Biographies
from
The History of Otsego County, New York
1740-1878
D. Hamilton Hurd
Published by Everts & Fariss, Philadelphia
CHASE, Willet - Burlington
Willet CHASE, son of Asa and Hannah Chase, was born in Hancock,
R.I., Oct. 5, 1802, and removed to Otsego County, and settled in
Pittsfield, in 1804, in company with his parents. Asa and Hannah
were the parents of fourteen children. Asa was a farmer, and died at
the age of eighty-five. His wife Hannah lived to be nearly ninety-one
years of age, and both of them now lie sleeping in the family cemetery,
some one-half mile west of where Willet now resides.
Willet went to learn the blacksmith trade in his nineteenth year,
serving three years as an apprentice. March 28, 1828, he removed
into Burlington, to his present farm. It then consisted of but three-
quarters of an acre, on which was a small house and shop, and to
this small beginning he has been constantly adding little by little,
until now he owns 138 1/2 acres of good land, on which are built
some splendid buildings, a view of which may be seen elsewhere.
He married Miss Eliza HARRINGTON, a daughter of Thomas and
Lucinda Harrington, Sept. 1, 1827. She was born in Cobleskill,
Schoharie Co., N. Y., July 9, 1805. In 1810 her parents settled in
Edmeston, and removed to New Lisbon, where they died. By the
union of Mr. and Mrs. Chase ten children - five sons and five
daughters - have been born, namely, Miron, Caroline, Almira, Emily,
Truman, Clarissa L, Ann A, Albert, Robert T., and Henry.
Truman died at the age of twenty-seven. Henry died while young.
Albert and Miron were soldiers in the War of the Rebellion. Miron
served in the 4th Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers during the entire
war, and lived to see his old home again; but Albert was a solider in
Co. K, 121st Regiment of New York volunteers, serving about six
months, when he fell a victim by sickness. Mr. Chase is a Republican
in politics. Mr. Chase is one of the old pioneers of the county who
came here when a boy, and has lived to witness the greatest improvements
in the departments of industry that the world has ever seen. He is
now an old man of seventy-six, and seems to be in good health.--
Excerpt from History of Otsego Co., NY, page 106