Haverfield-Meyers Roots
Haverfield Migration from Northern Ireland to Ohio and the Great Plains
Joseph Arthur Haverfield at age 28, 1909, Dunseith, North Dakota.
Joseph Arthur Haverfield, the father of Ruth Elizabeth, Edna Fern Gladys, Lyman Arthur and Robert Allen, was born July 18, 1881, at Pulaski, Williams County, Ohio. His parents, Alexander McMillan Haverfield and Elizabeth Myers (Haverfield), had a mix of Scots-Irish, French, and Welsh ancestry. Alexander was the son of Joseph and Louisa Haverfield and was raised on his grandfather James Haverfield’s homestead near Mansfield, Ohio.
This James Haverfield was descended from another James Haverfield who was of Scots-Irish descent and had emigrated from Northern Ireland to the United States in the mid-1700s. According to Wallace Taylor’s research, as reported in A Genealogy and Brief History of the Haverfield Family of the United States, he was the only Haverfield who immigrated to the United States in the 18th century and remained to establish a home and raise a family.
Taylor wrote in 1919, “The most reliable tradition we have of him is through some of his grandchildren … He was an officer of the English Government, either civil or military, along about 1765 or later, during the time of civil disturbances and of petty rebellions in the north of Ireland, and that he came under the suspicion of the authorities for having too much sympathy with and giving aid to the rebels, and having to flee the country to save his life, came to America.”
This James Haverfield was descended from another James Haverfield who was of Scots-Irish descent and had emigrated from Northern Ireland to the United States in the mid-1700s. According to Wallace Taylor’s research, as reported in A Genealogy and Brief History of the Haverfield Family of the United States, he was the only Haverfield who immigrated to the United States in the 18th century and remained to establish a home and raise a family.
Taylor wrote in 1919, “The most reliable tradition we have of him is through some of his grandchildren … He was an officer of the English Government, either civil or military, along about 1765 or later, during the time of civil disturbances and of petty rebellions in the north of Ireland, and that he came under the suspicion of the authorities for having too much sympathy with and giving aid to the rebels, and having to flee the country to save his life, came to America.”
Fourth Generation Haverfield Migrates from Ohio to the Great Plains and on to Saskatchewan
Alexander Haverfield, the great-grandson of the James Haverfield who emigrated from Northern Ireland, married Elizabeth Myers in Williams County, Ohio, in 1880, when he was 21 and she was 17. There were many Myerses in Ohio at this time, most of them immigrants from northern England. Like so many, they heeded the call to the west as Native Americans were displaced onto Indian Reservations and the U.S. government made their territories available to homestead settlers.
Somehow Alexander and Elizabeth survived more than thirty years of transiency while looking for a permanent home. Alexander worked on others’ farms as a hired hand, and he and Elizabeth had nine children—eight boys and one girl—along the way. (Their fifth-born child, son Leslie, died in 1897 while still a toddler.)
Their search took them and their children more than 2,000 miles across the Great Plains of the United States: first a short distance north to Ransom, Michigan; then southwest to Elmo, Missouri; on to Independence, Kansas; back north to Kansas City, Kansas; to Millard, Nebraska; to Council Bluffs, Iowa; to Berg, North Dakota; and finally, in 1913, to their homestead in the Lonesome Butte area of southern Saskatchewan, Canada.
Alexander was 54 and Elizabeth 50 when they at last fulfilled their wish to live on their own land. The five children that went with them to Canada were Joseph Arthur, Percy Ernest, Ralph, Byron, and Burton. But only Percy and Burton stayed on to help their dad cut and dig up the sod, clear the rocks, and cultivate the land to grow grain and herd cattle four miles north of the Montana border.
Somehow Alexander and Elizabeth survived more than thirty years of transiency while looking for a permanent home. Alexander worked on others’ farms as a hired hand, and he and Elizabeth had nine children—eight boys and one girl—along the way. (Their fifth-born child, son Leslie, died in 1897 while still a toddler.)
Their search took them and their children more than 2,000 miles across the Great Plains of the United States: first a short distance north to Ransom, Michigan; then southwest to Elmo, Missouri; on to Independence, Kansas; back north to Kansas City, Kansas; to Millard, Nebraska; to Council Bluffs, Iowa; to Berg, North Dakota; and finally, in 1913, to their homestead in the Lonesome Butte area of southern Saskatchewan, Canada.
Alexander was 54 and Elizabeth 50 when they at last fulfilled their wish to live on their own land. The five children that went with them to Canada were Joseph Arthur, Percy Ernest, Ralph, Byron, and Burton. But only Percy and Burton stayed on to help their dad cut and dig up the sod, clear the rocks, and cultivate the land to grow grain and herd cattle four miles north of the Montana border.
Site of Percy Haverfield’s homestead near Lonesome Butte, Saskatchewan (photo by Gary Ball).
Haverfield Sons Return to the States
Alexander had a love of learning that he wasn’t able to fulfill, but he read whatever he could get his hands on and his son Joseph Arthur inherited this passion. Joseph had to quit school to help with the dawn-to-dusk work of establishing his parents’ homestead, but he didn’t stay with this backbreaking work on the windy Saskatchewan prairies. Instead, he returned to North Dakota, where he found more agreeable employment as a mail sorter on the Great Northern Railway that travelled between Chicago and Seattle.
Ralph and Byron also returned to the United States—Ralph to Glasgow, Montana, and Byron to Springfield, Oregon. As for Alexander and Elizabeth’s other children, Irwin was already married and working as a carpenter in Seattle, Washington; Hanley’s last known home was in Paradise, California; and Harriet Edna, who was married to Francis Wilmur Stedman, a farmer and stock grower, lived on their homestead near Berg, McKenzie County, North Dakota. Berg no longer exists, the closest present-day town being Keene. The Stedmans later moved to Olympia, Washington.
Ralph and Byron also returned to the United States—Ralph to Glasgow, Montana, and Byron to Springfield, Oregon. As for Alexander and Elizabeth’s other children, Irwin was already married and working as a carpenter in Seattle, Washington; Hanley’s last known home was in Paradise, California; and Harriet Edna, who was married to Francis Wilmur Stedman, a farmer and stock grower, lived on their homestead near Berg, McKenzie County, North Dakota. Berg no longer exists, the closest present-day town being Keene. The Stedmans later moved to Olympia, Washington.