Return to Payette County IDGenWeb Home
Robert E. Haynes. About 17 years in railroad service in its various departments without even being reprimanded or discharged is the unusual record of Robert E. Haynes. Later on, engaged in the real estate business in Idaho that he might regain his lost health. During the last years of his railroad work, he spent his spare moments in reading law and was admitted to practice in Idaho in the year 1908. Has been a resident of the state since 1903. In the year 1906, was elected mayor of Payette, which is the only office of a public nature he ever held, though he has been solicited on many occasions to permit his name to be used in that way.
His record as a resident of the state is a most admirable one and it is said to his credit that, in his quiet way, he has been instrumental in bringing about many of the conditions in his county that are being enjoyed by its citizens.
Robert E. Haynes was born near Dayton, Ohio, on the sixth day of November, 1859. He is the youngest son of Robert P. and Elizabeth (Darst) Haynes. His father was a native of the state of Virginia, born at Harper's Ferry, moved to Ohio about the year 1841. Subsequently moved to Indiana, where he became active in politics and was instrumental in exposing and cleaning up a corrupt condition that existed in that state at that time. He was for years one of the trustees of Purdue University and held various places of trust and honor in that state. Later on, he moved to Kansas and located near Topeka. He did much for that state, being active in politics and in all matters pertaining to the good and welfare of the people. He was a son of Jacob Haynes, who before the war was in charge of and foreman in the Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Robert P. Haynes died in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1901, his death being the result of an injury received in a railroad accident.
Elizabeth Haynes, the mother of Robert E. Haynes of this review, was of Pennsylvania origin, a fine type of the old Puritans, commanding in appearance and lovable in disposition. She died in Topeka, Kansas, in the year 1903 at the age of 83 years.
Robert E. Haynes secured his education largely by his own efforts, from the Log School House in Indiana into the High School at Washington, Indiana. He later entered Purdue University at LaFayette, Indiana, after leaving that school, he entered the railroad service, in which he held many responsible positions and sustained a reputation of being one of the most courteous and capable of employees. He spent two years in Utah before coming to Idaho.
He came to Idaho in the year 1903 and located near New Plymouth in Canyon county. Soon after, moved to Payette. In 1906, he was elected mayor of Payette, which office he filled most acceptably, and in a manner demonstrating his fitness for any public honor he might be inclined to accept.
Politically, Mr. Haynes has always been a Republican, very alert and active in the interest of the party, insofar as it served the best interests of the people.
His influences upon the civic life of his community has been of the highest order. He is a lover of boys and young men and reckons them as a great asset of our nation. He has been identified with some, in fact much of the greatest development work of the Payette valley. He is one of the directors in and owners of the Payette Valley Land & Orchard Company which has a 720 acre orchard near Payette, which is one of the finest in the entire Northwest. He is the president of the board of directors of the Young Men's Christian Association of Payette, a most magnificent and well equipped institution. The secretary of three of the large irrigation systems of the valley. President of the board of the directors of the Independent Printing Company of Payette. A member of the Methodist Episcopal church and a member of its board of trustees. A member of the Modern Woodman of America.
On the 28th day of June, 1888, he married Lida A. Stark, a daughter of Gilbert F. Stark, a native of Ohio and a loyal veteran of the Civil war having served the full time and suffered the hardships of the Southern prisons. Mrs. Haynes comes from an ancestry noted for a great and noble record in the defense of our nation in war.
Three daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Haynes: Edna, the oldest, who married Mr. Frank E. Kilbourne, now a resident of South Bend, Washington; Leah, now sixteen and shares the parental home, and Rachel Elizabeth, the youngest.
Mr. Haynes and family reside in their elegant residence at number 16 North Ninth street in Payette.