Seated (L-R):
Fred, Ray, Rex, Laura Edith (Cassiday) holding), Dwight
Standing (L-R):
Herbert & Ernest Haight
 

Not picture above were two other children: Dale Haight 3-6-1895 Iowa (birth record shows 3-5-1895 D.O.D. 3-6-1895 Iowa. Elwood Haight 3-31-1904 D.O.D. 1-17-1905 Iowa.  Both are buried in Elk Cemetery, Alta, Iowa.
Lloyd Haight 2001

Fredrick Francis Haight was born Oct. 5-1850 in Erie county Ohio.  He was the second child of William and Rebecca (Blackman) Haight b. 1826....b. 3/11/1829 He was born in what is now the outskirts of Sandusky Ohio, more than likely on his fathers farm, which is in Perkins Twp. And at the intersection, or near, where Strecker Road crosses the Ohio Toll Road - - Number 4 - -.  This farm was owned by his mothers parents before William J. Haight his father bought it.  His grandparents owned the farm on his mothers side.  It is quite likely Fred's mother; Rebecca Blackman was born on this same farm.

 Fred Haight had three brothers- William- James- Charles and two sisters- Mary- Estella- all born on or near this farm in Erie county near Sandusky Ohio on the edge of Lake Erie.  Two of the children- brother Charles died in 1855 at about a year old and a sister- Mary- died 1860 at about a month old. Both are buried in what is known as the Sandhill cemetery not far away.

 In 1861 William J. and Rebecca Haight decided to try their luck in a still newer country and made plans to go the two or three hundred miles west into Easter Iowa.  It is unlikely that any of the brothers or Fred himself went to school while in Ohio.  Ohio was then a wilderness and while there were traveling "preachers" and a few traveling school masters school were almost unknown.  While they were in Ohio the Civil War was just beginning- - canals were in full swing--  and the railroads were being built.  These same railroads were to crowd out in time the best transportation on the canals
across Ohio to the Ohio River and thence down the Ohio to Mississippi and down the Mississippi to the gulf - or New Orleans. Going the other way they crossed Lake Erie and out into the New York Erie canal to Albany and down the Hudson River to New York City.  Boat travel though slow was possible thus from New York City inland to New Orleans and vice versa.

 Back to Fred Haight and his early life.  In 1861 William Haight with the oldest Son William went overland from Sandusky Ohio to West Liberty, which is in Muscatine County in eastern IA.  More than likely they drove oxen and they also took a band of sheep through with them.  Fred being only 11 years of age is likely to have come a few weeks later with his mother who came by rail.

 The family settled on a farm there and worked hard and prospered to a certain degree.   Farming was difficult in those days.  Even plows as we know them now were almost unknown.  They had no machinery on which they rode.  With the oxen or in some cases horsepower they walked all day behind the plow- harrows- cultivators or what have you.  Most all the grain was won by hand, walking back and forth across the field, carrying the grain in a sack and with a "slinging motion" scattering the oats or wheat on the ground.  Soon after different types of seeders were invented.  Corn was planted also on foot by use of a hoe or a pointed stick, which they stuck into the ground and dropped two or three kernels of corn in


About that time 1850 some one invented a type of hollow stick or peep through which one stuck into the ground and by pulling a gadget he could let two three kernels of corn slide down the tube into the ground.  Even so the corn had to be carried and it was all footwork.  Later on someone invented the horse drawn corn planter which one could plant one or two rows at a time of corn.  All so during this period and about the time Fred was coming of the age he worked in the fields it was necessary to cut all the wheat- oats - rye- and flax with a sythe- or cradle -.  If one knew how to do this right he could leave it in kind of a thick like row or swaths.  Then is when the work began for they then came along and gathered into their arms the right amount for a bundle of grain and using the straw for a string or band
they tied the bundle much as a binder ties a bundle of grain now days.  The bundles were then put into shocks.  Later the grain was stacked and in the fall threshing machines some of them or most of them run by horse power came around and threshed the grain out.  A few used the old method of "Flailing" it out by hand but this was rapidly going out of date.  They were really becoming mechanized.  (So they thought).  Soon after some one  invented the "Scaper" which out the grain leaving it on a platform and as they drove along it was raked of at certain places and the men came along and bound the
grain by hand.  A little later the binder which cut and bound the grain all in one operation came out.  This must be the end of convinces for harvesting- so they thought at that time.  The corn was cut- tied with binding twine and shocked early in the fall.  Later husking bees were held where whole families got to-gether and helped husk each others corn.  Taking the ears of corn from the stalks in other words.  (Or was the custom in those days to get a kiss for each red ear of corn found.)  More over this accounted for a certain type of all Red Eared Corn being grown.  Could be.

