Biography of 	Haight, Hon. William R. Orleans Parish, Louisiana 
Submitted by 	Mike Miller September 2000

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Hon. William R. Haight.  In the various activities which make up the busy life of the 
thriving community of Ponchatoula few men take a more prominent part than Hon. William 
R. Haight.  His career has been one of rapid advancement and successful achievement, 
and today, in addition to other connections, he is serving as mayor and acting in the 
capacity of manager of the Ponchatoula Farm Bureau and Strawberry Growers' Co-Operative 
Association.

Mr. Haight was born December 12, 1873, at New Orleans, and is a son of Charles H. and 
Mary Ellen (Akers) Haight.  On the paternal side he is descended from an English family 
which came to America and settled in New York at an early day.  His grandfather, Rufus 
J. Haight, was born at Brooklyn, New York, and about 1853 moved to New Orleans, where he 
followed his trade as a brass moulder until his death.  The maternal grandfather of 
William R. Haight, William Akers, was of Scotch-Irish descent and was born at New Orleans. 
He located at Ponchatoula when a young man, became an extensive farmer, was one of the 
founders of the city, and served as its first mayor, taking office February 15, 1861. 

Charles H. Haight was born August 23, 1848, at New Orleans, where he has resided all 
of his life.  For forty-two and one-half years he was identified pith the Western Union 
Telegraph Company, but in 1910 left their service, when elected superintendent of the 
Peoples Homestead Association, a Position which he holds at this time.  This is the 
oldest homestead association in New Orleans. In politics he is a stanch democrat, and 
his religious faith is that of the Episcopal Church, of which he is a generous supporter 
and regular attendant.  Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World, was formerly a trustee of 
the Knights of Honor, and was one of the founders of Crescent Encampment, Knights of 
Temperance.  Mr. Haight married Mary Ellen Akers, who was born in 1851 at Ponchatoula, 
and to this union there were born two children:  Rosalie, who is unmarried and makes her 
home with her parents at New Orleans; and  William R.

William R. Haight attended the public schools of New Orleans, and at the age of 
nineteen years became a clerk for the Western Union Telegraph Company, a concern by 
which he was employed five years.  He was then with A. E. Graham & Company, operating 
a chain of stores, and for one year worked as clerk for this concern at Hillsboro, 
Texas, whence he came to Ponchatoula in 1900.  He was engaged in farming and the 
cultivation of strawberries until the end of 1901, when he secured employment with 
the New Orleans Railway and Light Company as a motorman on the street cars of New Orleans.  
He discharged the duties of this position for four years and eight months, and then returned 
to Ponchatoula as clerk and manager for E. D. Parker, a general merchant, remaining in his 
employ five years.  It was while thus engaged that Mr. Haight decided to enter the field of
business on his own account, and accordingly, in 1911, organized what was then known as the 
German Farmers Association, of which he was made secretary and treasurer, and the name of
which was changed to the American Farmers Association in 1914, Mr. Haight being retained in 
the same offices.  This enterprise later was consolidated with the United Farmers Co-Operative 
Association of Ponchatoula, under the latter name, and Mr. Haight remained as manager thereof 
until May, 1922, in which he retains a directorship, as he does in the Ponchatoula Farm Bureau 
and the Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce.  On August 1, 1923, Mr. Haight accepted the position 
of assistant manager of the Ponchatoula branch of the First State Bank and Trust Company of 
Hammond, and retained that position one and one-half years.  In December, 1922, he became 
manager of the Ponchatoula Farm Bureau and Strawberry Growers Co-Operative Association, a 
position which he retains, his offices being situated on Railroad Square.  A democrat in 
his political tendencies and affiliations, he was elected mayor of Ponchatoula, taking 
office July 4, 1922, and has given his fellow-citizens an excellent and constructive 
administration.  In April, 1924, he was reelected for a second term of two years.  Prior 
to this he had served on the City Council for two terms, and in 1915 was farm and dairy 
inspector of Louisiana, under E. 0. Brunner, commissioner of agriculture of the state.  
He belongs to the Ponchatoula Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he is a member 
of the Board of Stewards, and fraternally he is a member of Pine Grove Lodge No. 288, Free 
and Accepted Masons, and secretary and treasurer of the Benevolent Knights of America of 
Louisiana, with headquarters at New Orleans.  During the World war Mr. Haight, in 1918 and 
1919, "(lid his bit" by helping to make powder at the Old Hickory powder plant, Nashville, 
Tennessee.  He is the owner of a fine residence at the corporate limits of the city on the 
south, with forty acres of strawberry land surrounding.

On July 17, 1901, at Ponchatoula, Mr. Haight married Miss Lulu F. Killian, a daughter 
of Edward C. and Mary Ellen Killian, residents of New Orleans, where Mr. Killian is 
electrical engineer for the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board.  To this union there 
have been born the following children:  Frank E., a graduate of Ponchatoula High School, 
1922, who attended Tulane University during the school year of l922-23 and is now studying 
electrical work at New Orleans with the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company;  
William Rufus. Jr., a graduate of the Ponchatoula High School, class of 1923, now 
employed by the city engineer of Ponchatoula as a rodman;  Mary Ellen, a senior in the 
local high school;  Julia Akers, a freshman in the same school;  Rosalie Catherine and  
Edward Charles, who are attending grammar school; and  Louise.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 159-160, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.