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Bradford Founders Series – Benjamin F. Hazelton
April 20, 2008
BENJAMIN F. HAZELTON. — Born at Machias, Cattaraugus County, N. Y., March 26, 1847. The subject of this sketch worked on his father’s farm until he was fourteen, and then went to the oil region of Oil Creek, where he assisted as a well-driller. He was a spectator when the famous Rouse well was burned, and Mr. Rouse lost his life in the terrible conflagration. In the winter of 1861-62, although but fifteen years of age, he enlisted, and participated in the famous battle of Shiloh. In 1863 his parents removed to Oconomowoc, Wis., and he followed them there. He embarked in the meat business in that place and made money enough to enter a preparatory school at Horicon, Wis., and Lawrence University of Appleton, Wis. He taught school in the winter months, and continued with his studies at the University, but his health failed him. He later took a business course in the Worthington Commercial College, and there married Miss Clarissa Florence Purple, a daughter of Assistant State Treasurer C. H. Purple. Five children were born to them.
When but twenty-four years of age he was placed in charge of the heavy grading and rock work on the Madison division of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, and upon the completion of that division he was given a train, but resigned to accept a position with the lumber firm of J. W. Woodruff & Co. He remained with this concern until 1878, when he came to Bradford as foreman of the Bradford Oil Company’s Mill on the West Branch. Soon afterward he and his brother, A. L. Hazelton, secured the mill property and conducted for years a prosperous business. Mr. Hazelton subsequently became sole proprietor. In 1884 he built the West Branch Railroad, now the property of the Erie. He founded the towns of Glen Hazel and Hazelhurst, on the Mt. Jewett, Clermont, and Northern Railroad, of which he was president and owner. He died May 17, 1898.
Mr. Hazelton was a lover of fine horses, and in 1887 he formed a partnership with Joseph Garfield, of Jamestown, N. Y., for the purpose of importing and breeding stock. He was a member of the Bradford Methodist Church, and Superintendent of its Sunday-school.
This book has been digitized by the Google Book Project.
Originally published in 1899, and now in the public domain, this excerpt is from "Between the ocean and the lakes;: The story of Erie"
by Edward Harold Mott.From the chapter titled, “Men Of Mark In Erie Towns”.
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