Samuel Frost Haviland (1798 - 1858)

Born 22 Dec 1798 in Peekskill, NY

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 13 Dec 1858 at age 59 in Santiago, Chile, South America

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Biography

Samuel Haviland is Notable.

Samuel Frost Haviland, son of John Downing Haviland & Anne Wright Frost, was born 22 Dec 1798 in Peekskill, NY. He married 1 Aug 1825 to Maria Felisa Osandon, and had issue: Samuel Gilbert, Daniel Sandalio, Ann Maria Felisa, John Samuel, Maria Del Rosario Emilina, Carlota Isabel, John Ebenzer, Manuela Carolina, Nieves De Carmen, Elena (Helen), and Sara. ^[1]

Samuel was the U.S. Consul General at Coquimbo, Chile.

Letter from Samuel Frost Haviland to his parents: "My uncle [Daniel Wright Frost] and his family are here and I have engaged to stay with him and do his writing one year. I am very much pleased with my new aunt, and in fact with all the family that I have met. My aunt has a mother, two sisters, and they have the name of being one of the first families in Coquimbo." Samuel married one of these sisters. He was the first man to start a bank in Chile, and he was United States Consul General for many years until his death. His house is one of the most handsome in Santiago, the first built in a modern European fashion in contrast to the old adobe Spanish house of that period.

Samuel sailed for the west coast of South America in the winter of 1821-1822, reaching Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chile, about the month of March, 1822. After visiting Santiago, the capital, for four or five weeks, which he describes in a letter to his parents as being nearly as large as New York, he took a ship from Valparaiso to Coquimbo, a small but important seaport (on account of its copper mines), lying about two hundred and fifty miles north of Valparaiso.

His uncle, Daniel W. Frost, a prosperous merchant of the place, who carried on an extensive trade with China, had resided here for some time, and two years before had married Dona Paola Osandon e Iribaren, the daughter of Don Diego Osandon, both belonging to the best families of the place and of pure Spanish descent. He accepted a position with his uncle at a salary of six hundred dollars for one year and his board, after which, as he wrote his parents, having learned the language, there would be some prospects of his doing something for himself. He found Coquimbo (or La Serena as it was sometimes called, though La Serena proper was some miles away), a most charming place, with a delightful climate, a quaint old world society with simple habits, kindly and hospitable, and through his connections was thrown most intimately into it. It is not surprising therefore that a few years later, in 1826, he married his aunt's younger sister, Dona Maria, a young lady of 18. Another and much older sister had married in 1807 to Dr. George Edwards, whose son, Augustin, became one of the greatest bankers and capitalists of the South American continent.

In 1830 Mr. Haviland founded in La Serena the first mining bank in Chile, and it was he who issued the first banknotes in that country. The highest denomination was of one dollar, and bore the vignette of a horse; the next lower, of fifty cents, that of a cow; and still another of twenty-five cents, that of a calf. These were current throughout the mining region about Coquimbo, being as acceptable and more portable than gold coin.

Mr. Haviland was appointed to U.S. Consul at Coquimbo on March 1, 1839. In 1842 "Don Samuel" (as he was called by friends in Chile) moved with his family to Santiago, the capital. He built a magnificent mansion on the "Alameda" between Ahumada and Estado Streets, which "Chile Ilustrado," the standard work on Chile, published 1872, speaks of as being the first well-constructed and elegant residence of the capital, "retaining to this day its original merit." ^[1]

Sources

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Frost, Josephine C. The Haviland Genealogy : Ancestors and Descendants of William Haviland of Newport, Rhode Island, and Flushing, Long Island, 1653-1688 : with special records of the allied families of Field, Hull, Torrey, Willett-Willis. New York, NY: The Lyons Genealogical Co., 1914. pp. 227-229.