Haven, Philo A.

Born: 1818-XX-XX New York

Died: 1895-05-09 Alameda County, California

Born into a wealthy family in Chautauqua County, New York, Philo A. Haven was a mill owner and miner. In 1834, he moved to Joliet, Illinois along with his father, mother, and brothers. In the late-1830s, he and his brother Orlando H. Haven purchased land in Joliet along the Des Plaines River, dammed part of the river, and established a successful water-powered mill. In 1849, he and his other brother, James Haven, went to California in search of gold. By 1850, he was living in Butte County, but he mined sites in different locations in the state for nearly a decade. In 1858, he shifted to quartz mining, built a dam at the base of Gold Lake, organized a mining district, and built a mill for mining quartz, a sawmill, and a home for himself. Haven never married.

Wayne C. Temple, “A. Lincoln, Lobbyist,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 21 (Summer 2000), 35, 38; The History of Will County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1878), 371-72; Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties (San Francisco: Fariss and Smith, 1882), 489-90; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Butte County, CA, 16; California, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1850-1953, 18 May 1896, Alameda County (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2015).