Charles T. Haines
Charles T. Haines was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 28, 1838, of Quaker parents, and educated at Westchester Institute with the design of having him enter the medical profession. He left the Quaker City and went to Baltimore to study medicine with his bother, Dr. E. R. Haines, afterward Surgeon-General of the Third Army Corps, and now living, retired, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Not fancying medical studies, Mr. Haines returned to Philadelphia and learned the machinists’ trade. Upon completing his apprenticeship he immediately came West to set up the machinery for crushing quartz or for the St. Louis Mill and Milling Company at Georgetown, Colorado, being then in his twenty-first year.
After putting the mill in operation and running it about eighteen months, he returned to his native State with a view of entering the army, and enlisted as a private in c, in January, 1862. March 10 they left Washington as body guard for Gen. George B. McClellan. In January, 1863, a cavalry corps was organized, and the Sixth Regiment became a part of the First Brigade of the First Division of United States Cavalry, being the only volunteer regiment in the brigade, Gen. Wesley Merritt commanding the brigade, and Gen. P. H. Sheridan Corps Commander. At Frederick, Maryland, Mr. Haines was promoted to the First Lieutenancy in September, 1863, and at the battle of Brandy Station, in December of the same year, was commissioned Captain. May 26, 1864, he was promoted Major of the regiment, and four days later, at the battle of Old Church, was wounded by a gunshot, the ball striking him on the right side near the sternum, fracturing the seventh, eighth, and ninth ribs, passing through is body and coming out near the spinal column on the left side. He lay nine hours on the battle-field before receiving any attention; was then taken to the hospital, where he remained five months. On being able to leave the hospital Major Haines resigned from the army, and it was two years and eight months before he recovered sufficiently to engage in business. But, not withstanding his terrible wound and protracted suffering, he is now apparently a health man. Major Haines had also some experience in a Confederate prison. While on Stoneman’s raid, he and eleven men in his command were captured by Gen. Fitz Hugh Lee, and were four months in Libby Prison before they were paroled. They were subsequently exchanged and joined their command. When able, Mr. Haines returned to the mills, spent a few weeks I Colorado, then accompanied a party to Montana, put up the first milling machinery in that Territory at Unionville, near Helena, and operated it nearly seven years. Leaving there he went, in 1875, as one of a company to the Black Hills, and set up and operated the first quartz mill in that country. After some experience in placer-mining, and fifteen months in working the Minnesota mine, in partnership with others, he traveled extensively, prospecting for mines in Arizona, where he located several valuable mines, and is joint owner in the Home Stake mine, at Nogales, and the Hercules mine, at Crittenden, the latter place being his home when in Arizona. Mr. Haines was constructing engineer of the Crittenden Water Works, and owns a fourth interest in them. Few men in the country have had so extensive observation and experience in mining as Mr. Haines, and he has few equals as a mining expert. He is spending the season in San Jose in connection with McNeil Brothers’ Printing House.
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H.S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Transcribed by: Letisha Oddo Pg. 402/403
SANTA CLARA COUNTY PIONEER BIOGRAPHIES
SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORY The Valley of Heart's Delight