Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 567] teller of the First National Bank of New Castle, was born in the city of his present residence July 7, 1868, and is a son, of Henry Hazen and grandson of Henry Hazen, Sr. The Hazen line has been long establisihed in America, and our subject can fully trace his ancestry through a long line to Edward Hazen, who came from England and settled in Rowley, Mass., in 1649. He buried his first wife, Elizabeth, Sept. 18, 1649. March 2, 1650, he married his second wife, Hannah Grant, daughter of Thomas Grant; Edward Hazen was buried in Rowley July 22, 1683. His fourth child and second son, Thomas, was born in Rowley Feb. 28, 1657, and died in Norwich, Conn., April 12, 1735. Soon after his father's death he moved to Boxford, and thence to Norwich, where his remaining years were spent; he lived at West Farms, which is now known as Franklin. In 1682 he married Mary Howlett, daughter of Thomas Howlett. The next in the line of descent, John Hazen, was born in 1683, and married Mercy Bradstreet, daughter of John and Sarah (Perkins) Bradstreet, and granddaughter of Governor Simon Bradstreet; she died July 25, 1725. John Hazen, Jr., the son of the foregoing, was born Feb. 21, 1711, married March 1, 1734, Deborah Peck of Lyme, Conn.; they reared ten children, five boys and five girls. Nathaniel, the second son, was born March 17, 1745, in Norwich, Conn., and died Nov. 3, 1835, in Beaver Co., Pa.; Nov. 27, 1767, he married Mary Pell in Lyme, Conn.; she was born Oct. 24, 1748, and died in 1834. He came to Wyoming Valley, Pa. He was in the Continental Army, and at the time of the massacres in Western Pennsvivania the family with many of the other settlers went for safety to the colony of New Jersey. At the close of the war they came to Fort Pitt, afterwards Pittsburg, and later on went to Washington County. There in 1790, at the time of the Whiskey Insurrection, Nathaniel Hazen, after looking over the land carefully, purchased a tract in North Sewickley, Beaver County, to which he brought his family, and settled down for good, taking title in 1792 from the State of Pennsylvania. His death took place there in 1835. Nathan Hazen, his son, who is the great-grandfather of our subject, was born in 1786, and died in Slippery Rock township, this county, Feb. 23, 1866; he married Lavina Kendall, who died Aug. 26, 1846. Nathan was a stanch Whig. Our subject's grandfather was born March 4, 1800, in Slippery Rock township, Lawrence County, and departed this life Dec. 28, 1841; he married on March 21, 1833, Sarah Warnock, who was born May 30, 1815, and passed away April 25, 1885. They reared five boys. Mr. Hazen was a farmer by occupation.
Our subject's father was born in Shenango township, where he received a district school education. He had begun the study of pharmacy when the war broke out, but gave it up, and attempted to enlist in a Pennsylvania regiment, but was refused because of his youth. Somewhat disheartened by this rebuff he returned home, but did not give up the idea of joining the Union forces, for soon after he ran away and crossed over to Ohio, where he enlisted in the 2nd Reg. Ohio Vol. Cav. for a term of three years. After eighteen months of service he was discharged because of disability. He came home and pursued a course in the Iron City Business College, of Pittsburg, and upon the completion of the course he secured an appointment as accountant in the War Department, and was stationed at Louisville, Ky. He remained there until 1866, being the last man discharged from the department at that place. He then went into the drug business in New Castle for himself, and later associated himself in the same business with Mr. Hale, and then with Mr. Wilder; the last few years he ran the business alone, selling out in 1873, and going to St. Louis, Mo., as chief freight clerk for the Atlantic & Pacific R. R.; he was soon promoted to the traveling auditorship of the same road, and held that position at the time of his death. He lost his life in 1877 while saving the life of his friend, Chester L. White, in the terrible fire of the Southern Hotel of St. Louis. His wife, Lydia, daughter of S. Wilder of New Castle, died in 1871, aged twenty-six years, leaving two sons: Henry W., and Wilber H., who lives in Bartlett, Kansas.
Henry W. Hazen received his education in the schools of New Castle, Pa., and Taunton, Mass. At the age of sixteen years he went to Gardner, Mass., where he served his apprenticeship at chair-making, and revealed such remarkable aptitude that in two years he was in charge of one department. He then went to Middleboro, Mass., and worked in a shoe factory two years, after which he returned to New Castle, and later took on a course in the Iron City Business College. In 1890 he entered the First National Bank of New Castle as collecting clerk, and has now arisen to the position of teller.
In 1892 he married Hettie W. Briggs, daughter of Stillman Briggs of New Castle, and they have two children: Helen C., and Louis H. Mr. Hazen and his family favor the Episcopal Church. He is a member of Penn Council, No. 420, of the Royal Arcanum, and is the secretary of the same. He is a member of the S. of V., O. L. Jackson Camp, No. 249, and has filled many of the chairs, and is very enthusiastic in working for the best interests of the organization. Mr. Hazen is also a member of and secretary of Rigel Court, No. 9, Tribe of Ben Hur. In politics he has always been an active Republican.
[See Aaron Lyle Hazen. in Butler County.]
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 17 Jul 2001