[p. 377] was born
in Shenango Township, Beaver (now Lawrence)
County, Pennsylvania, and is the
second of five sons born to Henry and
Sarah (Warnock) Hazen. He traces his
lineage through seven generations back to
Edward Hazen, a native of England, who
emigrated to America and was a resident
of Rowley, Mass., as early as 1649.
Edward Hazen (1), the emigrant ancestor,
was overseer or selectman in Rowley
in 1650, 1651, 1654, 1655, 1660, 1665,
and 1668, and judge of delinquents in
1666. The inventory of his estate amounted
to £414 7s and 8d. His first wife, Elizabeth,
died childless, and was buried September
18, 1649. He was married a second
time, in March, 1650, to Hannah, daughter
of Thomas and Hannah Grant. He was
buried in Rowley, June 22, 1683; his widow
died in February, 1715-1716.
Thomas Hazen (2), fourth child born to Edward and Hannah (Grant) Hazen, was born in Rowley, Mass., February 27, 1657-58. He owned a farm there at his father's death. He moved to Boxford before March 22, 1689-90. He withdrew from the church in Topfield, to become one of the constituent members of the church in Boxford, in 1702, and in 1711 he removed to Norwich, Conn., where he died April 12, 1735, aged seventy-seven years. He lived in that part of Norwich formerly called West Farms, now Franklin, and, with three sons, was one of the petitioners for its incorporation as a parish in 1716. He married January 1, 1782-83, Mary, daughter of Thomas Howlet, one of the first settlers in Agawam (Ipswich), 1632-33, deputy from Ipswich in 1635, and Topsfield in 1665, and often employed in running lines and locating towns and farms. She died October 24, 1727.
John Hazen (3), eldest child of Thomas and Mary (Howlet) Hazen, was born March 23, 1683; married Mercy, daughter of John and Sarah (Perkins) Bradstreet, and granddaughter of Governor Simon Bradstreet, and of Rev. William Perkins. She died November 22, 1725, in Norwich, Conn., and he married for his second wife, May 31, 1726, Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Douglass) Dart. John Hazen (4), Jr., the next in line of descent to Judge Hazen, was the oldest son of John and Mercy (Bradstreet) Hazen, and was born February 21, 1711-12; he married, March 10, 1734, Deborah Peck, of Lyme, Conn.
Nathaniel Hazen (5), fifth child and second son of John and Deborah (Peck) Hazen, was born March 17, 1745, and died November 3, 1835, at North Sewickley, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He was a soldier in the Continental Army, in the war for the independence of the colonies, from the Wyoming Valley; he and his wife moved to the Wyoming Valley, then known as Westmoreland, Conn., and resided there until the massacre, July 3, 1778, when they were driven out and went to Sussex County, New Jersey, where his family remained until the close of the War for Independence; and then they moved to Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, thence to Peter's Creek in Washington County, Pennsylvania, where they resided until the disturbance known as the Whisky Insurrection, in western Pennsylvania, when they crossed the Ohio River and settled on the Conoquenessing Creek then Allegheny County, now Beaver, on a tract of land where he and his wife died. He took title to this land in 1791. He married Miss Mary Bell, daughter of James and Deborah Bell, of Lyme, Conn., November 27, 1767. She was born October 24, 1748, and died December 29, 1834, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
Nathan Hazen (6), tenth child of Nathaniel and Mary (Bell) Hazen, was born on Peter's Creek, in Washington County, Pennsvlvania, May 1, 1786, and died February 23, 1866, in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania; was married, in 1804, to Levina Kirkendall, of Beaver County, Pennsylvania. They became parents of twelve children, as follows: Henry (7), father of the subject of this sketch; Nathaniel, born July 19, 1807, died young; Anna, born August 6, 1808, was the wife of Jacob Book; Oliver Jones, who was born March 5, 1810, and died September 21, 1877, married Rachel, a daughter of William Lutton, September 28, 1841. She was born December 17, 1811, and died March 4, 1884; Huldah, born June 20, 1812; Levina, born June 17, 1813, married John S. Foy; Mary, born November 16, 1815, married William Houk; Levi, born December 11, 1817, died December 16, 1871. He married Polly Lutton, a daughter of William Lutton; Nathan, born July 25, 1820, died 1837; Aaron B., born December 30, 1821, and died June 14, 1859, married Sophia Bailey, of Cleveland, Ohio—she died in 1859; William, born February 8, 1824, married Jane, a daughter of Nathaniel Hazen of Mercer County, Pennsylvania; and Delilah, born December 25, 1826, and died December 1, 1890, married June 21, 1857, Samuel Travis of Indiana, who died in 1896. They had a son, Reuben Parker, born March 2, 1859, who was married in November, 1887, to Mary J., daughter of Henry McQuiston, of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.
