Haviland, Laura Smith Laura Smith Haviland, born in 1808 in southern Ontario, to American parents. Her father was a Quaker minister, and Laura grew up with the Quaker teachings that comdemned slavery. Her family moved to New York when Laura was a child, settling in the western part of the state. At sixteen, Laura was married to Charles Haviland, also a Quaker whose father was a minister. The couple settled in Michigan and had eight children. Laura and her extended family left the Quaker church in the 1830s, upon becoming more active in the abolitionist movement than their church allowed.