Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Haven, Samuel Rush, M D 1827 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 9, 2007, 12:44 am

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

SAMUEL RUSH HAVEN, M. D. The demise of this distinguished member of the 
medical profession, scientist and traveler, took place at the home of his 
brother, the Hon. Dwight Haven, in New Lenox, and was learned with regret by 
the many personal friends he had made, as well as by hosts to whom his 
reputation had made him familiar. He was born in Sheridan, Chautauqua County, 
N. Y., January 29, 1827, and came to what is now the renowned city of Chicago, 
in the fall of 1834, with his parents in an emigrant wagon, little dreaming 
that in years to come he would become a prominent resident of the city which 
was to be built up there. The parents of our subject settled on a farm in New 
Lenox, Will County, and there young Haver acquired his elementary education. 
His taste leading him to desire to become a physician, he entered Rush Medical 
College, in Chicago, working for his board while pursuing his studies there 
and matriculating in 1847. In 1850, still owing debts contracted while 
attending school, he caught the gold fever and went to California, where he 
dug the precious metal, and also practiced his profession. Both occupations 
proved profitable to him, and he was enabled to pay the indebtedness, before 
alluded to, and establish himself well upon his return to the States. After 
sojourning on the Pacific Slope until 1853, Dr. Haven returned to Chicago, and 
formed a partnership with Dr. J. W. Freer. When the war broke out he 
volunteered on the first expedition, under Brig. Gen. Swift, to Cairo, April 
21, 1861, subsequently becoming a Brigade Surgeon,with the Army of the 
Potomac. He gained distinction in the field, first under Gen. Grant and later 
under Gen. Heintzleman, being promoted to the position of Division Surgeon 
with the rank of Major, and finally becoming Corps Surgeon, with the rank of 
Colonel, under Gen. Hancock. He was through all the battles of the Peninsular 
campaign under Gen. McClellan and the other commanders of the Eastern Army. At 
the close of the war he was offered a Colonelcy in the regular army by 
President Lincoln, but refused. After the war Dr. Haven retired from active 
practice and became a very successful real-estate dealer, displaying business 
acumen of a high order, and retrieving his fortunes, when the great fire in 
Chicago had left him almost penniless, by a quick appreciation of the needs of 
the time and a dauntless pushing forward. The abundant means that he possessed 
enabled him to gratify his taste for travel and research, and he acquired a 
reputation as a scientist and student, fully equal to that he had obtained in 
the pursuit of his professional labors. His journeyiugs had included almost 
every part of the known world, and his investigations were particularly 
earnest in the line of medical science. Dr. Haven was a great lover of books, 
his reading giving him such a profound knowledge of general literature that he 
was regarded by his acquaintances as a veritable encyclopedia of interesting 
information. His conversational powers were far above the average, making him 
an entertaining companion. He was one of the band of early Abolitionists and 
Free-Soilers who helped to shape the politics of Northern Illinois. Although 
brought up in the strict faith of the Congregational Church, his religious 
views became largely modified and broadened in later years. For some time past 
Dr. Haven had been spending his winters in Florida, and at the time of his 
death had a handsome winter home in process of construction at Clearwater 
Harbor, on the coast of that State. His wife, who survives him, was Jane 
Stowell, daughter of E. C. Stowell, deceased, formerly a well-known real-
estate dealer of Chicago. The marriage rites of Dr. Haven and Miss Stowell 
were celebrated in 1854.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890

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