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- Floyd's Northumberland County Genealogy
Pages 516 thru 549
John B. Haas was born in Sunbury Dec. 6, 1835. and was there educated in the public schools. He became a grocer and fruit dealer in Sunbury, handling large quantities of fruit, and also dealt extensively in potatoes, buying apples and potatoes by the carload. He bought beans in large quantities from New York, where entire fields were devoted to their cultivation, and throughout his life was a successful business man, widely and favorably known. His business establishment was near the First National Bank, and the property at No. 242 Market Square still belongs to his widow. His home was at No. 320 Arch street for thirty-eight years.
On Dec. 28, 1868, Mr. Haas was married, after a romantic courtship, to Emma Thayer, daughter of James and Zenecia (Bassett) Thayer, who lived in Yates county, N.Y. Mr. Haas had gone to New York to buy apples, and thus came to deal with James Thayer, whose daughter Emma he subsequently married. It was a case of love at first sight between these young people, and a happier union never was known. She is of "Yankee" origin, being a descendant in the ninth generation from the famous Roger WIlliams, the founder of Rhode Island. The Eddy family, to which Zenecia Bassett, her mother's mother, belonged, intermarried with the Williams family. Mrs. Haas is a member of Fort Augusta Chapter, D.A.R., of Sunbury, and is the present secretary of that organization, of which she was treasurer five years. She is a prominent member of the Iris Literary Club of Sunbury, of which she is the librarian. This club, which has a membership of fifty, meets once a week at the home of Judge Savidge, whose wife, Mrs. C.R. Savidge, is president. It subscribes to a traveling historical library conducted under the auspices of the State of Pennsylvania and has proved a most interesting organization as well as an avenue of culture to all who enjoy its privileges.
To Mr. and Mrs. Haas were born three daughters: Eva Thayer is the wife of Dr. J.B. Cressinger, a prominent physician of Sunbury; Cora B. married Bert S. Hopkins, a jeweler and optician, and they live at Penn Yan, N.Y., where Mrs. John B. Haas spends her summers; Mary died of diptheria in 1881, aged six years. Mr. Haas was an Episcopalian, like other members of his family.
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