 Another method of harvesting corn was for the whole family to go into the corn field with a wagon drawn by oxen or horses and straddling one row of corn with a wagon they would pick two rows on each side of the wagon and one  or two persons most apt to be the wife or the younger kids followed behind the wagon picking the corn from the row straddled by the wagon and team.  As you can see little row would be broken down upon the ground and would be might hard to pick.  One had to go in a crouched position all day long.  A few years later they learned to "strike out lands" and not have a down row to pick each time across the field.  Thus only one or two "down Rows" would be needed in an entire field.

 All this was told to me many times by my father Fred Haight.  In fact he showed me ho to tied grain by hand which I can do if given enough time yet even if it is 1958.  No doubt my older brothers can do a right good job of tying with the straw band for all grain left untied by binders which all missed some bundles were tied to save waste by most all farmers by hand up to the adoption of combine in say around the 1930's and afterwards.  Tilling the soil in those days were a matter of life and death.  Either you grew enough for yourself- your wife and the kids or else you went hungry during the winter months.  Everyone worked hard.  In winter candle dipping was done among other things.  The kerosene lamp and lantern came out about this time.


After having candles for light, the kerosene lamp seemed bright.  Alvin Lafe ) Haight the seventh and youngest son of the family was born May-5-1864 in Wapsinndnos Twp. Muscatine county Iowa.  Mr.  Mrs.  William Haight and their five children lived on one or more farms in this vicinity for eight years.  Muscatine county is where the mound dwelling Indians used to
live.  It also was just across the river from where the Mormon people established the town - was it Navaho?  Father was always friendly to the Mormons and approved of their way of helping one another and their way of life.  (The Mississippi river separated Ill and IA. a few miles from their homes.) William J. Haight the father of the family learned to read by tearing sale bills from trees and taking home and by borrowing various books.  He became a very good reader and from his early 20's to the day he died he read the bible daily.

 It is doubtful if Fred Haight went to school much if any in eastern Iowa. He may have gone a little in the winters.  However spelling "bees" were quite common and many an evening was no doubt spent at these affairs.  They served two purposes- - education and entertainment.  It must be said along the line some place Fred Haight learned to read very well and later years in his home many many magazines and daily papers were taken.  "Babyland" a magazine for the young and up to the "Youths Companion"  for the older boys. As well as " The American Boy" Good clean books of all kinds were plentiful in the Fred Haight home, after he and Laura Haight were married.  I am getting ahead of myself here.  Back to Muscatine county- West Liberty- near the Mississippi river and life there at that time.

 In the spring, along about the middle of April the father of the family William J. Haight and a neighbor or two decided to go the two or so hundred miles west across Iowa in search of a new home.  They travel by wagon and may have had horses for this trip.  Up to now oxen were more common but horses were becoming more plentiful.  So they headed west via Fort Dodge Iowa - -  William J. and his pals leaving his wife Rebecca Haight and the five kids - - William-(Jr.) Fred- James -Estella - and Lafe on the farm to look after things.
 He landed in Buena Vista county Iowa which is in N. W. part of Iowa May4- -1869.  That is now the county seat was only a campground known then and now as Storm Lake Iowa.  From there he went fifteen miles or so northwest near what is now Aurelia and took up a homestead of 80 A.  At almost exactly if not exactly the same day Laura Haight and her parents took up a homestead within two miles of Fred Haights folks.  Neither knew the other at that time but in time to come they were to become man and wife.

 William J. Haight got things in shape the summer of 1869 went back to eastern IA that fall or winter and in the spring of 1870 this time with his wife and five children he went by wagon from West Liberty in eastern IA to Elk Twp. Buena Vista county in western Iowa establishing what was to be their home for the rest of his life.  In fact for the rest of all the
families lives. Poor Mr.  Mrs.  William J. Haight and all the children are laid to rest near that Elk Twp.  Home.


Fred Haight being born in 1850 and it was 1870 when they moved to N. W. Iowa thus Fred must have been 20 years old at that time.  I would figure he helped with the farm work and no doubt worked for neighbors.  At the start they raised wheat thinking they were to far north and west for corn to mature.  How wrong they were for N. W. IA. later proved to be some of the best corn land in the whole world.

 Along about this time they obtained a binder to help make grain harvesting easier.  Fred's father soon bought another 80 A.  making 160 A in all a fair sized Iowa farm at that time or even now for that matter.  A little latter
they bought what was the latest thing in harvesting a - - header.  One of the Haight boys, William, was one of the first and the best "Header Puncher" in that part of Iowa.  This farm in Elk Twp. Was in section 18 and was the W. ½ of the S. W. ¼  Elk Twp. Buena Vista county Iowa.

