SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Jacob Hazner, Page 239

JACOB HAZNER, who resides on section 2, is one of the oldest citizens of Sherman Township, and needs no special introduction to the readers of this volume, for he has a wide acquaintance throughout the county.  A native of the Empire State, he was born in Dutchess County, about forty-five miles from New York City, June 2, 1808, and is the only surviving son in a family of six children, born unto John and Cornelia (Lee) Hazner.  He has one sister, Mrs. Maria Van Ford, a widow living in Iowa.  The father was of German Birth, and was a farmer by occupation.  The mother was a native of Westmoreland County, Va.  For many years the parents lived in New York, where the father's death occurred, but Mrs. Hazner spent her last days in the home of her son Jacob.

    We now take up the personal history of our subject, who in his youth learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed until coming to Wisconsin.  On leaving his native State, he went to Galesburg, Ill., where he had a brother living, and there followed carpentering until 1851, which year witnessed his arrival in Wisconsin.  The entire journey to Sheboygan was made by team, and he remembers well the character of the roads, which were little more than Indian trails.  His first purchase comprised forty acres of land, of which only eight acres had been cleared, while a log cabin was the only improvement upon the place.  About a year later he sold this, and bought eighty acres a mile west of Adell, on section 16.  At different times he had two forty-acre tracts, and made of his property a fine farm.  He is familiar with the trials and hardships of pioneer life, from the days when the Indians still visited the settlement, and has seen the wild land transformed into beautiful homes and farms, has witnessed the growth of towns and villages, and has sided in the work of public improvement.  He built the depot in Adell, and was practically the builder of that town.

    In 1832, in his native State, Mr. Hazner wedded Miss Anna Robinson, by whom he had two children:  Hannah Elizabeth, now the wife of William Brookshire, a farmer of Sherman Township; and Permelia Ann, widow of Ephriam Pettit.  The first wife died in the Empire State, and in Wisconsin Mr. Hazner married Mrs., Cordelia Towne.  She was born in Plymouth, N. H., September 23, 1810, and is a daughter of Winfred and Mary (Marsh) Wells.  She spent the first eighteen years of her life in the Granite State, and then went to Massachusetts, where she married Edmund Towne, a native of Boston, who died in 1842, after which she came West.

    Mr. Hazner is an independent Republican and has never been an office-seeker, but has served as Clerk of the school district and as School Treasurer.  He is an upright, honorable Christian gentleman, and a faithful member of the Baptist Church.  In 1875, he sold the farm on which he had previously lived, and removed to his present farm of forty acres, on section 2, Sherman Township, where he is now living a retired life, resting in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil.  He is respected alike by young and old, rich and poor, and his career has been an exemplary one.