Alameda
County
Biographies
CALEB SCOTT HALEY
Clearly defined against the background of moving events in Alameda
county is the strong, honorable and successful career of Caleb Scott
Haley. Everything about him, from
childhood up, and during his fifty-two years of life on the coast has suggested
the hard worker, the man of liberal yet stern ideas of right and wrong, the
progressive rancher who favors all worthy efforts at improvement and the friend
who judges gently and helps wisely. Now,
with the weight of seventy-one years resting on his shoulders, and rheumatism
rendering his days more or less a burden, he finds himself the possessor of two
fertile ranches worth about $250 an acre, of a family of children who reflect
his substantial traits and usefulness, and of a mind bright because of incessant
use, and its treasure of useful information.
Probably one of the best informed men in Alameda county. Mr. Haley has only himself to thank for his studious
habits and for the powers of concentration which have enabled him to supplement
his physical labor with the cultivation of a keen and observing mind.
The Haley
family was one of the first in Devonshire England, to send its representative
to the inhospitable shores of New England.
In Massachusetts Ebenezer Haley, the ambitious voyager, settled in 1639,
and the great-grandfather of Caleb Scott Haley was born, and in 1761 removed to
the bleak coast of Nova Scotia. When
Caleb Scott Haley was born in Nova Scotia, February 16, 1833, the name was well
established in agricultural lines, and also as an addition to the seafaring
population. His father Ebenezer Haley,
was born there in 1801, and from a youth on the farm passed to an interest in
ships and sailing, in time becoming one of the nineteen owners of the
brigantine Mary Jane, which left Nova Scotia November 22, 1849, and by way of
the Strait of Magellan arrived in San Francisco bay May 1850. All save one of the owners of the Mary Jane
are deceased. Mr. Haley spent some time
in the mines near Downieville, and after two years of moderate success settled
on the land now owned by his children, remaining there until 1855. He then returned to his native land, sold his
property and when again in California farmed his land a few months before his
death at the age of nearly ninety-seven years.
An accident hastened his death, but his sufferings were mitigated by the
patience and fortitude which characterized his life, and which had enabled him
to do and dare in the fact of difficulty and discouragement. He was a stanch
and active Republican, and a consistent member of the Congregational
church. Mr. Haley married life dated
from his residence in Nova Scotia, his wife, Mary Lee (Scott) Haley, having
been born there in 1809, the granddaughter of Rev. Jonathan Edwards Scott, a
Congregational minister who eventually settled in Maine. Mrs. Haley came to California in 1855, and
until her death in January, 1893, at the age of eighty- four years, lived on
the home farm, where she reared her eight children, one child having died in
infancy: Caleb S., who is the eldest of the family: Margaret, the widow of
Silas Baker of Oakland, Cal: Lydia, the wife of Edwin Burdick, a farmer near
Newark: Jonathan Edwards, who died in 188: Comfort, a resident of San Francisco: Amelia,
who died in December, 1897; William W., a prominent citizen of Oakland Cal;,
and Ebenezer, a rancher of the Newark district.
A love
for the sea animated the early life of Caleb Scott Haley, and when fourteen the
opportunity he had sought came his way, when he shipped as a sailor on the baroque
Ann, of which his uncle, Ebenezer Scott was commander. Nothing out of the ordinary happened in his career
until 1849, when he was shipwrecked at Cross Island off the coast of Maine, the
vessel becoming a total wreck, although all of the crew of nine were
saved. Soon after he visited his home in
Nova Scotia, and his father being about to take his departure for California it
devolved upon him, as the oldest
son, to remain at home and care for the farm.
In October 1852, he went to Boston and shipped as able seaman on the
clipper ship Whirlwind, and after a voyage of one hundred and twenty days
arrived in San Francisco, March 11, 1853.
For a short time he sailed on the bay, then worked on a ranch rented by
his uncle, C.C. Scott, for nine months, afterward renting the farm which he now
owns, and purchasing the same in 1856.
In 1866 he purchased another farm of two hundred and eight-eight acres in the same locality, lived on the same for ten years, and
having thus gotten a fine start in life returned to Nova Scotia in 1876, and
soon after married Annie Louisa Barclay, a native of Nova Scotia. Both of these farms are still in the
possession of Mr. Haley and under his able management have been brought to a
high state of cultivation. In all he has
three hundred and twenty acres under cultivation thirty-five acres being under
pears, and the balance devoted to general farming, stock and dairying. Jersey and Durham cattle are raised in
moderate numbers, and a small but model dairy adds perceptibly to the yearly
income.
Since early
manhood Mr. Haley has been a promoter of educational and religious matters, and
for many years has been a member and active worker in the Episcopal Church. In 1897 he was particularly active in church
matters, and it was largely through his efforts that the present Newark
Presbyterian Church was constructed in that year. As a boy his interest in education and
religion received inspiration from the late Rev. Frederick Thompkins, a noted
education and minister of Nova Scotia whose life was practically devoted to the
advancement of boys and young men. Under
him Mr. Haley received his best instruction, studying with him from six to
eight o’clock in the morning. These
short intervals of study had a twofold
significance for the growing and ambitious boy, for his instructor became his
warm and earnest friend, and for forty years after the pupil sought the large
fields of opportunity in the far west, the correspondence was kept up
unremittingly, until death stilled the hand of the older writer in January,
1904. Mr. Haley has been a member of the
Masonic body since 1866, and during all these years has been active in the work
of the lodge. Two of the children born
to himself and wife died in their youth, and of the three living, Arthur
Webster has charge of his father’s ranch; Helen V. is the wife of William
Maffey of the Mare Island Navy Yard; and Charles Scot is a student at the
University of California. Mr. Haley’s
standing in the community is commensurate with his fine and upright life, his
tasks well performed, and his studious well-stored mind. All along the course of his life he has
sought in broad paths for knowledge, has applied the same with discretion and tact,
and is to-day a representative gentleman of the old school of honor and
uprightness, a believer in and follower of the golden rule, and friend upon
whose interest one may unquestionably rely.
Transcribed by
Louise E Shoemaker, April 25, 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages
525-526. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
© 2015
Louise E. Shoemaker.
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