 Fred Haight may have taken a homestead about the time he was 21.  In fact it is certain he did though later he may have given up his right to some one else.  Several winters he went back to eastern Iowa to work for the winter. One summer he went to  Indian Territory which is now Oklahoma state.  He worked for an outfit that was freighting flour to Oklahoma Indian tribes. It was while down there he met with an accident, the scars of which he carried the rest of his life.  While out hunting wild turkeys in some way the end of his muzzle loading shot gun got filled with mud.  Figuring on blasting a whole flock I guess he had put in an extra big charge.  The turkeys showed - - Fred fired - - the gun blew into bits and Fred was hurt plenty bad.  This may have been one of the reasons that in latter years when Fred Haight married and had about eight sons - -he and his wife refused flatly for any guns to be around the promises.  I, Dwight, the youngest was
permitted to have a 22 rifle and I think I was the first one they let me have a gun.  ( I was the ninth son and by then I guess maybe they would not have cared so much at loosing a boy or two.  I fooled them I never shot anyone.  Though I did shoot a hole through the kitchen floor and blamed near shot myself one time.)

 Back again to Elk Twp.  And Fred Haight about 1878 to the time he started to take notice of a certain young good looking schoolteacher who lived two miles east.  A certain Laura Cassiday who was around 17 at that time and Fred was almost 28.  A fellow by the name of Frank Davis and another by the name of Charlie Anderson used to find reasons for stopping at the John Cassiday home; Laura's parents.

 Laura Cassiday had grown up from seven to 17 near by.  She attended the school known as the Haight school.  It is still now in 1958 known by the same name.  Laura went to school with her sister Lizzetts and with Helen Fulton who lived near by.  The Cassiday and the Fulton homesteads joined. Helen Fulton's granddaughter was latter to become the wife of one of Fred Haights sons.  ( Me-Dwight).  It is not known for sure just how long Fred and Laura went together before they were married but about two years is the best guess.


  A word of explanation here as to Fred Haight going to Indian Territory.  I think he and his future brother in law- A Lon Hunter, who married Lizzeta Cassiday.  Lizzetta Cassiday and Laura Cassiday were full sisters and the only two children  of John Cassidays second marriage to Elizabeth - Mc- Keever on 2/14/1859.  Lon Hunter and Fred Haight went into Indian
Territory freighting for an outfit to different places.  I remember my father - - Fred Haight - saying that at one time he never saw a white person for six weeks, and he was traveling every day.  Slow of course with a load and more than likely oxen.  They threw Indian Territory open to the whites in 1889 I think for what was a grand rush for homesteads in what is now Oklahoma state.  As this was 7 years after Fred Haights marriage I think it must have been long before that time though I am not sure.  Seems to me he said he was there at the time of the land with the firing of a gun at was it
noon? And they swarmed in by the thousands each trying to out run the other for a land location.  Towns sprang up over night.  Again back to about 1881 and Elk Twp. Frederick Francis Haight was married to Laura Edith Cassiday on mothers
birthday (her nineteenth) October 4- 1881.  I do not know where but I presume at her home - the John Cassiday home.

At this time John Cassiday was in ordinary circumstances financially though a few years before he had been one of the wealthiest families in eastern Iowa.  Present day history books list him at the end of the Civil War as one of the best educated and the wealthiest man of his time.  The civil was ended and a crash followed at which time John Cassiday was reduced to - - well almost poverty.  He had started one of Iowa's first newspapers in 1848 - - " The Montana Republican" He had owned a large brickyard and lumberyard.  He owned quite a lot of land.  He had staked among others his son in 1848 to go to Calif. In the California Gold Rush days.  ( This son did not find gold in California but like his father he started an early day Calif. newspaper)  In this year 1958 descendants of this same Cassiday are active in Newspaper work in California.  More than one of them.  Upon the loss by mortgage foreclosure John Cassiday with two yoke of oxen and one team of horses with his second wife Sarah and two children Lizzetta age about 11 and Laura age about 7, along with three or four children of his first marriage, left Montazuma Iowa and like William J.  Haight looked for a new and better location in N. W. Iowa.  It must not be overlooked that these older children were married and had from one to three tiny children.  Iiones John Cassiday was then 69- years of age - broke - heading 75 miles from a railroad to take up a new home by homesteading with some ten or so persons dependent on him for their bread and butter.  His wife - three or four
daughters- and four or more grandchildren.  Did he lack courage?  Most of us now days (1958) at that age are afraid to go out doors after dark and except friends- relatives- or more likely "Uncle Sam" to give us not only the necessities but the luxuries of life.  Be that as it may John Cassiday had "guts" plenty of it and helped develop a new land.  In about six or seven years later, John Cassiday sold the homestead and made another move ten to twelve miles up into Brook Twp. Iowa.



He again made a brand new start on a farm at the age of about 77 building a house - barn and breaking the native sod.  This house and home is known as the "Ness" place and is about one mile south and two or three west of Linn Grove Iowa.  It is about two or three miles east of the Fred Haight home where Fred and Laura Haight settled and lived, raising eight boys and owning at the time of both their deaths.  John Cassiday died at the home of his daughter Mrs. Fred (Laura) Haight on this farms- - Glenn Alphine Home - - on May -12 - 1886.  2/16/1840 his wife Elizabeth - Cassiday died at G. A.
Haight.

