More about Col. Haskell.

Capt. Ebenezer Holbrook, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Waltham, Mass., happens to be in Chicago at the present time on a visit to his son, who is engaged in business here. He tells us that he read with deep interest our article upon Col. Haskell of “The Boston Herald,” and his son, William E. Haskell, who has just been appointed a major upon the military staff of the governor of Minnesota. Capt. Holbrook says that the Haskells have always been noted for their fondness for, and adaptability to, military life. As far back as 1723, old Elizur Haskell (the great-grandfather of the Minnesota editor) led the company of Massachusetts militia which proceeded against the Indians then encamped near Deerfield, and routed them after a most bloody battle. It was during this historic fray that King Philip, the bravest of the Indian chieftains in New England, engaged in a hand-to-hand combat with Elizur Haskell. Finding the sturdy Puritan too much for him, the discreet savage made his escape to the fastnesses of that mountain near the Connecticut River which is now known as Mount Sugarloaf; and to this day, a singularly romantic chain of rocks on the summit of this hill is called “King Philip’s Seat,” for it is here that the dusky chieftain found refuge after his unsuccessful skirmish with Elizur 213Haskell. Capt. Holbrook says that old Elizur’s son, Joshua Haskell, was the best wrestler in Massachusetts for twenty years; that on account of his prowess in this science, he was elected colonel of the Second Regiment of Massachusetts Militia, which distinction he enjoyed continuously until, at a town-meeting in Boston in the fall of 1785, he was thrown best two in three by Zephaniah Newton, son of Squire Newton of Worcester. The “Haskell Book,” compiled by J. Hancock Haskell of Hartford, Conn., shows that, within the last two hundred years, there have been four generals, sixteen colonels, eleven majors, and twenty-eight captains, in the Haskell family, of which number none has ever perished upon the field of battle.