Francina E. Wilder, born in Paris, France on Valentine's Day 1819, was the first Protestant missionary to Athens, Greece. She married Richard Townly Haines, a director for the American Bible Society and founder of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey. According to a 1937 letter by one of their 12 daughters, Frances Stoddard Haines, both Mr. and Mrs. Haines authored several religious works.

In 1881, a Presbyterian mission was established on the neck of the peninsula dividing the mouth of the Chilkat River from Lynn Canal. Upon the arrival of the Reverend Eugene and Caroline Willard, both school and church services of the Chilkat Mission were held in a shed. Sheldon Jackson from Sitka and head of the Presbyterian Missions throughout Southeast Alaska, personally borrowed money for a Chilkat Mission building. This was repaid through the efforts of the Presbyterian Church's Women's Executive Society of Home Missions, an organization which helped form new missionary sites in many states. Mrs. Haines was the secretary of the Society at this time, so the mission was renamed Haines Mission after her. Later, when the city was incorporated, it was also named Haines.

Francina E. Haines