John G. Haskell, who made a reputation both as a soldier and an architect, was born in Chittenden County, Vermont, February 5, 1832, and was educated at Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. In 1855 he entered an architect’s office in Boston, and two years later settled at Lawrence, Kansas. During the Civil war Captain Haskell served as assistant quartermaster general of Kansas, as quartermaster of the Third Kansas and the Tenth Kansas Volunteers, as captain and assistant quartermaster on the staff of Gen. James G. Blunt, and chief quartermaster of the Army of the Frontier. In 1866 he was made architect of the state house, building the east wing, and as state architect subsequently constructed much of the capitol; also the State University, Snow Hall, the insane asylums at Topeka and Osawatomie, the reform school at Topeka and the reformatory, were all designed and largely built by him.
