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CHARLES
M. HALLER, an old and highly esteemed
citizen of Forreston, traces his ancestry back to colonial days.
His maternal grandfather, Captain Meach, who was in
command of a vessel, took part in the Revolutionary war.
His daughter, Abigail Meach, married Robert Hewitt,
who was of English and French ancestry, and who also took part
in the Revolutionary war, having many narrow escapes in several
engagements. Robert Hewitt was a native of
Connecticut, but with his wife and family he emigrated to
Maryland in 1815. They were the parents of twelve
children, of whom the mother of our subject was fifth in order
of birth. He died in 1830, and his remains were buried at
Middlebury, Franklin county, Pennsylvania. His wife
survived him many years, and came with her family to Illinois in
1840. She lived to a ripe old age, dying in November,
1855, in her ninety-fourth year, having been born Aug. 10, 1761.
Her remains were interred in the Hewitt cemetery, at Forreston.
She used to cook for the Indians, and had many interesting
stories to relate of her Revolutionary experiences.
The mother of our subject, Abigail (Hewitt) Haller,
was the daughter of Robert and Abigail (Meach) Hewitt.
She was born in 1800, at Tolland, Windham county, Connecticut.
She was married in January, 1819, to Charles A. Haller,
who, by his first wife, Catherine Bruner, daughter
of John Bruner, a farmer of Frederick county,
Maryland, had four children: John, a farmer, who lived
and died in Attica, Indiana; Henry, a wagonmaker, who
also died at Attica, Indiana; Katherine, wife of Jacob
Dovenbarger, of Washington county, Maryland, but who came
to Ogle county, and lived near Adeline; and Samuel,
who lived and died at Attica, Indiana. To Charles A.
and wife seven children were born. Charles M.
is the subject of this sketch. Jane Abigail
married Francis Hamilton, of Maryland, who removed
to Ogle county, Illinois, where he engaged in farming. He
later removed to Keokuk, Iowa. Sarah Ann is
the widow of Jacob Flaut. She resides in
Lanark, Illinois. James Robert died when
about eleven months old. Louis lived to be
twenty-two years old, and died in Pine Creek township, and was
buried at Mt. Morris. George William, who
had been a successful school teacher and insurance agent, died
at Decatur, Illinois. Joseph is a physician engaged
in practice at Lanark, Illinois. The mother of these
children died at the home of her daughter, Sarah, at
Lanark, Illinois, in 1882, and was buried in the cemetery at
that place.
Charles Haller, the grandfather of our
subject, came to America from Germany in colonial days, paying
for his passage by his labor. He landed in Baltimore, and
from there went to Washington, and later to Loudoun county,
Virginia, where Charles A. Haller, the father of our
subject, was born. By occupation he was a farmer. He
died and was buried at New Market, Maryland. When a young
man, Charles A. Haller moved with his parents to
Frederick county, Maryland, where he learned the wagon-maker's
trade and conducted a shop. Later he moved to
Boonesborough, Maryland, on the National road. With his
wife and four children, in May, 1846, he came to Ogle county,
Illinois, and settled five and a half miles south of Mt. Morris,
on the Grand Detour road, where he purchased one hundred and
twenty acres of land. He lived there, however, only six
months, and died Dec. 7, 1848, at the age of seventy years.
The subject of this sketch was born in Boonesborough,
Washington county, Maryland, Nov. 15, 1819, and there received
his education in the subscription schools, in the meantime
assisting his father the cultivation of the thirty-three acre
tract of land which he owned, and in the manufacture of brick,
in which he was engaged. After attaining his majority, he
aided his old school-master, James Brown, in the
management of his school, which had an attendance of one hundred
scholars, and engaged in their instruction.
In April, 1846, when twenty-seven years old, he was
united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Nikirk, daughter
of Samuel Nikirk, a carpet weaver in the town of
Boonesborough, Maryland, where she was born, educated, and grew
to womanhood. The month after his marriage, in company
with his parents and brothers and sisters, he brought his young
bride to Ogle county. They left Boonesborough May 21,
1846, their household goods in a two-horse wagon, and a light
wagon with accommodation for six persons, the younger children
finding place in the wagon with the furniture. Their trip
overland took just six weeks, and they arrived near Mt. Morris,
their destination, July 3, 1846, and immediately set about
erecting a house of four rooms, two stories high, the lumber for
the construction of which our subject had to get in Chicago.
He set out on Monday morning for Chicago and arrived home the
following Monday. Those were the days of "ox team
transportation," when the traveler cooked for him self along the
roadside, slept in his wagon, and whistled a song along the
lonesome roads to keep himself company.
Their little home erected, young Haller helped
his mother and brothers the next year, but during the years 1847
and 1848 he took charge of a school at Phelps' Grove, and in
1848-9 taught the school on the Grand Detour road, near Mt.
Morris. In the fall of 1850 he moved to West Grove and
settled on eighty acres of land given him by his uncle,
George W. Hewitt. He built a frame house and
set about improving the place, dividing his time, however,
between school teaching and farming. He remained on that
place until 1859, when he went to Forreston and engaged in
general merchandising. Later he purchased a stock of drugs
from Frank Barker, now of Rochelle, and a former
resident of Forreston, and still conducts the establishment
under the management of his son, E. E. Haller.
To Mr. and Mrs. Haller seven children were born.
Samuel Henry died when seven years old.
Susan married John Mullen, but is now
deceased. Charles Louis died at the age of
three years. Theodore F. is the editor and
proprietor of the Forreston Herald. George Louis
is now deceased. Charles M. is now living at
Portland, Oregon. Edward Everett is in the
drug business at Forreston. The mother of these children
died Dec. 23, 1893, at the age of sixty-five years, and her
remains were interred in the Hewitt cemetery at Forreston.
Mr. Haller sawed the log and split the
stakes used in laying out the town of Forreston in 1855, the
town being laid out on the land of his uncle, George W.
Hewitt, who had located a claim of eight hundred acres.
The first house built in the place was a rude frame structure
built by the railroad company for a boarding house. Dr.
Kingsbury was the first physician in Forreston. The
first school teacher was Thomas J. Hewitt. Mr.
Haller was selected as the first teacher, but having so much
to do on his farm at the time, he secured the place for his
cousin, Mr. Hewitt. The latter married Miss
Fannie Rockwood, who was his assistant in the school.
The first school building was just west of where the present
school building now stands. It was a large frame structure
and built under the supervision of George W. Hewitt at a
cost of about two thousand dollars.
Mr. Haller cast his first vote at a
special election in his native state, and his first presidential
vote was cast in 1848 for Zachary Taylor, the Whig
candidate. With the Whig party he continued to act until
the organization of the Republican party, since which time he
has given his support to the men and measures of that party.
Religiously he is a Lutheran, and assisted in organizing the
Lutheran church in Forreston in 1858, and has since been an
elder in the same. He aided and supervised the building of
the church which was dedicated July 10, 1864. By the
county court Mr. Haller was appointed justice of the
peace, was then elected and served one year. He was later
appointed notary public by the governor and filled the position
twenty years. He was also township school treasurer six
years. All in all, Mr. Haller has led an
active life. He is well known throughout the county, and
all who know him esteem him for his many excellent qualities of
head and heart.
Source: The Biographical
Record of Ogle Co., Illinois - illustrated - Publ. Chicago: by
The S. L. Clarke Publishing Co., 1899 - Page 16 |