 Off the track from Fred and Laura Haight slightly  so back to Fred and Laura Haights marriage October 4- 1881.

 Fred and Laura lived most of that first winter with Fred's parents - William J. and Rebecca Haight- on the old farm home.  He helped with the work doing as much outside work to help earn money as was possible.

 Not long afterward they started farming in Elk Twp. A half-mile or so south of the William J. Haight home.  It is on the top of the hill south of that home, on the Cherokee- Buena Vista county line.  I think they lived on the west side of the road.  I remember years latter when driving past this place mother and father saying that is the place they started "house keeping".

 On April-14-1883- Fred and Laura Haight loaded all their worldly possessions onto one wagon and went about eight miles N. E. to what we would call the edge of some breaks.  They had one son at this time- - Herbert Hale Haight- age about seven months.

 How they happened to get this land I do not know though they did own some in Elk Twp. So it may have been some kind of a swap.  Anyway they drove up to the edge of this rough country, down a coulee- or draw- to the foot of a hill on the north and one on the west.  This provided protection from north and west winds.  Eighty rods or so east and a half mile south there was other hills.  On these hills were scrub oaks, at that time, from two or five feet tall.  (Now in 1958 this same old oak timber is from six inches to two feet through the trunks) (Some willow and box elder not yet planted then is from four to five feet through the trunk *)  There was a small spring near by where they stopped.  Also there was a tiny brook 40 rods or so south of the camping place.  It must have been about night by that time and plenty cold with a tiny baby.  Some way they unloaded the wagon and got the wagon box from the running gears.  The box they propped up on one side more than likely the south and this said wagon box was to be  used as a home until they gathered stones and built a rock house. ( The wall of this same rock house is intact to day-1958- in the house on this same farm in this exact spot.  The main part of the stone house has been replaced by wood but the foundation is this same- - Rock Wall.)   (Herbert being seven months old would not have been a great deal of help.  Perhaps the opposite. )  It must have taken a month or more to build this house, may be more for stones were not very thick around there either.  (I know for I grew up in this home.) In the mean time they must have planted a garden and some crop.  Hardships ? They saw plenty and that was just the beginning.

I would think the first pieces of land must have been a 160 A. piece which lay square.  They soon bought from the railroad for $1.25 per A.  a 40 A. place that lay just south of 160 .  Latter they soon bought some way some how an eighty from Frank W. Martin which lay on the north of the Original 160.  How Uncle Frank got it I do not know though Ernest Haight distinctly remembers going to Linn Grove with the check to the Amine or Kirthard bank with the check for this 80 A.  Seems Fred's brother Uncle Jim loaned the money or also owed red anyway the check was James Haights check and was for Frank Martin for this 80 A.  Ernest thinks it was for less than a thousand dollars.

 After Herbert they soon had another son Ernest and he may have been born at this home in Brook Twp.  Known as Glenn Allophone Home or it is possible he was born in Elk Twp. At the home of his grandmother and grandfather- William and Rebecca Haight home.  Soon to follow at about two year intervals were- Ray- Burl- Elgar - Rex- Trevor - Dale - Dwight- Dale and Elwood Lonte and last son of Fred and Laura Haight died in infancy. (For information have them consult their own
              d. 1/17/1905. "Haight History" in proper places".)

 This brings us up to around 1906 which is the time I was about six years old.  From here on I remember and to this point it has been from records- what I remember the folks telling- - and from information from my brothers-and friends- and cousins.

 My first faint re-collection is of my having to give up my high chair( no Doubt was all the rest high chair to) to some visitor.  They piled Monkey Ward catalogues on a stool and I was set on that.  I definitely remember being warned time and again about not falling from the stool.  Maybe I did fall is the reason I remember this deal.  My next recollection is of the funeral of a younger brother Elwood in Jan. 1905 so I was five then.  The services were held in what we called the "Front Room" or "Parlor" in this home at Glenn Allophone home.

 Some other early re-collections were of starting to Kindergarten in Cedar Falls Iowa.  I was 5 and had been raised in the hills.  The folks moved to Cedar Falls where Iowa State Normal School was to enable the older kids to go to high and to college.  Kindergarten was for me in the college.  Heavens such big buildings- - such long halls- such confusion.  Did I get lost?  I will say I did.  It took weeks before I could find my right room.  And the first day when I tried to find my way home I got lost.  I had been instructed to "Just follow the street car track all right but I went the wrong way on the track and away from home.  This is 53 years later and I definitely remember my confusion and latter my panic when I realized I was
lost.  After a mile or two I got within sight of :Home" so I quit the track and across lots- roads- a creek with wet feet I ran never loosing sight of "Home".  I got there all in tears.  The folks were always very understanding about all us kids errors so I doubt they bawled me out. (much).

