The subject of this notice may be properly classed among the substantial residents of Jo Daviess County. He has lived upon the farm which he now occupies a period of fourteen years, and carries on general agriculture and stock-raising. He has 179 acres of good land, and has himself effected all the improvements upon the place, this involving years of labor, and the outlay of hundreds of dollars. Mr. Haig for the first twenty-five years of his residence in this county, was employed in the lead mines, and he also understands milling, having served an apprenticeship at this trade in his youth. His school advantages were quite limited, he having been compelled to lay aside his regular studies when a lad of twelve years.

Our subject was born March 15, 1813, in Gifford, Scotland, and is the son of Thomas Haig, a native of the same place. The latter died near Coburg, Canada, Dec. 19, 1840. He emigrated with his family to Canada, in May, 1834, shipping from the city of Leith, near Edinburgh, in a sailing-vessel called “The Peace of Newcastle,” and was on the ocean two months. The mother, Mrs. Elizabeth (Ewing) Haig, was a native of the same town as her husband and son. She outlived her husband, passing away at the advanced age of ninety years. Their family consisted of three sons and one daughter: Stephen married Miss Bell, of Scotland, and follows the occupation of a baker, in Brooklyn, N. Y.; he had three sons and two daughters, two of whom are deceased, Thomas and David; the others were named Isabelle, James, and Elizabeth. Andrew married Miss Mary Ann Pringle, of Whitley, Canada, and is now living near Port Hope; he is a farmer by occupation, and the father of six children, namely: Isabelle, Lotta, Aggie, Andrew, Thomas, and James. Of these Andrew is deceased.

Our subject was about twenty years of age when he came to America. He was married in the spring of 1850, to Miss Madeline Hutchison, who was born at Levens, Scotland, in March, 1824. She emigrated to America with her father and mother, and settled near Elizabeth. Of this union there have been born two sons and three daughters – John, David, Ann, Mary, and Margaret. John married Miss Emma Gundry, daughter of a farmer of Cornwall County, England, and is the father of one child, a son, Albert; David is unmarried, lives with his parents, and manages the homestead; Anna is the wife of Walter Roberts, of Woodbine Township, who is a native of England, and a farmer by occupation; they have five children – William, John, Wallie, Lilly, and a babe unnamed. Mary married Richard Eustice, of Woodbine Township, and they have two children, Henry and Elsie. Margaret is unmarried, and remains with her parents. The family belongs to the First Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Haig, politically, is an earnest Republican. He believes in a protective tariff.

The parents of our subject were members of the First Presbyterian Church, while his brothers and sisters, and others of the family incline to the Methodist doctrines.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - From Portraits and Biographical Pg 711