Charles R. Haven 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 817-818

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

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CHARLES R. HAVEN. Among the leading farmers of Tetonka township, Spink 
county, is the subject of this biography, whose name stands high on the 
military record of the Civil war, as well as the annals of his adopted 
county. By perseverance and industry he has won success in life, and is 
now one of the well-to-do citizens of his community. 

Mr. Haven was born in Guildhall, Vermont, August 27, 1843, and was only 
two years old when he accompanied his parents on their removal to 
Kenosha county, Wisconsin, where the father engaged in blacksmithing 
and teaming. (More extended mention is made of the family in the sketch 
of Harris Haven on another page of this volume.) In 1858 our subject 
went with the family to Minnesota, and in 1861 joined the First 
Minnesota Regiment at the president's first call for three-months' men. 
On the 19th of August, 1862, he re-enlisted in the Ninth Minnesota 
Infantry, and with his command was first sent to the seat of the Indian 
troubles. After participating in the Birch Coolie engagement they 
marched to the Missouri river to meet Sully, but were forced to return 
to Fort Snelling for rations. In the fall of 1863 they took the fleet 
south to Missouri, and were stationed at different points in that 
state, our subject being at Jefferson City most of the time. In the 
spring of 1864 he was ordered to Memphis, Tennessee, where by good luck 
he escaped Forrest, having been sent on detail duty the day before the 
battle. During the remainder of the war he was forage master in the 
quartermaster's department, and was mustered out June 28, 1865, at 
Louisville, Kentucky, whence he went to, Chicago, where he stayed over 
the 4th of July with a brother. 

Returning to his home in St. Anthony, Minnesota, Mr. Haven spent the 
following six years working in the lumber woods and in sawmills, and in 
1871 started a dray line in East Minneapolis, which he conducted until 
the fall of 1881, when he sold his business. The following March he 
came to Spink county, South Dakota, and took up a homestead on the 
northeast quarter of section 14, Tetonka township. The first year he 
broke about thirty-five acres which he sowed to oats and sod corn. He 
rents a quarter-section and now has two hundred and eighty-five acres 
under a high state of cultivation and planted to small grain, while 
thirty-five acres near his house is used as pasture. In connection with 
general farming, he is interested to some extent in stock raising and 
usually keeps over the winter ten horses and fourteen head of cattle. 
He has upon his place two wells about five rods apart, one of which is 
forty nine feet deep with a thirty-two inch bored hole and furnishes an 
almost limitless supply of water, while from the other, which is a dug 
well seventy-feet deep with a four foot hole, from which he gets a fair 
supply. In 1888 Mr. Haven had a very narrow escape from being lost in 
the blizzard, and in 1893 he was visited by a terrible hail storm and a 
small cyclone, which destroyed all his small grain and most of his 
corn. 

Mr. Haven was married April 27, 1876, to Miss Mary B. Arnundsen, a 
native of Norway, and to them were born two children: Mamie M., who is 
now successfully engaged in teaching school in Flandreau, South Dakota; 
and Freddie, who died May 6, 1882. Mr. Haven has been a stanch 
supporter of the Populist party for thirteen years or ever since the 
first farmers' organization was established in the northern part of the 
county. He is also a woman's suffragist and believes in state control 
of liquor. While a resident of Minneapolis he held membership in the 
Grand Army of the Republic. As a citizen he is ever ready to discharge 
every duty that devolves upon him and commands the respect and esteem 
of all who know him.