William R. HAFFNER, a veteran of the Civil War and a retired
farmer of Bearcreek township, living
at his pleasant farm home in that
township, where he has resided for many years, one of the best
known men
in that section of the county, is a native son of Jay county and has lived
here all his life.
Mr. HAFFNER was born on a farm in Jackson township on
February 8, 1843, and is a son of John and
Mary (PEARSON) HAFFNER, the
latter of whom was born in Ohio. John HAFFNER was born in
Virginia and
was about nine years of age when his parents moved to Ohio, where he grew to
manhood and was married, later coming over into Indiana and making his
home in Jackson
township, this county, where he spent his last days. In
addition to his farming, John HAFFNER also
was a cabinet maker and
carried on quite a business in making furniture for his pioneer neighbors
during the earlier years of his residence in this county. He and his
wife were the parents of ten
children, six of whom are still living, the
subject of this sketch having two sisters, Julia and Emma,
and three
brothers, Albert, John and Eli HAFFNER.
Reared on the home farm, William R. HAFFNER received his
schooling in the old Higgins school, a
hewed log structure. He was
eighteen years of age when the Civil War broke out and in the next year,
on August 15, 1862, enlisted his services in behalf of the cause of the
Union and went to the front as a
private in Company E of the 89th
regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which gallant command
he
served for a bit more than three years, or until his discharge at Mobile,
Ala., August 24, 1865, the
war then being over. Upon the completion of
his military service Mr. HAFFNER returned home and
resumed his place on
the farm. When twenty-two years of age he bought an eighty-acre tract of
woodland in Bearcreek township, a part of the place on which he is now
living, and began to clear
and improve the same, meanwhile renting
adjacent fields on which to carry on his farming
operations. In the fall
of the following year he married and established his home on that place and
has since resided there with the exception of a period of three years
which he spent at Portland. Mr.
HAFFNER has a well improved farm, the
operations of which are now carried on by his son, Orville
HAFFNER, who
took charge upon his father's retirement in 1919.
William R. HAFFNER has been twice married. On October 18,
1866, he was united in marriage to
Mary A. HOLLOWAY, who was born in the
vicinity of Plattsville, in Shelby county, Ohio, and who
was about
fourteen years of age when she came to Jay county with her parents, George
P. and
Elizabeth (CARMONY) HOLLOWAY, the former of whom formerly and for
years was engaged in
the harness business at Portland. To that union six
children were born. Of these, three are still living,
Elmer, Vioretta
and Leona, the latter of whom married Otis HUTCHENS, of Muncie, and has two
children, Robert and Alma. Elmer HAFFNER, who is farming in Bearcreek
township, married Lillie
DOUGHERTY and has seven children, Forrest,
Cloyd, Walter, Dale, Wayne, Fern and Hazel. Vioretta
HAFFNER married
William WATERMYERS, a farmer of the Findlay neighborhood, in Ohio, and has
five children. Mrs. Mary A. (HOLLOWAY) HAFFNER died and on June 28,
1900, Mr. HAFFNER
married Dora B. MAST, of this county, and to this
union two children have been born, Orville W. and
Mamie B., the latter
of whom is a member of the class of 1922, Bryant high school. Orville W.
HAFFNER was graduated from the Bryant high school with the class of 1918 and
is now, as noted
above, carrying on the operations of the home farm for
his father. Mrs. Dora B. HAFFNER was born
in Pike township, this county,
and is a daughter of John and Priscilla (CORLE) MAST, the latter of whom
also was
born in that township, a member of one of the pioneer families
of this county. John MAST was born in Union county,
Ohio, and early
became a resident of Jay county, moving from Pike
township to Bearcreek
township when Mrs. HAFFNER was about fifteen years of age. He and his
wife were the parents of three children, Mrs. HAFFNER having a sister, Mary,
and a brother, John V.
MAST. The HAFFNERs have a pleasant home in
Bearcreek township, rural mail route No. 11 out of
Portland, and have
ever taken an interested part in the general social activities of the
neighborhood.
Mr. and Mrs. HAFFNER are members of the Christian Union
church and in their political views are
inclined to 'independence.'
Source unknown