Goodspeed, Weston A., ed. Counties of Porter and Lake Indiana. Chicago: F.A. Battery & Co., 1882. p.648.
MELVIN A. HALSTED was born in Rensselaer County, N.Y., March 29, 1821, and the only living, of the three children of William and Patty (Haskin) Halsted, both natives of same county. His grandparents on his father's side were Joseph and Katie (Agan) Halsted, and on his mother's side, Enoch and Lydia (Ackly) Haskin. Throughout the Revolutionary war the family was bitterly divided in political views, especially Joseph Halsted, who was a Major and active officer in the colonial cause, while his wife's people were strong Tories, having two brothers engaged on the English side; Enoch Haskin was also a soldier for American independence. William Halsted was a musician of the war of 1812. Melvin A. Halsted
lived in his native State, where he received a fair education in schools and academies, until thirteen years of age, but in 1835 came West to Ohio, and in 1842, while engaged in farming in Montgomery County, he married Miss Martha C. Foster, and in 1845 moved to Lake County, Ind., locating in West Creek Township, five miles west of Lowell. In 1848, he built a water-power saw-mill in Lowell, and in 1849 moved thereto. In 1850, he took the 'gold fever," and went to California by the overland route, but returned to Lowell in 1851, and built a flour mill. In 1853, he surveyed and laid out the town of Lowell. In 1857, he sold and removed to Southern Illinois, and engaged in milling in Kinmundy. In 1859, he again went to California, by way of New York and Panama, but returned to the States in 1861. In the same year, he went back to the mining regions of the far West, and became interested in the gold and silver Comstock mines of Nevada, where he made a fortune. In January, 1864, he came back and purchased the property he formerly owned in Lowell, as well as other real estate. In 1869, he removed his family to California, where and in Utah they remained two years. In 1874, they came to Lowell, where Mr. Halsted interested himself in constructing the L., N.A. & C.R.R. through this place. Mr. Halsted has done more for Lowell than all others combined.
He is an energetic citizen and a public-spirited gentleman; he is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and he and wife have been members of the Baptist Church for forty years. Mr. and Mrs. Halsted have had four children--William N., Theron H., Mary and an infant (both deceased). Mrs. Halsted is a native of Troy, Penn., born September 12, 1824, and a daughter of Elijah D. and Ruth C. (Nichols) Foster; they came to Lake County in 1863, and are both now deceased.
