Haney Family History & Genealogy

First I will tell you about the friendship between Abraham Lincoln. Before the 1850 James Haney
Family lived in Illinois. They owned a big farm and as usual in those days travelers would stop by
to stay the night at the nearest farmhouse as towns were far apart.. This led to Abraham Lincoln
first staying overnight at the Haney farm.

James Haney was a very intelligent man with very strong interest in politics. Abe was a Whig
(later changed the name to Republican) grandfather was a (dyed in the wool) Democrat.

But that did not keep the two men from liking each other allot. They would spend long hour’s
evenings by the fireplace and in candle lit room arguing the best part of the night about politics.

Abe might be on his way on a speaking tour of other towns in Illinois. But he often stayed over a
few days. Then he would read everything that had come into the house since he was last there
newspapers and periodicals and books.

While there he would rest his horse and himself. The girls and grandma would give him some of
the clothes of James to wear while they gathered up all his clothes and washed and ironed and
cleaned and pressed his clothes and suit. His dress shirt had many ruffles. He was very fond of
small children and used to rock the baby while the women worked on his clothes.

He loved buttermilk and made many trips to the milk house. That was a house built over a
spring. The water from the spring is very cold and shelves were built over the cold water. On
these shelves were many pans of milk set to keep cold while the cream rose to the top. The
women gathered the cream into a large churn and from that they churned butter. The butter
rose to the top and was gathered into a solid roll of butter. The milk remaining in the bottom was
known as buttermilk. This Abe liked very much and was real cool to drink.

In 1850 James moved to Wisconsin in covered wagons. First he bought a farm North East of Port Andrew.
He didn't stay there long, but rented it to other farmers for a share of the crop. When my father Tom was 25
and he was married to my mother they lived on the farm. But my father was no farmer and before 1860
James Haney built the store at Port Andrew and my father worked for James. He used to buy logs and hire
gangs of men to float logs down the Wisconsin river to Mississippi river towns. There lumber companys
bought the logs for lumber and railroad ties. They would guide the logs by hopping from one lead log to
another and turn their direction with an article called a "cant" hook. They wore spiked shoes so they didn't
slip into the river.

James was very properous at that time. He stayed home and ran the general store. They sold shoes
clothes, yard goods, groceries, kerosene, and anything a pioneer family might need. My older brother Jace
said he remembered grandfather counting his money by stacking gold pieces; 10s 20s and 50s on the big
round dining room table and it was covered. There were no near banks so he used to bury it in the cellar of
the store. The store still stood when I was a child. The Haney living quarters were above the store. There
was plenty of room.

James Haney was a stubborn man with temper; he feared no man As the years went by in the Civil War, in
respect to Abe Lincoln, he fed the widows and orphans and war veterans free.

Once a shack was built on a raft with logs tied together with log chains. In the shack men ate and slept in
shifts. On one trip down the logs were sold to a company in Kansas City. They delivered the logs but the
company could not pay. The logs were to be used for ties to lay a railroad from Kansas City west. The
company went bankrupt so grandfather was out 10,000. The men came home on a steamship.

Santippa was 9 years younger than James and died earlier than James. He was born about 1805 and died
when I was a year old.

He was quite an inventor. As the years went by he built himself a building with a tower on it and spent lots of
time
inventing things. He had several patents registered in Wash D.C.. His big project was propetual motion. He
worked at it long and hard but never suceeded nor has anyone else. As the years went by he got so
hooked on inventing that he neglected his business, sold off alot of his land and sometimes forgot to pay
taxes. People would pay the taxes and then get a tax deed. Your grandma Mary took him long tward his
later years in Muscoda and cared for him.
Transportation and the hauling of freight then was done by steambost. In the beginning of his life in
Wisconsin there were no railroads yet at Blue River and Port Andrew and the bridge was not built until
afterwards in 1905.

The Wisconsin River in those days was a mighty swift river and had deep channels so steamboats went
down to the Mississippi and up the river to Portage. There the goods would be brought from the Eastern US
to Green Bay and then down the Fox to near Portage. There the goods would be hauled by wagon over the
land barrier. This was called portage (carrying goods over land for short distances) that is how the town
Portage on the Wis River got its name. This is how the younger girls used to order their clothes from
Eastern cities, even furniture came that way.

The younger girls were very beautiful as I hear and wore clothes in style. My mother and your grandmother
did not have it so easy with big families. My father was given the old desk when they had to break up James'
home when he went to Muscoda. We have always kept it. Now my youngest brother Francis has it in his
home.

The old store ledger was there with all the charge accounts that were never paid and the family Bible. They
have been lost in the shuffle of too many moves and too many generations.

Santippa was a gentle English girl, blue eyes and was small. James was a tall man, black eyes and hair.

My father died of pneumonia when we last three were 16-14 -12. I had a bachelor brother John (Jack) who
helped my mother raise us. All of the 10 living children are dead now but my younger brother and I. We three
were born to my folks in mother's 40's. My father was seven years older than my mother. He met her when
she taught school in Port Andrew; the very school I taught in 75 years ago for her and 50 years ago for me

One of my sister-in-laws, long years ago traced the Haney ancestry in Ohio and Ireland. There were 7 Irish
priests in the generations there.

Mallie Haney 1975

This a story of two Brave, Hardy people who came to the Republic of Texas as Teen-agers. Ben came as a nineteen year old adventurer from Tennessee, arriving in the original Red River County in December 1839. Mary arrives with her Parents, William Sloan Oates and his large family in 1841. Bens Father, Nelson Hugh Haney the elder arrived in 1844 with Bens two younger brothers and sister. This is the story of Ben and Mary, their move west to Cooke Territory, later Wise Co, Texas - until their deaths in the ealy 1870s.
The story of Ben and Mary is approximately 15,000 words - written in Microsoft Word. It will be posted to this site (as soon as I figure out how)!!