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Granville Haller was born in Pennsylvania on January 31, 1819. He decided upon a career in the military at a young age, and in 1839 was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Infantry. He fought in both the Seminole War and the Mexican-American War in the 1840s, achieving the rank of captain. In 1949 he married Henrietta Maria Hamilton Cox, whose prominent Irish family included a lord chancellor of Ireland and a Bishop of Ely who tutored the English King, Edward VI.

In 1852 the Army sent Haller to the Pacific Northwest, where he served at Fort Vancouver and later at Fort Dalles in Oregon. Haller led troops into the area of present day Boise to punish murderers of men in a wagon train crossing the Snake River in late summer of 1854. Haller also was a leading figure in the Indian War of 1855-1856. Ordered into Yakima Indian territory in November, 1855, Haller found himself badly outnumbered by armed Yakimas and was forced to retreat before reinforcements could arrive. This "defeat" may well have been the reason why Haller was promoted relatively slowly for the rest of his career. Later in the Indian War, Haller established and served as first commander of Fort Townsend. He was one of a handful of American commanders ordered to occupy San Juan Island during the boundary dispute with England in 1859.

When tensions in the San Juans eased later in 1859, Haller was sent east, bouncing among duties in Arizona and California until serving in the Civil War. During the war, he served on the staff of General McClellan throughout the Virginia and Maryland campaigns, and later under General Burnside and General Hooker. In 1863, on the basis of an accusatory letter from a Navy officer, the War Department summarily discharged Haller for "disloyal conduct and the utterance of disloyal sentiments." He made repeated requests for a hearing to contest the dismissal, but the Army steadfastly rejected them all. It took an act of Congress to finally get Haller his hearing, sixteen years later in 1879, and he was exonerated. He accepted reinstatement as a colonel and served for three more years until retirement.

After his dismissal, Haller returned to Washington Territory. He started a farm on Whidbey Island and later bought a sawmill near Port Townsend. The sawmill proved unprofitable, so he opened general stores in Port Townsend and Coupeville. Subsequent eulogists noted how generous he was in extending credit to poor families. When they were unable to repay their debts, Haller acquired from them large tracts of undeveloped land. He then rented this land to amass what one of the eulogists characterized as "a very gratifying income." He served as the president of the State Pioneer Society and was grand master of the territory's Masonic Grand Lodge. His brief return to military service took him away from the Puget Sound region, but he settled in Seattle upon his retirement in one of the city's most spacious and imposing mansions. He died May 2, 1897.