David Haskins was born in Cleveland, Ohio December 8 1840. In 1851 he came to Wright, Hillsdale, County, Michigan where he worked as a farmhand and attended district school in the winter. In 1860 he began teaching at the district school in Burlington, Calhoun County, Michigan where he met the Van Vleet family. Haskins enlisted in 1862 in Co. F, 18th Michigan Infantry and was honorably discharged in 1865. Haskins attended Michigan State Normal School, was a member of the Normal School Lyceum, and graduated in 1870. From there he was responsible for the Union schools in Parma, Brooklyn, Hanover, Union City and was the superintendent of the prison school in Jackson. He received another degree from the Normal School in 1893 and left the teaching profession to serve as the postmaster in Concord Michigan for eight years.

Mary (May) Van Vleet was born in 1844 in Burlington Township, Calhoun County, MI to Reuben Van Vleet and was named for her paternal grandmother. Mary attended school in the Mederoll school and after completeing the work offered at the county school became a teacher. She taught one year in the Trumansburg, New York. Van Vleet attended Michigan State Normal School at the urging of Haskins, where she was also a member of the Michigan State Normal School Lyceum.

The couple was married in 1870 and had three children: Frances Genevieve, Zenia Beatrice, and Zaida May. Zaida died in infancy and is buried in Concord, MI. Haskins died in 1906 and is buried in Mosherville, Michigan, Van Vleet died in 1927 and is buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Jackson, Michigan.