Havilah Ebert Hastings was born near Norwich, Muskingum County, Ohio in July 1848. After attending local schools in Ohio, he went to the Mantua Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, teaching part-time under his uncle Fulton Hasting's leadership of the academy. Hastings then returned to Norwich to teach district school there for three years.

Hastings moved to Olathe, Johnson County, Kansas in 1872 and taught at School District 76, southeast of Olathe, for four years. He later taught at Allison and Lone Elm School Districts. During his last three years of teaching he studied medicine and graduated from St. Louis Medical College with honors in 1881. After completing his studies, he returned to Olathe and practiced medicine there until his death in February 1908.

H.E. Hastings married Ella Ramsay, who had been a teacher in the local school districts prior to her marriage, in December 1890. They had one child, Havilah Ebert Hastings (he went by Ebert), born in 1893.

Hastings served as local surgeon for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway for 20 years, at one time serving as Vice President of the Santa Fe Surgical Association. He also served on the Pension Examining Board for three years and was a member of Olathe's Board of Health for severl years. He also held a role as physician for the Kansas State School for the Deaf, located in Olathe, and held various official positions over the years in the Kansas State Medical Association.

[Information for this biography retrieved from "Dr. H. E. Hastings," in The Olathe Mirror, February 28, 1908, accessed online from newspapers.com.]