My Genealogy Hound

RICHARD JACOBS HALDEMAN, youngest child of Jacob Miller Haldeman and Eliza Ewing (Jacobs) Haldeman, was born at Harrisburg, Pa., May 19, 1831, and died in the city of his birth, Oct. 1, 1885. His early teaching was obtained in private schools, among them the Academy and Capt. Partridge’s military school at Harrisburg, when he was sent to Yale College, Connecticut, entering and graduating with the class of 1851, with high honors. The same year he visited Europe to complete his education and studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, at both of which institutions he received marked commendation from his professors for scholarship. In 1853 he went with Hon. John Y. Mason (of Virginia), United States minister to France, as attache of legation in Paris, and later accompanied Hon. Thomas H. Seymour in a similar capacity to St. Petersburg. Because of his acquaintance with the European languages, especially French and German, Mr. Haldeman was peculiarly valuable to his chiefs in his diplomatic services. During his residence abroad and later visits he traveled extensively and minutely throughout Scandinavia, central and southern Europe, and the far East. In 1857 he purchased the Daily and Weekly Patriot and Union, in Harrisburg, and edited it until 1860. In politics Mr. Haldeman was a Democrat and first became a nominee of his party for the office of State senator in Dauphin county, fall of 1857, but was defeated by John B. Rutherford in a Republican district, after one of the fiercest campaigns ever recalled there. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Charleston and Baltimore conventions.

Some time in 1867 Mr. Haldeman took up his residence in Cumberland county, upon a farm inherited from his father, known in the neighborhood as the “Bunker Hill” farm, and situated along the river at the confluence of the Conedoguinet creek with the Susquehanna river. Here he retained his residence until the late years of his life, when he began to reside more continuously in Harrisburg on account of the schooling of his children. In 1869 he was elected to Congress from the Fifteenth District, Cumberland, Perry and York counties, where he served two terms, obtaining marked recognition because of his ability as a speaker and a forceful writer. Upon retirement from Congress Mr. Haldeman retired from politics.

On May 12, 1870, he married Margaretta Cameron, daughter of Gen. Simon Cameron, and Margaretta (Brua) Cameron, of Harrisburg, Pa., who survives, together with their three children: Donald Cameron; Eliza Ewing, of Harrisburg, and Richard Cameron, of Pittsburg, Pa. An older brother of Mr. Haldeman, Jacob Samils Haldeman, was at one time a member of the State Senate and was later sent as United States Minister to Sweden.