Henry Hazen (7), eldest son of Nathan and Levina (Kirkendall) Hazen, born in Beaver (now Lawrence) County, March 4, 1806; died December 28, 1841; married Sarah, second daughter of James and Mary (Gaston) Warnock, she being connected on the maternal side with the well known Lyle family, who were among the earliest settlers of Washington County, Pennsylvania; she was born May 30, 1815, on the tract of land on which she always lived, and died April 25, 1885. To this union were born five children, all sons, as follows: Oliver Gaston, born May 18, 1834, and died November 1, 1866, at Cortland, Ala., unmarried, was a private in Company A, Fifty-fifth Regiment, P. V. I., in the Civil War; Aaron Lyle, whose name appears at the head of this sketch; Eli Warnock, born April 29, 1838, died January 1, 1908, married Maggie,, daughter of Joseph Mitchell. He was a private in Company E, First Regiment, California Vol. Infantry, in the Federal Army, during the Civil War; William, born May 30, 1840, died October 16, 1852; and Henry, born April 11, 1842, lost his life at the burning of the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, Mo., April 11, 1877. He married Kate, daughter of Shuabal Wilder, of New Castle, Pa., and they had, two sons, Harry W. and Wilbur H. During the Civil War he was hospital steward of the Second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry.
Aaron Lyle Hazen (8), second of five sons born to Henry and Sarah (Warnock) Hazen, was born February 19, 1837. He was educated in the district schools of his native county, and in Beaver Academy, Beaver, Pa., and Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pa., graduating in the class of 1861, with the degree of A. B. The degree of A. M. was later conferred upon him by the same institution. He pursued the study of law in college during his senior year, and was also registered as a law student with Johnston & Dana, attorneys-at-law, New Castle, Pa. He was admitted to the bar of Lawrence County on September 12, 1865. He practiced in the courts of Lawrence County until he was elected and commissioned president judge of the Seventeenth Judicial District, composed of the counties of Butler and Lawrence. He took his seat January 5, 1885, for a full term of ten years. Lawrence County was detached from the Seventeenth District and created a separate district, numbered 51, by an act of Assembly of April 28, 1893, which became effective on September 1, 1893. He was named in the act as president judge thereof, and was recommissioned president judge of the new district for his unexpired term. He resumed the practice of law at the bar of Lawrence County January 5, 1895, and is so employed at the present time. He was elected to the office of district attorney in October, 1870, for Lawrence County, and served during the years 1871, 1872, 1873, and was again elected in 1873 for a second term, and served during the years 1874, 1875 and 1876. He was repeatedly chosen solicitor for the city of New Castle, and served for seven years consecutively. He also was admitted to the bar of the counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Mercer and Venango; and also to the bar, respectively, of the United States District and Circuit Courts for the Western District and Circuit of Pennsylvania. His practice has been that of a mixed character usual to a general practitioner in the smaller counties. He was concerned in an important case—Bredin's Appeal, 109 Pa. S. 357—in which appellant sought, ineffectually, to deprive the qualified electors of Lawrence County of their constitutional right to vote for the judges who should preside in their courts, and to deprive the subject of this sketch of his commission as judge.
The life of Aaron Lyle Hazen was begun on a farm; he was left fatherless when very young, and has had the usual trying experiences of a boy similarly situated. He was in the last term of his senior year in Jefferson College when Fort Sumter was fired upon. He immediately returned home and enlisted as a private, April 19, 1861, in Company H, Twelfth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, served with his regiment in Maryland, and was mustered out August 16, 1861. Being unfitted for further active service, he was refused re-enlistment. He served thereafter as paymaster's clerk until December, 1863, in the pay district of the Cumberland, Louisville, Ky., save when he served as captain of Company A, Fourteenth Regiment State Militia, which was called into active service and served in Maryland during September, 1862. From January 1 1864, he served as teller in the United States Depository in Louisville, Ky., until the close of the war.
January 19, 1865, Judge Hazen was united in marriage with Miss Amelia J. Watson, eldest daughter of William and Mary Watson, of New Castle. She was born on April 4, 1841, and died July 2, 1893. To this union three children were born: Mary, born October 21, 1865 , died March 20, 1891, and was married January 30, 1890, to Porter Wilson Lowry, attorney-at-law of Butler, Pa.; Aaron Lyle, Jr., was born April 18, 1868, and died April 21, 1868; Henry William, born May 2, 1871, died May 27, 1890. He was a student in Washington and Jefferson College at Washington, Pa., at the time of his death. Judge Hazen formed a second marital union July 28, 1898, with Mary E., daughter of Simon DeGraff, of Syracuse, N. Y. After several years of suffering she died on May 22, 1908.
Judge Hazen has a wide circle of professional and personal friends, and few men excel him as an agreeable entertainer, which qualities have not only attracted friends but have also gained him the respect of strangers. The able and conscientious manner in which he has performed all his professional work has secured for him the confidence of his clients and gained him an assured standing in the profession. He is, in politics, a Republican; denominationally, a Presbyterian. He has served as trustee in the First Presbyterian Church of New Castle many years. Fraternally,, he is a Free Mason and a member of Lodge No. 243, Chapter No. 170, Council No. 2, and Commandry No. 62 of Pennsylvania. He also is a member and past commander of Post No. 100, G. A. R., of Pennsylvania, and Shenango Lodge No. 195, I. O. O. F., and Manetta Lodge, No. 297, K of P.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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