Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Hazelton, Keelson E 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 1:28 pm

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

KEELSON E. HAZELTON. The entire life of Mr. Hazelton has been passed on the 
family homestead in Wesley Township, where he was born. His father, Charles 
R., a native of Bennington, Vt., removed to Ohio in early life, thence years 
afterward went to Aurora, Ill., and about 1852 settled in Wesley Township, 
where he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres. The subsequent years of 
his busy life were passed here. The principal development of his township took 
place under his immediate observation. From an uncultivated prairie he saw it 
changed to a garden spot, worthy to be compared with the finest places in his 
native New England. His attention was chiefly directed to general farming, 
although he bestowed some attention on stock-raising. From time to time he 
added to his possessions until he owned about six hundred acres, all 
representing his unaided efforts. His success was even more gratifying than 
his fondest hopes had painted, for when he left Vermont, a poor youth of 
eighteen, and started for a strange section of the country, he had not dared 
to hope that he would be in later years a large land owner. He was spared to a 
very advanced age, being eighty-nine at the time he was called from earth, 
November 14, 1898. His first wife died in Ohio, leaving two sons, Norman and 
George. Afterward he married a widow, Mrs. Annie (Van Fleet) Ball, by whom he 
had five children, namely: Ella, wife of William Mellen; Vesta, who married 
Amasa Bell; Ida, wife of Charles Walton; Susan, Mrs. Thomas B. Reid, of 
Kansas; and Nelson E., of this sketch. The widowed mother, at the age of 
seventy-five years, is a remarkably well-preserved old lady, keen, active and 
vigorous; she is living on a part of the old homestead. Born in 1862, our 
subject passed the years of youth at the old homestead, carefully reared under 
the supervision of his parents. He received common-school advantages, and 
these, aided by reading, observation and experience, have made him a well-
informed man. He has followed the uneventful life of a farmer, having taken 
charge of the home farm at the age of twenty-one, and now he cultivates three 
hundred and twenty acres, besides buying and selling stock. In 1899 he erected 
on the old home place a residence that is without doubt the finest in the 
township, being modern in its appointments and artistic in appearance, while 
its furnishings are of a character that indicate the refined tastes of the 
family. It contains not only the necessities but also the comforts of modern 
life. While he was more fortunate than some young men in that he was given a 
start in life by his father, yet, had it not been for his energy, good 
judgment and industry, he could not have attained the success now his. His 
farm work is invariably conducted in a thorough and progressive manner. He 
raises large quantities of grain, averaging three thousand bushels of corn and 
seven thousand bushels of oats each year. Like the other members of the 
Hazelton family, Mr. Hazelton is a Republican, but not a politician nor a 
partisan. Fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America. May 
21, 1885, he married Jennie, daughter of John W. Raymond, of Kankakee County. 
They have two daughters, Nellie and Genieve. The family occupy a high position 
in the social life of the community and always lend substantial aid to 
educational and charitable enterprises.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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