   Once again I strayed far from the subject- Sorry-

Back to Fred and Laura Haight at about 1905-06.  When they move to Cedar Falls Iowa for the school year.
In the spring they moved back to the farm. G. A. H. summers the sons- -Haight Boys helped with the farm work.  In the winters they all at ended Brook center school which was a country school about a half-mile distant.  West- All but Trevor were out of this country school when I started to and went through the eight grades there.

 Farther and mother were firm believers in a good education.  All their sons went to college which was unusual in those days.  Most of them graduated. I the youngest perhaps had the best chance to get a good education and got the poorest through no ones fault but my own.

 When basket socials were held at the school to provide money with which to buy books for the school it was the custom or rather father.  Fred Haight used to match the money raised thus making double the amount.  He did this many many times.

 Also it was usual to hire teachers for three months at a time and generally they only stayed the three months.  Fred Haight thought it would be better for the school children were they to stay through a second - third- fourth terms.  To encourage this he used to add to the teachers salary five dollars per month when they stayed longer than three months.  When you stop to think the teachers salary was usually $20. or $25. per month the extra five dollars was quite an inducement.

 Laura Haight (mother) was a good cook - - a neat house - keeper- - always after dirt whether it be in or on our clothes- -on the floor - or in our ears. ( Still ringing in my ears is her saying "Go back and wash your ears out before you can eat your meal."

 She was very very kind and understanding, listening to any of our troubles. However not sympathizing unless sympathy was due.  A common re-mark of hers after listening to your side of some trouble was - - -"And what were you doing to cause him to treat you that way?"  That usually cinched the thing and ended it for little did you want her to know- - What you had been doing.

 As I remember mother she was around 160 lobs, medium height, with dark graying hair.  She wore long dresses with a heavy undershirt.  Her shoes were high topped -  sometimes laced and some times button shoes .  Her clothes were always neat and clean.  Her face always gleamed it was so clean.  She was even-tempered rarely letting her voice raises above an
ordinary tone.  She smiled much and found many funny things to laugh at though not boisterous.  Far from it.  I doubt many mothers ruled their home as quietly and as good Ruled is the wrong word.  Everyone worked to-gether for the common good of all.  Ray was the third son and the one who she taught to help with the housework.  Ray could wash clothes- cook- bake- wash dishes-and help or do the house work as good as any girl ever could.  Laura Haight had a way of  making folks want to help her- whether it be a neighbor or her own kids.  I don't think she ever really broke any of the other boys into
doing housework as she did Ray.  Maybe it was to much work or maybe Ray did such a good job she did not need more help.

 Her husband Fred Haight was a willing helper with housework also.  Helping wash dishes, can fruit, peel potatoes, vacuum floors and what have you.  He was a bit more stern than mother but was not what was considered a strict father, in those days- In fact he was very lenient.  Very much so.

 He wanted mother to have nothing but the best.  I can not remember when we did not have- - hot and cold running water- a bath tub- - a telephone- - vacuum cleaner- - concrete side walks- soft as well as hard water- dumb waiters- -  gas lights - and many other things.  Mind you this was on a farm and in 1907 or so.  Many farms in the U. S. do not have all these things to-day, 1958.

 They had good home cooked food.  Vegetables and home canned fruit.  Such as apples- grapes- plums- tomatoes- etc.. Etc..  Lots of wild fruit grew in those hills and the boys picked, plums, grapes, strawberries, choke cherries- gooseberries etc..  All wild stuff plus the tame fruit and vegetables grown.  The living came from the farm in those days and the mother saw that it was canned or preserved in summer to provide winter food. We ate all the meat we needed though the family were not large meat eaters. Lots of chicken some pork and more beef.  Pork and beef mostly in winter.

 Very little came from the store.  Salt, Sugar, Flour and a luxury in cookies etc. once in awhile.  I remember many a time going with them with corn to "Mill" to have ground into corn meal.  Corn meal- hominy- -  and the like was a common food.  No doubt they took wheat to the mill to have ground but I do not remember that.  I think the custom was for the mill to keep ten per cent of the meal ground for their work.  They no doubt sold the ten- percent to stores or to families in town.  I know there were three "Mills" with in ten miles of our home.  All stone burrs to grind with.  All built on a small (Little Sioux) river.  These mills are all gone today- (1958) though traces of the mills still remain.

 I don't know about the rest of the Haight brothers but to my knowledge neither of my parents ever laid a hand on me though I must have been spanked when real young but I don't remember it.  One just did as they said- - it never occurred to me that one could do otherwise.  I do remember father once going and getting a lath and I thought I was going to get it but I did not. ( I no doubt deserved a tanning).  One parent always backed up the other.  I well remember father asking more than once- - "Did you hear about what your mother said?" " Well do it then."


 

Mother used to have me help her at various jobs.  Again I recall quite clearly her saying- - " Get on outside I can do this much easier by myself. "I just have to do it over anyway."  I got fast.

