California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


MRS. MIRANDA BARNES HASKETT.� Mendocino county's citizens 
would not be faithfully represented without mention being made of her edu- 
cators, and the most prominent of these is Mrs. Haskett, who has been identi- 
fied with her schools for fifty years. Mrs. Haskett is a native of Carthage, 
Hancock county, Ill., and the daughter of Dr. Thomas Langley Barnes, who 
was born in Burke county, N. C, in 1812, and who was a very prominent 
physician and surgeon in Illinois. He was a graduate of the McDowell Medi- 
cal College of St. Louis, Mo., and later he practiced medicine in Carthage and 
was one of the surgeons who performed the post-mortem examination over 
Joseph Smith and his brother. He was twice married, the first time to 
Laurenda Burbank, a native of Troy, Mo., the second time to Mary Doty. 
In 1854 he decided to remove to California, and procuring two old "prairie 
schooners'' with good ox teams and a four-horse carriage he started out, first 
locating at Petaluma. While practicing his profession of medicine there he 
was elected county physician and located at Santa Rosa, but later moved to 
Redwood City and from there to Ukiah, Mendocino county, where he con- 
tinued to practice! While still residing in Illinois he was justice of the peace 
and county coroner, and it was while serving his term as coroner that he 
performed the inquest on Joseph and Hiram Smith. He also served in the 
Black Hawk war. He was the son of Michael, son of Jehu, son of James, son 
of Brinsley Barnes, the latter of whom served in the Revolutionary war under 
General Marion. Dr. Barnes' mother was Elizabeth West, of North Carolina, 
and Mrs. Haskett's maternal grandfather was Sylvester Burbank of Ver- 
mont, a member of the historic "Green Mountain Boys." Dr. Barnes in the 
later years of his life served as justice of the peace in Ukiah and here he 
passed away at the age of eighty-nine, rounding out a life full of adventure 
and one full of works that speak highly of his wonderful personality and 
ability. 

Of the union of Dr. Barnes and Laurenda Burbank there were seven 
children, of whom Mrs. Haskett was the eldest. She received her early edu- 
cation in the schools of Carthage, then entering the Ladies' Seminary of 
Jacksonville, Ill., where she attended until her marriage. She was married 
March 5, 1854, to Samuel W. Haskett, who was born in Stokes county, N. C, 
coming with his parents at an early age to Crawfordsville, Ind., where he 
attended Wabash College. Immediately after their marriage they started 
on their honeymoon trip to California, and were among the pioneers who 
braved the hardships of the plains to reach that "Land of Heart's Desire." 
On their arrival in 1854 they located at Petaluma, where they followed stock- 
raising until 1860, when they moved to Potter valley and engaged in farming 
and stock-raising. After selling the ranch they moved to Ukiah in 1863 and 
engaged in the livery and stage business, later entering the hotel business, 
which he successfully conducted until he sold it out in 1873. However, he 
continued in the stage business until his health failed and he retired. He was 
county assessor, tax collector, and also county coroner for a number of years. 

He passed away in February, 1905. leaving a vacancy in the hearts of all who 
knew him. 

Mrs. Haskett began teaching in Potter valley, and upon coming with 
her husband to Ukiah in 1863, she continued the work here, and being the 
only teacher in the public school of this place it was her duty to do all of the 
work. Afterwards she continued to teach in the various districts near Ukiah 
until October, 1913, when she retired because of defective hearing. In March, 
1914, the State Board of Education, in recognition of her long life of useful- 
ness in educational work, granted her the teacher's pension she so well de- 
serves, and in May, 1912, at the Teachers' Institute at Willits, the teachers 
of Mendocino county presented her with a beautiful silver loving cup as a 
token of their undying affection for her. 

Mrs. Haskett is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
and all its societies and is a member of Kingsley Chapter No. 58, O. E. S., 
of which she is past matron. In her political views she is an ardent Democrat. 
She has five children, as follows: Jennie, Mrs. McCann, of San Francisco; 
Alice, Mrs. W. L. Bransford, of Red Bluff; Laura, who is Mrs. Hart of 
Ukiah ; Guy, of Willits, who is represented elsewhere in this work ; and 
Delia, who is Mrs. A. M. Rawson of Los Angeles. Mrs. Haskett was very 
successful as an educator and possessed wonderful tact in handling the un- 
trained mind of the child whose future was to be moulded by her hands. She 
has established a wonderful record as a teacher and to all her old pupils 
will always be the finest, most highly respected teacher they have ever known. 
Mendocino county is rightfully proud of so splendid an educator and mother, 
and above all a friend to those who know her. She can well be proud of her 
teacher's life diploma from the state Board of Education, and indeed it is a 
matter of just pride to be able to say that she has taught her county's schools 
for fifty years.