My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM NEWLEN HAYMAKER, retired farmer, post office Turtle Creek, was born in Franklin township, Westmoreland county, in 1822, on the farm where his father, John Haymaker, was also born. Jacob, father of John, was reared on the site of Allegheny City, and lies buried (with his grandfather Stofel) in Plum township. John Haymaker was one of the few whigs in Franklin, and was nominated frequently for office, but was in a hopeless minority. He died in his eighty-sixth year, and is buried at Murrysville; his widow, Ann Newlen (born in 1800), passed away in 1887. John, brother of Jacob Haymaker, was a companion of Brady, the famous Indian scout, and measured the famous leap of the latter at Brady’s Run, Beaver county. Mary, wife of Jacob, was captured by Indians when a child, together with her parents and an infant brother, near Murrysville, and all were taken to Canada and kept by different tribes. The father, Michael Rugh, escaped to Quebec, and succeeded in finding his wife by the help of English military officers. Two years later the mother discovered her daughter among some Indians who came to trade. The child’s face and arms had been stained to conceal her white nativity. The sum of ten dollars was exacted by the aborigines in each case for the release of their prisoners. Mr. Rugh returned to Franklin, and was several times elected to the legislature, making his trips to Harrisburg on horseback. W. N. Haymaker was reared in Franklin, and attended the common schools. In 1846 he married Mary, daughter of Joseph and Sarah (McCullough) Simpson, of Irish descent, and following year settled in Patton township, on the farm which he still owns, where Matthew Simpson, grandfather of Mrs. Haymaker, settled very early. In August, 1861, Mr. Haymaker joined the 63d regiment P. V., going out as second lieutenant of Company A, attached to the Army of the Potomac. During the three years that followed he took part in all the battles of that army from Williamsburg to Cold Harbor; at Savage Station he was shot through the leg by a rifle-ball; at Yorktown he was promoted to first lieutenant and made regimental quartermaster. On the day that Mr. Haymaker left the army his eldest son, Joseph, then seventeen years old, ran away from school and joined the 4th P. C, serving until the close of the war in the same army, part of the time as orderly on Gen. Warren’s staff. He died of consumption, at the age of thirty-one, while practicing law in Pittsburgh. Two brothers of Quartermaster Haymaker served in the same regiment, one in the 4th cavalry and one in the western army. Mr. Haymaker was present at the first national meeting of the republican party, to whose principles he has always adhered. He was justice of the peace several years, and has filled all the town offices. He was reared in the Presbyterian faith, to which he still adheres. He is a member of the G. A. R., Veteran Legion, McCandless Lodge, F.& A. M., Pittsburgh. John C., second son of Mr. Haymaker, is assistant district attorney, and resides in Pittsburgh; Anna S. (Mrs. Alex. Tilbrook), Virginia and Laura are deceased children, and Ida, wife of W. B. Brush, is the only living daughter. William Seward Haymaker, youngest son, graduates at Washington and Jefferson College this coming spring, 1889.