Again I must backtrack a bit.  Laura Haights mother was Elizabeth McKeever born in Ohio.  Mrs.  Laura Haights mother died 2/16/1890 and is buried by the side of her husband in Elk Cemetery which is seven miles south of Glenn Alpine Home and one east.  It is six miles due north of Alta Iowa.  It is about three or four miles east and one south of where the Cassiday and Haight homesteads were taken in 1869.  All but Estella of the older Haights are buried in this place.  Many of the younger or second and third generation are also buried here.

 Again back to Fred and Laura Haight.  They went on many trips to-gether taking me the youngest when necessary.  They went to Iowa State Fair several years at Des Moines IA.  They went to the Portland Worlds Fair in Portland Oregon in was it 1905 or thereabouts?  They went to Minneapolis Minn.

Leaving me at home latter or maybe 1915 they went to California via Montana- Washington- Oregon- and Oklahoma- visiting old friends and relatives.  The Haight Bro's, several of them were establishing homes in Montana and they went to Montana many times the next few years.

 We had a good driving team of horses kept for driving to a buggy.  In those days driving horses were bred for speed and endurance and it was thought a crime to use them for fieldwork.  They drove to neighbors and relatives within a radius of twenty to thirty miles many times staying over night.

 Sundays at least half of the time they hitched the team to a buggy in summer or a small sleigh ( Mind of a real light bob sled and went to church.), usually in Peterson which was six miles away.  Earlier they more than likely went to church in Elk Church.

 I never saw my parents dance though they may have square danced when younger. I rather imagine they did.  Square dancing was about the only type of dancing done in those days.  A few waltz and polka's but mostly Square dancing.

 I doubt my father or my mother ever took even one drink of liquor.  Not even wine.  They were death on intoxicating drinks.  Neither ever smoked.  I doubt they did even once though it is funny if father as a boy did not try it. Most all boys did- do and have.

Both were honest to a degree both in money and in keeping their word. Father used to say he had much rather have and honest man's word than a dishonest man note.  Their word was as good as gold.  One trait I think they handed down to their children was this honesty.  They worked hard and prospered.  Neither would go in debt.  They either paid cash or they did not buy.


Along about 1915 they rented the farm to Elgar continuing to live there and keep house for him for he was unmarried then.  I think those years were very happy years for both of them .  Work nor worry was pressing and they were free to come and go at will.

 Along about 1917 came world war one and worries.  Three sons went- Burl- over seas to Europe- Rex to the Navy * Trevor to Army spent mostly in the states.  Officers training school in Kentucky is where he ended his Army life I think.

 The end of the war brought things different again.  Elgar had married and the folks were more on the move looking for a place to light for the rest of their lives.

 Monday June 9- 1919 was a wet cold rainy day.  I remember it well.  My father Fred F.  Haight and I worked cleaning out the chicken house.  He got wet- cold- and about two P. M. he rolled up his sleeve and there was a red streak running up his arm.  He took his shirt off and it also ran up his body, having had blood poison two or three times before he knew what it was. In those days it was dangerous.  They had no shots to combat it.  Many an arm was amputated- - also many a leg.  Many a life lost and some times in a matter of two or three days.

 We got Cap and Colonel - the driving tam in at once and father and I drove at once to Peterson to see a Dr. Mather.  This man supposedly was a dope fiend and not a good Dr.  Father was not happy with his method.  So he stayed in Peterson and went on the six O'clock evening train the seven or eight miles to a Dr.  Van Ness at Linn Grove Iowa.  I drove the team back home.  Father caught a ride part way home the next day and walked the rest. Poor idea, for the fever was getting worse and red streak was worse.  The next day they tried to get a Dr. to come back there was the bad Flu epidemic of 1919 in full swing and no dice.

 Again they went to Peterson and to Sutherland staying all night.  They got him into a hospital in Cherokee Iowa Friday June 13-1919.  It was nip and tuck for maybe three weeks.  In about five or six weeks he got out of the hospital but was never the same man.  The summer of 1919 was spent Doctoring and looking for a house to buy to make a home.  It was a hectic summer for both mother and father.

 November 22 in Sioux City Iowa father and mother went to a specialist who suggested father had very high blood pressure and that he had never re-covered from his siege with blood poison.  Fred and Laura Haight took the train from Sioux City Iowa to Alta Sat. evening Nov. 22 and stayed all night at his brothers home there.  This was his brother James F. Haight.  The next morning Sunday November 23- 1919 father (Fred F.  Haight died.)


His funeral service was held in Alta Iowa Tuesday Nov. 25-1919 at the home of John Porter.  He was laid to rest in Elk cemetery six miles due north of Alta Iowa.  Four miles east and one south of his fathers homestead.  Seven miles south and one east of Glenn Alphine Home the home they lived so happily for so many years.  Fred Haight's parents (William and Rebecca (Blackman) Haight as well as all his brothers- William (Jr.) James- Lafe are buried here. So were two of his children who died in infancy.  Later Laura his wife was buried by his side.  Laura Haights parents and many of her half sisters and nieces and nephews are n this same beautiful little country cemetery.  This is the cemetery Grandpa William J.  Haight helped to start and tried to have it placed on land on which he lived but others wanted it at its present location.  Many of Fred Haights nieces and nephews are also laid to rest here.

