[1][2] Haskell was a great-nephew of Seth Hathorn who donated Bates' first building.
[3] After serving in the American Civil War with the first Maine Cavalry (including at Gettysburg) and being wounded, Haskell returned to his father's farm in Maine, and then moved to Marysville, California where he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1875.
[4] Eventually he moved back to Pittsfield, Maine for a period and then to Glendive, Montana where served as a district attorney.
In 1889 Haskell was elected as the first Montana state attorney general and served until 1897 as a Republican.
[5] In the election he defeated Ella Knowles Haskell, whom he later married and then divorced in 1897.