[1] Haish was born in Baden, Germany on March 9, 1826, and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1835.

[2] He cultivated osage orange hedges whose thorns made them effective as cattle fencing.

This prompted Haish and other DeKalb residents Isaac Ellwood and Joseph Glidden to work on improving the concept.

[4][5][6] When Haish's patent for an "S-barb" design was granted in August 1875, he launched a drawn out legal battle to stymie his rivals.

[9] The impetus for this ordinance was requests from the Ladies of the Library Association, a group that had conducted a reading room for several years.