The pallbearers for Fred Haights funeral Nov 25-1919 were Merrit Anderson- - George Watson- - George Booth- -Charley Hanson- - Lew Christian. One is unnamed.  Who I do not know.

 Life from then on was lonesome for Laura Haight.  She returned to her home they had just bought in Peterson IA.  This home was bought a short time before Fred Haights death.  It was in the west part of Peterson which is a small town of some five six hundred souls.  Nige Fulton and his daughters lived less than a block away.  Nige Fulton had homesteaded in 1870 along side the Haights and Cassidays in Elk Twp.  Mother had gone to grade school with Helen Fulton who was Nige Fulton's daughter.  She was a widow.  Her two sons had grown up- Lloyd and Ethel Williams.  Ethel Williams two children were being raised by Helen Williams who was their grandmother.  The grand children were Marjorie and Helen Penrod.

 Laura Haight spent parts of every day at the Fulton home.  And Nige- Mrs. Helen Williams and the two girls Marjorie and Helen Penrod were over to see who they called "Aunt Laura" once- twice and three times every day.

 This went on for five six years and Laura son Dwight (Me) married Helen Penrod April 7-1924.  Helen Williams married soon after Walter Robinson and she moved away.  Laura Haight was indeed alone.  A grand niece a schoolteacher taught in Peterson and  lived with her.  This niece was Regina Porter.  When Laura Haight got older she closed the house and lived with first one son and then another.

 Laura Haight (mother) died at Waterloo Iowa July 3-1938 at the home of her son Trevor T. Haight.

 She was laid to rest in this same beautiful little country cemetery- known at the Elk cemetery.  Six miles due north of Alta IA.  A few miles east of where Laura grew up was married and a few miles south of where he spent so many happy married years with Fred F. Haight on the Glenn Alphine Home farm. Thus ended a happy marriage.

 Written by Dwight L.  Haight- 11/23/1958- (39 years to the day since fathers death.) Nov-23-1958  Signed Dwight L. Haight


Here are a few facts about Laura Edith Cassiday at the time she and Fred Haight were Married;  Her parents were

John Cassiday
b. 10/21/1800 At Washington Penn - D- 5/12/1886- IA.
m. 6/23/1823  First - To Sarah Mcgee
                                        b 10/22/1800 In Ohio
Mrs. Sarah (Mcgee) Cassiday died 4/6/1857 - - In Iowa,
Children of this marriage were as below
1. David Cassiday b. 4/18/1824- - - - died 4/6/1856
2. William R. Cassiday b. 1/24/1826   Died 5/24/1863
3. Alexander Morrison Cassiday b. 8/30/1827- - Died 11/13/1887
4. Samuel Cassiday.-b. 4/12/1830  Died- - 4/5/1904
5. Esther Cassiday (Newcomb) b. 11/24/1831  Died 2/14/1904
6. Robert Cassiday.-b. 2/8/1833  Died - 5/18/1858
7. Margaret Cassiday ( Palmer) b. 7/2/1834  Died. - 1906
8. Rachel Cassiday ( Porter ) b. 10/1/1835  Died 10/2/1909
9. Benjamin Cassiday - b. 12/31/1637  Died 11/24/1843
10. Sarah Jane Cassiday (Rice) b. 10/22/1839  Died 7/19/1884
11. John W. Cassiday b. 5/8/1844  Died 5/16/1863
John Cassiday (Above)   born 10/21/1800
Married 2/14/1850- - in Iowa to Elizabeth (Mc Keever) Cassiday
b. in Ohio
c. 2/16/1890- At- G. A. H. in- IA.
     John Cassiday died 5/12/1886.  At his youngest daughters home in Buena Vista County, IA.  His daughter was Laura Cassiday Haight.
Children Of John Cassiday and Elizabeth (Mc Keever) Cassiday
  Two - - both half sisters of children listed above.

Lizzetta Cassiday - - Eldest daughter- of second marriage
b. 2/17/1860  Iowa
d. 9/9/1944    Iowa
m. 3/15/1886 To Alonzo Hunter born in Iowa died in Okla.
     Lizzetta and Lon had four daughters-
Zona-Eva-Winefred- and Verda Hunter.  Zona died in 1919.
Zona- Hunter-is- buried in Elk- Cemetery.

