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HANEY FAMILY PAPERS

Correspondence and papers, 1845-1980 s
Manuscript Collection MC 860
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THE HANEY FAMILY

Samuel Haney (1815-1888) was a farmer from Tennessee who settled in the Huntsville, Madison County, Arkansas, area sometime in the early 1840s. His brothers and mother settled in St. Genevieve County, Missouri. Samuel married Margaret Bowen Haney sometime around 1849, and they had six children: John, Gerry, Sam, Caroline, Sarah, and Margaret. Samuel's brother-in-law, John W. Bowen, travelled west to California during the gold rush of 1849 and later enlisted in the Union Army on February 23, 1863. Serving as a corporal in Company B, First Arkansas Infantry, Bowen spent most of his Civil War duty in the Fort Smith area and Madison County. His letters to Samuel and Margaret Haney from California in 1850 and from the army in 1864 and 1865 are among the most interesting documents in the collection. Samuel Haney also had business dealings with Jonas M. Tebbetts, a prominent antebellum Washington County lawyer and land speculator, and two items in the collection document their transactions.
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THE COLLECTION

Positive photocopies of letters, legal documents, financial records, and miscellaneous papers pertaining to the Samuel Haney family of Huntsville, Arkansas, were donated by Kay Montgomery of Huntsville, Arkansas, and David Haney of New York City on July 15, 1988.

The Haney family papers have been arranged chronologically in four series: correspondence, financial documents, legal documents, and miscellaneous papers, which include drawings of Samuel and Margaret Haney, the Haney homestead, and a courting poem, circa 1850s.

Processed by Kim Allen Scott, June 1988. Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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Series 1. Correspondence, 1845-1887, n.d. Box 1, Folders 1-3.

Primarily letters written to Samuel Haney while he was residing in Huntsville, Arkansas. Correspondents include family and friends in Missouri and Texas. Most of the letters in folder 2 are from Haney's brother-in-law, John W. Bowen, and were written during the Civil War when Bowen served as a corporal in Company B, 1st Arkansas Infantry. One undated letter placed in folder 3 appears to be a letter of introduction for Samuel written to Jonas M. Tebbetts, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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Series 2. Financial documents, 1825- 1879. Box 1, Folder 4.

Receipts, account memoranda, and promissory notes pertaining to the Samuel Haney family. Most of the materials document routine purchases and small loans. Although arranged chronologically, more than one note has been photocopied on to a single sheet.

Series 3. Legal documents, 1846-1891. Box 1, Folder 5.

Deeds, indentures, plat descriptions, and other legal documents pertaining to the Samuel Haney family. Of particular interest is an 1851 deed from Jonas M. Tebbetts for a sale of land to Samuel Haney, and an oath of allegiance to the United States Government taken by Haney in 1863.

Series 4. Miscellaneous documents, ca. 1850s-1980s. Box 1, Folder 6.

Pencil drawings of Samuel and Margaret Haney; pen and ink drawing of the Haney cabin; genealogy notes written and collected by David Haney, ca. 1980s, including bounty lists from unidentified genealogy books and land indentures from archives in Tennessee; unsigned manuscript poem, "A Song Ballad," circa 1850s.