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| Source: | City of San Diego and San Diego County |
| By Clarence Alan McGrew. Volume II The American Historical Society, Chicago and New York. 1922. Pages 288-289. |
Alfred Haines is senior member of Haines & Haines, attorneys at law in the Timken Building, one of the veteran members of the San Diego bar, having practiced here continuously for a third of a century. Mr. Haines was admitted to the bar in Iowa half a century ago, and his active life has been one long devotion to his profession and the best interests of the various communities where he has lived.He was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, November 16, 1845, son of George W. and Abigail (Long) Haines. His father was a teacher in early life but for many years was a farmer in Iowa, where he and his wife died.
Alfred Haines acquired some of his early education in the Aaronsburg Academy in Pennsylvania. He was a boy when he went to Iowa, and was not yet sixteen when the Civil war broke out. As soon as he was permited to do so on account of his age he enlisted and served as a private in an Iowa regiment. After the war he attended Beloit College in Wisconsin, and in 1871 was admitted to the Iowa bar in Benton County. He began his practice there at Vinton, but soon afterward interrupted his professional routine to carry advanced studies in law at Harvard University, where he remained a student about a year. He then resumed practice at Vinton, Iowa, where he remained until 1884. During that time he served as mayor of the city.
On leaving Iowa, Mr. Haines went to Dakota Territory, locating at Parker, Turner County, in what is now the State of South Dakota. He was there three years, took an active part in the campaign for statehood and was a member of the First Constitutional Convention of South Dakota. In 1887 Mr. Haines came to San Diego, which was then just beginning its modern development, and was still a community where the evidences of the older Spanish and Mexican regime remained. He was admitted to the California bar the same year as his arrival, and has been steadily engaged in handling an accumulating business as an attorney.
While in Iowa he practiced for a time with Judge George Gilchrist in the firm of Gilchrist & Haines. In San Diego he was a partner of the late D. C. Collier, Sr., the firm title being Collier & Haines, and for fifteen vears he was in partnership with Judge M. L. Ward, under the name Haines & Ward. Since 1904 he and his son Charles C. have comprised the firm Haines & Haines. In former years he served as assistant district attorney, both under Senator M. L. Ward and under Judge T. L. Lewis. Mr. Haines has contributed directly to the development of the great Imperial Valley of California, and as attorney handled the legal affairs for the Imperial Irrigation District of Imperial County. He was active in the organization of the district, and both he and his son have been closely identified with the subsequent development of Imperial County. Mr. Haines is a former vice president of the California State Bar Association, is a member of the San Diego County and American Bar Associations, is affiliated with Heintzelman Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at San Diego, is a member of the University Club, San Diego Lodge No. 168 of the Elks, and attends the First Congregational Church. He is a director for the Fredericka Home for the Aged at Chula Vista, one of the prominent charitable institutions of San Diego County.
In 1877 Mr. Haines married Flora C. Conklin at Vinton, Iowa. Mrs. Haines died at her home at Chula Vista in 1905. She was the mother of five children. Charles C., the oldest, is junior member of the firm Haines & Haines, and his individual career is sketched elsewhere. Ralph E. is a major in the Coast Artillery Corps, now stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. George A., the third son, was admitted to the California bar in 1912, practiced with his father about a year, and then became assistant district attorney of Merced County, and was performing those official duties when he died at Merced in 1915. The two youngest children are Florence Abigail, at home, and Oliver L., who has also had a military career. He was with the First Expeditionary Forces sent to France, served abroad practically throughout America's participation in the war, held a temporary commission as major, and is now a captain in the 79th Field Artillery, stationed at Camp Funston, Kansas.
In 1911 Mr. Alfred Haines married Francelia E. Williams, of San Diego. They have three children, named Alfred, Paul Williams and Arthur Maffit. The first two children of Mr. Haines were born in Iowa, the third in South Dakota, and the younger ones at Chula Vista and San Diego.
Charles C. Haines, is junior member of the law firm Haines & Haines, and has been actively associated with his father, Alfred Haines, since his admission to the bar in 1904.
The career of the veteran attorney and San Diego citizen, Alfred Haines, is the subject of a special article preceding. Charles C. Haines was born November 7, 1880, while his father lived at Vinton, Iowa, and was seven years of age when the family came to San Diego. He acquired his early education in the public schools of Chula Vista, and took his collegiate course in Pomona College and the University of California. He received the A. B. degree from that University in 1902, and in the same year Pomona College granted him a similar degree. He studied law at the University of California, graduating LL. B. in 1904. He at once returned to San Diego, and with maturing abilities through successive years has assumed a larger and larger share in the extensive practice enjoyed by the firm of Haines & Haines.
He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa college fraternity, the San Diego Bar Association, California State Bar Association, has been a member of the University Club since its organization, and is a republican. Mr. Haines is unmarried, and is a member of the vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church at San Diego.
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