Ohio County, West Virginia    Biography of Robert HAZLETT

**************************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, 
as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is 
obtained from the contributor of the file.

These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation 
by other organizations.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this 
material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of 
the contributor.

Submitted by Suzie Crump <suzie@goodnet.com> , April 2000
**************************************************************************

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pgs. 259-260


ROBERT HAZLETT.  There is perhaps no name in Wheeling associated more
intimately with successful participation in financial and business affairs,
with the institutions that have meant most to the city in its development
and with nearly every branch of professional, civic and social activities
than that of Hazlett. One member of this family is Robert Hazlett, vice
president and secretary of the Dollar Savings & Trust Company, and for many
years an engineer whose achievements in that field alone would afford him
distinction.


His great-grandfather and the founder of the family in America was Robert
Hazlett, who was born at Coleraine, County Antrim, Ireland.  He was educated
at Edinburgh University for the ministry, but was never ordained, and on
coming to the United States he located at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and taught
school in that place.  Subsequently he became a pioneer of Washington,
Pennsylvania, where was a merchant and later a banker, and where he spent
his last years.  His wife was May Caldwell, the daughter of Catherine
Caldwell, whose maiden name was René, a French Huguenot and who has a place
in history as being the founder of the first church of the Methodist
Episcopal denomination in Western Pennsylvania, at Washington.


Samuel Hazlett, a son of the pioneer, lived all his life at Washington,
Pennsylvania, and was a baker there.  He died November 7, 1863.  He married
Sarah Johns, also a native of Washington, who died there December 10, 1873.


The history of the Wheeling branch of the family begins with a very able and
distinguished physician and surgeon, the late Dr. Robert W. Hazlett.  He was
born at Washington, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1828, attended Washington and
Jefferson College through the senior year and received his A. B. degree from
that school.  He was a collegemate of the distinguished American statesman
James E. Blaine.  Later he graduated from Jefferson Medical College at
Philadelphia and began practice at Wheeling.  When the Civil war came on he
joined the Second West Virginia Infantry as a surgeon, with the rank of
major. Following the war he located at Wheeling, and under appointment from
President Lincoln was pension examiner.  Doctor Hazlett practiced medicine
nearly half a century, and had the honor of serving as president of the West
Virginia State Medical Association. He died at Wheeling, September 2, 1899.
He was a republican, and while reared a Methodist he became affiliated with
the First Presbyterian Church at Wheeling.  He was a director of the
National Bank of West Virginia.  He was also a member of the Grand Army of
the Republic.


The wife of Doctor Hazlett was Mary Elizabeth Hobbs.  That name, too, has
some important associations with Wheeling.  She was born at Cambridge,
Massachusetts, September 23, 1829, and died at Wheeling, October 16, 1901.
Her father was John L. Hobbs, a native of South Carolina, who for several
years in his early life was manager of glass factories at Boston and
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and on coming to Wheeling founded the Hobbs Glass
Factory, which later was the Hobbs-Brockunier Company and is now the H.
Northwood Company.


The oldest of the children of the late Doctor Hazlett is Howard Hazlett,
long one of Wheeling’s foremost men of affairs.  He was born at Wheeling, is
head of the firm Howard Hazlett & Son, brokers, is president of the Mutual
Savings Bank and has always manifested a strong interest in community
affairs, especially the Y. M.C. A. and other institutions.  The second son,
Samuel Hazlett, was a banker and died at Wheeling in March 1903.  Edward
Hazlett is a member of the firm Edward Hazlett & Company, stock brokers, at
Wheeling.  The fourth in the family is Robert.  Catherine is the wife of C.
R. Hubbard, with home at Echo Point, Wheeling.  Mr. Hubbard is a director in
the Wheeling Steel Corporation, was formerly president of the Wheeling Steel
& Iron Company, and a director in the National Bank of West Virginia and the
Hazel-Atlas Company.  Three other children of Doctor Hazlett and wife died
in infancy.


Robert Hazlett was born at Wheeling, December 24, 1863.  He acquired a
liberal education, beginning with the public schools of Wheeling and
completing the course of these schools in 1880.  He then prepared for
college at Linsly Institute, and from there entered the Ohio State
University at Columbus in 1883.   He graduated with the class of 1887 as a
civil engineer.  He is a member of the Sigma Chi college fraternity, and was
president of the senior class of 1887, and still has that honor. He was also
president of the Ohio State University Oratorical Association.


The thirty-four years since he left college has been a period of intense
activity on the part of Mr. Hazlett.  On returning to Wheeling he practiced
civil engineering, for some time was connected with the Wheeling Bridge &
Terminal Company, and was assistant engineer in building three tunnels and
the bridge across the Ohio River for this corporation.  In 1891 he accepted
a new post at Washington, D. C., as chief engineer of the Washington &
Arlington Railway Company.  As chief engineer he built the first electric
line to the Arlington Cemetery, and included in this work was a proposed
bridge across the Potomac near the Aqueduct Bridge.  In 1893 Mr. Hazlett
removed to New York City, and for two years was in the office of Job Abbott,
consulting engineer, engaged in the preparation of station plans for the
Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Company in Maine.


Mr. Hazlett returned to Wheeling in 1895 and became associated with Gillmore
Brown under the firm name of Brown & Hazlett, engineers.  This firm rebuilt
and electrified the Wheeling & Elm Grove Railroad Company’s lines, built the
Parkersburg Electric Street Railway system at Parkersburg, West Virginia,
built the waterworks system for the Wheeling Suburban Water Company, and did
a great deal of other work involved in a general practice of municipal and
street railway engineering.  The partnership was dissolved in 1901, and
after that Mr. Hazlett continued the profession alone. He was chief engineer
in building the Panhandle traction line from Wheeling to Wellsburg, and also
made the surveys and started the construction work in Fairmont and
Clarksburg for the Fairmont & Clarksburg Street Railway Company.


In 1911 Mr. Hazlett was appointed postmaster of Wheeling by President
William H. Taft, and served in that office until March 1, 1914, when he
resigned to accept the position of secretary of the Dollar Saving & Trust
Company of Wheeling, and since 1919 has also been vice president as well as
secretary.


Mr. Hazlett for many years has been a leader in the republican party in West
Virginia.  For six years he was a member of the first and second branches of
the City Council of Wheeling, and for six years was county engineer of Ohio
County.  In November, 1903, he was elected to represent Ohio County in the
House of Delegates serving during the sessions of 1904-06.  In November,
1905, he was elected a member of the State Senate, and served from 1906 to
1910.  At the same time he was member of the State Republican Executive
Committee.  Mr. Hazlett is treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church of
Wheeling, is affiliated with Wheeling Lodge No. 28, Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, Wheeling Country Club, Fort Henry Club, Wheeling
Camber of Commerce, and the American Society of Civil Engineers.


Among other business interests he is president and a director of the
Wheeling Belmont Bridge Company, president and director of the Wheeling Ice
& Storage Company, a director in the Wheeling Mold & Foundry Company, a
director in the Greenwood Cemetery Association.  He was an associate member
of the Military Training Camps Association, and was identified actively with
all the local drives during the war.


March 15, 1909, at Wheeling, Mr. Hazlett married Miss Anne M. Cummins,
daughter of James and Matilda (McKennan) Cummins, residents of Wheeling,
where her father is a merchandise broker.  Mrs. Hazlett is a graduate of the
Rye Seminary at Rye, New York.  The three children of their marriage are:
Robert C., born June 7, 1910; James C., born March 4, 1912; and Catherine
Hobbs, born August 1, 1913.