Introduction

Biography

Victor was the son of Hi­ram Hat­field and Ca­ther­ine Kin­caid Don­ald­son. He mar­ried twice, to Stel­la E. King (1880, Wells Coun­ty, In­di­ana) and Su­sie El­va Cra­ven (1901, Black­ford Coun­ty, In­di­ana).

Victor moved with his fa­mi­ly to Os­si­an, In­di­ana, in 1867. He at­tend­ed the lo­cal Os­si­an schools, and took a spe­cial course un­der Rev­er­end A. Mayn.

He spent a year at El­der’s Ridge Aca­de­my in In­di­ana Coun­ty, Penn­syl­van­ia, un­der Dr. Al­ex­an­der Don­ald­son, then at­tend­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of Woos­ter, where he took class­ic­al cours­es.

Upon re­turn to Os­si­an, Vic­tor joined his fa­ther in his mer­can­tile bu­si­ness, Hat­field & Son. Vic­tor ev­en­tu­al­ly took ov­er the bu­si­ness, and branched out in­to sell­ing mu­sic­al in­stru­ments, in­clud­ing pi­anos and or­gans.

Victor was an el­der in the Pres­by­ter­ian church, and in 1898, the Fort Wayne Pres­by­te­ry made him a de­le­gate to the Pres­by­ter­ian Ge­ne­ral As­sem­bly.

Works

• The Old Home Town and Oth­er Po­ems (Park Pub­lish­ing, 1931)