Haight, Hon. William R.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Hon. William R. Haight. In the various activities which make up the busy life of the thriving community of Ponchatoula few men take a more prominent part than Hon. William R. Haight. His career has been one of rapid advancement and successful achievement, and today, in addition to other connections, he is serving as mayor and acting in the capacity of manager of the Ponchatoula Farm Bureau and Strawberry Growers' Co-Operative Association.

Mr. Haight was born December 12, 1873, at New Orleans, and is a son of Charles H. and Mary Ellen (Akers) Haight. On the paternal side he is descended from an English family which came to America and settled in New York at an early day. His grandfather, Rufus J. Haight, was born at Brooklyn, New York, and about 1853 moved to New Orleans, where he followed his trade as a brass moulder until his death. The maternal grandfather of William R. Haight, William Akers, was of Scotch-Irish descent and was born at New Orleans. He located at Ponchatoula when a young man, became an extensive farmer, was one of the founders of the city, and served as its first mayor, taking office February 15, 1861.

Charles H. Haight was born August 23, 1848, at New Orleans, where he has resided all of his life. For forty-two and one-half years he was identified pith the Western Union Telegraph Company, but in 1910 left their service, when elected superintendent of the Peoples Homestead Association, a Position which he holds at this time. This is the oldest homestead association in New Orleans. In politics he is a stanch democrat, and his religious faith is that of the Episcopal Church, of which he is a generous supporter and regular attendant. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World, was formerly a trustee of the Knights of Honor, and was one of the founders of Crescent Encampment, Knights of Temperance. Mr. Haight married Mary Ellen Akers, who was born in 1851 at Ponchatoula, and to this union there were born two children: Rosalie, who is unmarried and makes her home with her parents at New Orleans; and William R.

William R. Haight attended the public schools of New Orleans, and at the age of nineteen years became a clerk for the Western Union Telegraph Company, a concern by which he was employed five years. He was then with A. E. Graham & Company, operating a chain of stores, and for one year worked as clerk for this concern at Hillsboro, Texas, whence he came to Ponchatoula in 1900. He was engaged in farming and the cultivation of strawberries until the end of 1901, when he secured employment with the New Orleans Railway and Light Company as a motorman on the street cars of New Orleans. He discharged the duties of this position for four years and eight months, and then returned to Ponchatoula as clerk and manager for E. D. Parker, a general merchant, remaining in his employ five years. It was while thus engaged that Mr. Haight decided to enter the field of business on his own account, and accordingly, in 1911, organized what was then known as the German Farmers Association, of which he was made secretary and treasurer, and the name of which was changed to the American Farmers Association in 1914, Mr. Haight being retained in the same offices. This enterprise later was consolidated with the United Farmers Co-Operative Association of Ponchatoula, under the latter name, and Mr. Haight remained as manager thereof until May, 1922, in which he retains a directorship, as he does in the Ponchatoula Farm Bureau and the Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce. On August 1, 1923, Mr. Haight accepted the position of assistant manager of the Ponchatoula branch of the First State Bank and Trust Company of Hammond, and retained that position one and one-half years. In December, 1922, he became manager of the Ponchatoula Farm Bureau and Strawberry Growers Co-Operative Association, a position which he retains, his offices being situated on Railroad Square. A democrat in his political tendencies and affiliations, he was elected mayor of Ponchatoula, taking office July 4, 1922, and has given his fellow-citizens an excellent and constructive administration. In April, 1924, he was reelected for a second term of two years. Prior to this he had served on the City Council for two terms, and in 1915 was farm and dairy inspector of Louisiana, under E. 0. Brunner, commissioner of agriculture of the state. He belongs to the Ponchatoula Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he is a member of the Board of Stewards, and fraternally he is a member of Pine Grove Lodge No. 288, Free and Accepted Masons, and secretary and treasurer of the Benevolent Knights of America of Louisiana, with headquarters at New Orleans. During the World war Mr. Haight, in 1918 and 1919, "(lid his bit" by helping to make powder at the Old Hickory powder plant, Nashville, Tennessee. He is the owner of a fine residence at the corporate limits of the city on the south, with forty acres of strawberry land surrounding.

On July 17, 1901, at Ponchatoula, Mr. Haight married Miss Lulu F. Killian, a daughter of Edward C. and Mary Ellen Killian, residents of New Orleans, where Mr. Killian is electrical engineer for the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board. To this union there have been born the following children: Frank E., a graduate of Ponchatoula High School, 1922, who attended Tulane University during the school year of l922-23 and is now studying electrical work at New Orleans with the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company; William Rufus. Jr., a graduate of the Ponchatoula High School, class of 1923, now employed by the city engineer of Ponchatoula as a rodman; Mary Ellen, a senior in the local high school; Julia Akers, a freshman in the same school; Rosalie Catherine and Edward Charles, who are attending grammar school; and Louise.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 159-160, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.