The Haven Family in Orange County, California History


Transcribed in 2004 by Robert W. Haven from:

History of Orange County, California:
With Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men and Women of the County who have been Identified with its Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present.
Illustrated

By Samuel Armor

Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA (1921)


Pages 843-44

A. B. and L. S. Haven -- Prominent among the industries of California that have proven of the greatest benefit to Santa Ana, and so have added greatly to the wealth, prosperity and progress of Orange County, must be rated that of the Haven Seed Company, which expends over $100,000 annually in the town for labor and supplies. The business was organized and founded by E.M. Haven, an Ohioan and a member of a family of English origin. The progenitor of the family in America was Richard Haven, who came from the west of England and settled in Lynn, Mass., in 1644. He sought neither the wealth of the Incas, nor did he hope to find mines of gold, nor did he pant for the conquest of a new world, but as an humble artisan, a carpenter by trade, he hoped to find here an opportunity to pursue his calling in the freedom of a sincere Christian heart. The great-great-grandfather of A. B. Haven, Elisha Haven, married at Warwick, Mass., in 1792, into the Goodell family, of French descent, members of whom sailed from a port on the west coast of England to America on the ship "Elizabeth" in 1634. John Haven, great-grandfather, was a native of New Hampshire, but had resided in Vermont, Eastern New York and Ohio. He married, in 1820, at Shalersville, Ohio, into the noted English family of Sanford. Grandfather, G. W. Haven, was born in Shalersville, Ohio, September 18, 1831; and at North Eaton, that state, in 1854, married into the Wilmot family, also of English descent. He was a pioneer farmer in the Buckeye State. The Haven ancestors were numbered among those pioneers who made farm homes by clearing forests and doing the hardest kinds of labor to accomplish their objects. E. M. Haven grew up in Michigan, to which state his parents removed in 1863, when he was a lad of eight years. There he married, on February 27, 1878, Miss Ludema PeLong, a lady of French extraction, born on March 14, 1859, in South Lyons, Oakland County, Mich. At Bloomingdale, Van Buren County, Mich., E. M. Haven started the Haven Seed Company, in 1875.

The business grew and expanded, and in 1891 Mr. Haven moved to South Haven, Mich., and there built up a wholesale trade, making a specialty of tomato, radish, beans, cucumber, sweet corn and other vegetable seeds, the farmers growing them under contract and Mr. Haven selling to seed dealers. In the autumn of 1903, the Haven family moved out for California, and for a season settled in San Luis Obispo County. From 1905 to 1909, they operated in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, and in 1910 put in their first year in Orange County at Tustin, where they conducted a seed farm. In September, 1917, E. M. Haven died, mourned by all who knew him, esteemed his winning personality and admired his extraordinary ability. Since then, Mrs. Haven has resided in Santa Ana.

A. B. Haven, the president and manager of the Haven Seed Company, represents the ninth generation in America and was born at Bloomingdale, Mich., on August 25, 1881. He boought forty acres in 1917, adjoining the city limits of Santa Ana a fine tract since then increased to 100 acres and there had built a large warehouse of hollow tile, 55 x 72 feet in size, three stories high. Together with another warehouse, the company has some 13,000 feet of floor space; they also have finely-equipped offices, and have laid no less than thirty miles of tiling for drainage purposes, the exact value of which is being slowly tested and demonstrated. The water from their wells is lifted by pumps operated by electric power, furnishing an abundant and ample supply for irrigation. In 1918, also, a fine barn, 52 x 120 feet in size, was erected, to care for the twenty-four head of horses and mules, with additional buildings for the Holt caterpillar tractor, and other high grade farming paraphernalia. This barn, erected after A. B. Haven's own plans, with many novel features all ingeniously arranged, is said to be the most up-to-date in all the county. In 1914, the Haven Seed Company was incorporated under the laws of the state of California.

Mr. Haven and his brother, L. S. Haven, who was born in South Haven, Mich., on July 8, 1895, and is secretary of the Haven Seed Company -- with C. E. Utt of Tustin, as treasurer -- have spent their entire lives in the seed business, and are decidedly practical men. They make a specialty of tomato seeds and grow upwards of eighty varieties, being in that respect the largest growers of tomato seeds in the world. Two-thirds of their 600 acres are given up to tomatoes, and their seeds go to every civilized country on the globe. Part of their success is undoubtedly due to the originality of their improved methods, one of which is the most approved means of separating the seed -- an invention that is the outgrowth of original ideas of members of the corporation and perfected by A. B. Haven. Besides the eighty varieties of tomatoes grown, the Haven Seed Company also produces several varieties each of eggplant, pepper, cucumber and special crops of other vegetable seeds including lima beans. Great care is taken that only the best seed is distributed to anyone.

A. B. Haven was married August 23, 1911, at Tustin, Cal., to Miss Lizzie H. Brown, by whom he has had five children -- Mary, Archibald B., Jr., Annie, Elizabeth and Hilda L. In 1918 he built for himself and family a bungalow residence on the see farm. L. S. Haven was married at Santa Ana, his bride being Miss Cammie B. Mitchell, with whom he now resides on Broadway, in Santa Ana. Two children have blessed their union, Ralph L. and Earl M. The Havens attend the Christian Church at Santa Ana.