F. Austin, settling in the vicinity of old Washington, where he died. He was a man of spirit, a hardy pioneer, and his character as a family man is well shown by his effort to educate his children much above the usual standards of the time, and he gave them all the advantages that were afforded by the schools of Independence and in his home. J. B. Chance and wife had the following children: William, who died when a young man; Cole, who spent his life in Caldwell and in Williamson county, where he died; Elijah J., and Martha, who married a Mr. Wyatt of Caldwell, where she died, leaving a family. Elijah J. Chance, father of James O. Chance, was born in Tennessee, but was a small child when the family moved to Texas and settled in Burleson county. Some years later he devoted himself to the law. He died at  a comparatively young age, from troubles contracted by exposure during the war. He was a Confederate soldier, fought with the Tennessee army, operating chiefly in Mississippi. After the war he devoted himself to his profession at Caldwell, where he died in 1868. His wife was Miss Frances Ann Parker, a daughter of Rev. Samuel Parker, who came from Tennessee, and was a pioneer Baptist minister in Texas. Mrs. Chance died before her husband and the children who grew up were: John P., who left a family in Bryan; James Otis and Francis Alexander, both of whom are living. Two children died in infancy.

While growing up the early years of James O. Chance were spent in Bryan, and he lived in a family and under the influence of a busy and thrifty man. whose success was of a marked character. Thus lie had a good training for the practical work of life, although his education, so far as books were concerned, was much neglected. In young manhood he began an apprenticeship, and worked three years for a saddler, in Bryan, and then for some time was in the saddlery business for himself at Temple. Returning to Bryan in 1883, Mr. Chance opened a grocery, with his brother, under the name of Chance Brothers. This firm, which existed some ten or twelve years, was a prosperous establishment, and was finally acquired by Mr. Chance in 1891 and he conducted this business alone until 1895. On leaving merchandising Mr. Chance engaged in farming. In this line his enterprise is easily one of the most important in the Brazos Valley. When he started out he directed his attention to a great tract of virgin soil along the Brazos River, less than one hundred acres of which was then under cultivation. After twenty years of close application to farm development, Mr. Chance has achieved a result worth while. Some thirty-five hundred acres have been brought into a productive state, and scores of homes for tenants have been built, and far and wide that operations of successful husbandry are now carried on under the Chance management.

Mr. Chance was married in Brazos county, December 18, 1887, to Mrs. George Bessman. She is the only daughter of George Williams, who came to Texas in the early fifties. His original state was Connecticut, and he was born at North Stonington, in 1818. Growing up almost entirely dependent upon his own resources and ability, he finally came west and engaged in the buying of furs, finally reaching Texas and establishing stores at different points along the Brazos River. In connection with his trading operations he wisely invested in land, and accumulated a vast amount of the virgin bottom lands. His later years were spent as a rancher, and his home and his pride was the famous '' GG'' Ranch, one of the best known of the older homesteads of Burleson county, and which in recent years, under the management of Mr. Chance, has become equally noted for its diversified agriculture as much as in earlier years for its live stock and cotton. George Williams died January 2, 1897. He married Mrs. Patience (Lawson) Loverin. who was a daughter of John H. and Sallie Richardson Dent Lawson. The Dents were of the old Georgia stock of that name, and both they and the Williams family went back to Revolutionary ancestry. Mrs. Chance was the only child of George Williams and wife. She grew up on the old ranch, but was educated in Philadelphia, and in Poughkeepsie, New York, and was married soon after leaving school. Mr. and Mrs. Chance have the following children: George G., born in 1888, now associated in business with his father, and by his marriage to Miss Lucile Williamson has a daughter, Eleanor Frances; Catherine Parker, who was born January 4, 1892, and died in childhood; James Otis, Jr., a schoolboy, and now a student in the city of Philadelphia. The Chance family have membership in the Episcopal church. At West Anderson street, in Bryan, one of the new and splendid homes is that of Mr. Chance and family. It is a beautiful colonial residence and its broad and ample galleries are themselves typical of the generous hospitality which has ever been characteristic of this family.