George L. Haffner Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 475-476

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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GEORGE L. HAFFNER, one of the leading and successful farmers of Custer 
township, Beadle county, South Dakota, was born on the 23d of March, 
1865, in Chicago, Illinois, a son of Lewis and Mary (Secore) Haffner, 
both natives of Germany. Owing to the German thrift and notions of his 
parents, he was taken from school at the age of fourteen years to work 
in a packing house, where he found employment during the winter, while 
through the summer months he did lathing or other kinds of carpenter 
work. 

On the 29th of August, 1884, Mr. Haffner was united in marriage with 
Miss Mary Eckert, who was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, December 24, 
1861, and one child, a son, who bears his father's full name, was born 
of this union, April 28, 1885. In the autumn of 1885, Mr. Haffner moved 
to Beadle county, South Dakota. His finances at that time were such as 
to force him to find employment as a farm hand. The next season, 
however, he rented the Dickerson farm, which he cultivated for two 
years, and then bought a relinquishment on the northeast quarter of 
section 35, Custer township. He first filed a tree claim then a pre-
emption and lastly a homestead, using all three rights on the claim. An 
early incident of privation which he was called upon to endure was the 
loss by a prairie fire of his house and household goods, in fact 
everything with the exception of two chairs and a trunk. This fire 
ranged over a strip of territory five miles wide and twenty miles long, 
leaving more than a dozen families in distress. Like many others, he 
received aid from the county, this in most instances being the loan of 
seed grain and feed, which was repaid after harvest by the farmers. In 
1898 Mr. Haffner erected upon his farm a pleasant and commodious frame 
residence, which is neatly and well furnished, and in this comfortable 
home he can take a just pride. He has ever followed mixed farming, the 
corn giving better returns than wheat, but stock-raising has proved 
more profitable than either, owing to the open range in winter and the 
peculiar merits of the native grasses. 

Politically Mr. Haffner was in early life Republican, but in late years 
has voted with the Populist party. He has been the efficient and 
popular chairman of his township for four years, and has, in fact, held 
some position of trust ever since he located here. Socially he is a 
member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of 
America.