inventor, telephone company executive, b. Buffalo, N.Y. He did his early work with telegraphy, and gained recognition as an authority on the principles of electricity. In 1873 he moved to Milwaukee as general superintendent of the Northwestern Telegraph Co. When the electric telephone was invented, Haskins became interested in the device and conducted numerous tests on hand telephones sent him by Gardiner Hubbard in 1877. In 1879 he became the local representative of the National Bell Telephone Co., and in the same year organized the Milwaukee Telephone Exchange Co., with himself as president. He was the main organizer of its successor, the Wisconsin Telephone Co. (1882), and was its president (1882-1889) and vice-president (1889-1892). He also pioneered in the development of telephone exchanges in other parts of the state, and gained a wide reputation as an author and lecturer on electricity. In 1886 he returned to New York, and made his home in New York City and Buffalo until his death. Wis. Telephone News, 22 (July, 1927), 34 (Dec., 1944); A. Hibbard, Hello, Goodbye [Chicago, 1941].Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
