Then and Now: Carry on in a 'husband like fashion'

William Colby Chase (familiarly “Colby”) was born in February 1842 in the Passaconaway section of Albany, at his father’s farm overlooking the Swift River from the shadow of Eagle Ledge. He lived his entire life within sight of his birthplace. He had just turned 23 when he was caught in the last draft of the Civil War, but he had only gotten as far as the Boston rendezvous on Galloup’s Island when the war ended. After six weeks, he was discharged without ever having been issued a rifle.

In 1870, he married Lucinda Smith, and it was probably then that he built the house shown here. Lucy died in 1877, and the next year Colby married Rose Ham, a widow from a nearby farm, to help raise his two children. His son died young, and his daughter married a neighbor in 1891. Colby and Rose were all alone in the mid-’90s when Henry and Agnes Lane, from down the road, died in quick succession and left three orphaned sons. The Chases took them in and formally adopted the youngest of them, Frank, who was barely 2 years old.