Laura Edith Cassiday - Second daughter of this second marriage.
b. 10/4/1861 Montozuma  Iowa
d.7/3/1938  Waterloo  Iowa. Buried in Elk Cemetery
m. 10/4/1881 To Fred Haight - - In Elk Twp.  Iowa
                           b. 1850
Fred and Laura were the parents of the ten "Haight Bro's"
Eight living to maturity.  Herbert- Ernest- Ray- Burl- Elgar- Rex- Trevor
(Elwood died in infancy)  Dwight and on not named.




 (2) Fred Haight.-1-2. History

 Laura ----(Cassiday)  History
More facts about Laura Haight before her marriage to Fred Haight.

Laura Cassiday came from eastern Iowa with her parents and several brothers and sisters in the year 1869.  They traveled overland having two yoke of oxen and one team of horses.  They landed in Elk Twp on or about May 7 1869. It is very likely they were in the same caravan part of the way as was her future father-in-law William J. Haight.  And both Laura Cassidays parents and William J.  Haight took up homesteads within two miles of each other at almost the identical day.

 Laura Cassiday went with her sister Lizetta to the school a mile west of the Cassiday home known as the "Haight School".  Still is known by that name eighty some years later.  She graduated from school and took some extra schoolwork.

Laura then got a certificate to teach and at the age of about 17 taught a school near by.  Just who were her pupils and how long she taught is not known.  She taught several schools all in Buena Vista County IA Here or in Elk Twp.  Laura Cassidays father was a good hard working man.  Very industrious but also very very stern and a strict man in every way.  Many of Laura's half brothers and sisters as well as nieces and nephews settled nearby..

Many of the descendants in this year 1958 still live in that locality.  Just when Fred Haight and Laura Cassiday became serious is not known. However an entry in a letter date of Laura Cassiday Haights diary states that in 1920 on her birthday it was the first time on her birthday she and Fred had been together for 40 years. (Fred Haight having died the year before)  If that was true then as she was married in 1881 or about 38 or 39 years it looks like they had been to-gether for a year or two before their marriage on important occasions such as birthdays etc..

Laura Edith Cassiday was a wonderful woman and a fine mother doing much good in the neighborhood and especially with her own family.  No woman was ever a finer mother.  I know she was my mother. (D/I/H)

   Dwight - L - Haight - Nov- 1958
   b. 1-12-1900

   OLD  SCHOOLMATES  UNITE. - -( In 1913)

 Forty- three years, ago or in 1870, in a little log schoolhouse near Aurelia Iowa in Elk Twp.  Buena Vista county Iowa seven young girls started to school to-gether.  All were daughters of the Hardy pioneers who had braved the dangers of frontier days, in settling in what was then the very edge of civilization.

 Last week these even girls now grown to mature womanhood and settled in placid life of mothers and grand-mothers, met in Mitchell So Dakota for a re-union.  Some of them had not met for two score years, bur for a week they were to-gether and lived over the happy experiences of their childhood.

 The re-union was held at the home of Mrs. M. C. Porter 501 West Second Ave. Mitchell So Dakota, one of the school girls of forty three years ago.  Her guest were Mrs. Laura (Cassiday) Haight and her sister Mrs. Lizzetta (Cassiday) Hunter both from N. W. Iowa. - Mrs.  Rosie Newcomb, a niece and also a sister-in-law- of Mrs.  Laura (Cassiday) Haight.  Mrs.  Stella (Haight) Martin who was a sister of Laura (Cassiday) Haight's- husband. (Fred Haight) Mrs. Ada Thompson also a relative of all the others.  All were close friends and relatives except Mrs. Eleanor McRunnels who started to school at the same time and who lived near by.

 In the winter from time to time there was from a few to quite a few boys attended this log school.

 A Mr. ? Rice was the first school master and he also was a pioneer neighbor and relative to many of the pupils.

 Rosa (Newcomb) Haight's daughter Lettie as also a guest of Bell Porter here in Mitchell So Dakota.  Lettie however is much younger and is one of the daughters of one of the original  seven who started to this first school in N.  W.  Iowa.

Above copied from a clipping sent to me by Howard G. Haight living a mile from this said "First Log School" this day Nov. 27-1958.
(The Laura (Cassiday) Haight was my mother- mentioned above. )
  b 1861 Iowa
 d. 1936
   Dwight L Haight
                                    b. 1900 Iowa


Glenn Alphine Home
Meaning "Home in the Vale"
Taken about 1905

The above is the Fred F. Haight farm home, located in Brook Twp., Buena Vista County, Iowa.
Fred and Laura Haight with their only son Herbert left Elk Twp., Iowa and drove the nine miles to their future home in a lumber wagon. They used the wagon box from this lumber wagon as a house until they erected a temporary shelter. It was here that nine more sons were born and eight grew to manhood.

Pictured above is of Dwight L. Haight and his mother, Mrs. Fred F. Haight. This was taken at the home of Fred and Laura Haight in Peterson, Iowa. They bought this home shortly before father's death in 1919. Mother continued living here until her death in 1938 at her son's home near Waterloo, Iowa.
Taken about 1923

Haight Family Photo Album