First-Known Hastons to Arkansas
This Yell County, Arkansas Series – Links to be Activated When Articles are Published
Don’t Confuse These Two Men With the Same Names
Wiley B. Haston, born 1806
Wiley B. Haston, born 1836
Son of David Haston, Grandson of Daniel Haston
Died in the 1860s in Arkansas
Son of James Alford Haston, Grandson of Joseph Haston, Great Grandson of Daniel Haston
First 44 Years in the Life of Willie/Wiley B. Haston
- Born July 11, 1806, in Knox County, TN, northwest of Knoxville (on his parents’ farm on Grassy Creek). His parents were David (oldest son of Daniel) and Peggy Roddy Haston.
- Often spelled “Willie” but pronounced “Wi-ley”
- “B” = “Blount” (probably named for Willie Blount of Knoxville, who later became a three-term [1809-1815] Governor of TN), including the War of 1812 Era. His father (David, son of Daniel) may have been a friend of the future TN governor while living in the Knoxville area.
- Married 1st – Tamar (Tamsey) Austin (before 1825); Tamsey was a daughter of John & Rachel Denny Austin, thus a step-daughter of Wiley’s Aunt Catherine Haston, who married John Austin after Rachel died. Wiley and Tamsey had eight children together, according to a family record. Tamsey died before mid-1845.
- 1828 – “Blount Hasting” – first appearance on the White County, TN (area that later became Van Buren County) tax list in the same district as his father and Uncle Joseph. “William B. Haston” on the 1832 tax list with 50 acres of land, plus 150 acres of “school land.” Later, the name “Willie B.” appears. 225 acres in 1840 in the 4th district along Cane Creek.
- January 25, 1839 – Signed the petition to create Van Buren County, TN.
- 1850 Van Buren County, TN Census for District 4
Second Wife Years in Tennessee
- Married 2nd – Mary Durham (July 13, 1845) in Van Buren County, TN. Mary was the daughter of Nathan Durham, a neighbor of W.B. Haston on Cane Creek in the 4th District of Van Buren County, TN.
- 1852 – Commissioned as Justice of the Peace in Van Buren County, TN.
- 1853 – Voted in the affirmative for the incorporation of Spencer, TN.
- May 7, 1860 – Was in Van Buren County, TN court where his and Tansey’s daughter, Nancy, was placed in the guardianship of William B. Cummings. Refers to Tamsey as W.B.’s former wife and deceased. Nancy would have been about 20 years old, but still a minor until 21.
- By the time he left Tennessee, he owned 935 acres but mostly cheap land on Cane Creek in District 4.
Note: According to 1870-1871 Chancery Court records, this land was given to W.B. & Mary by Mary’s father, Nathan Durham, but was the deed was not registered, which resulted in a court challenge regarding the ownership of the land. See end of this article. - Next court entry for the same day (May 7, 1860) states that David Haston (father of W.B. Haston) had “departed this life.” This was probably the event that “freed” W.B. to leave Tennessee and venture west.
Sebastian County, Arkansas
Sixty-six days after the Van Buren County, TN (May 7, 1860) court session in which Wiley B.’s daughter, Nancy Haston, was placed into guardianship and his father’s death was mentioned, W.B. and Mary’s family was on the 1860 Federal Census in Cole Township (James Fork Post Office) of Sebastian County, Arkansas.
July 11, 1860 – W.B. Haston, age 54, was on the 1860 census for Sebastian County, AR, with a four-year-old son (David Haston) who was born in Arkansas, but all the others in the family were indicated to have been born in Tennessee, even a one-month-old “William” (who was “Willard” in other official sources). The census taker must have gotten the places of birth for David and William/Willard confused, because later census records indicate that it was William/Willard who was born in Arkansas, not his older brother David.
Some sources say that William/Dillard Durham (W.D.) Haston was born in Yell County, Arkansas. Since he was only one month old at the time of the 1860 census, he was probably born there during a brief stop in Yell County before the family moved on to Sebastian County, two counties to the west of Yell.
1860 Cole Township of Sebastian County, Arkansas Census
Shadrack and Margaret Haston Mooneyham
Shadrack Mooneyham (born 1826) and Margaret Haston (born about 1828) were married by David Haston, Justice of the Peace, on August 14, 1845. Margaret was the daughter of Wiley B. and Tamsey Austin Haston and granddaughter of David Haston, who performed their marriage. Shadrack and Margaret apparently moved to Arkansas with her father and step-mother. At the time of the 1860 census, they (he, age 33; she, age 31) were also living in Cole Township of Sebastian County, Arkansas, with seven children (five oldest born in TN, two youngest born in AR). Margaret’s youngest child was born in April 1865 and Shadrack married a second wife on February 1870. According to the obituary of Margaret’s son, Wiley Bluntford Mooneyham (born in Arkansas in 1860), apparently the family remained in Arkansas after her father died there.
Back to Van Buren County, Tennessee
Wiley B. Haston did not live long after moving to Sebastian County, AR. He died sometime after the 1860 census and I have not been able to learn anything about his life or death in Arkansas. By the time of the 1870 census, his widow, Mary Durham Haston, was living back in Van Buren County with four children.
Since William D. (born 1860 in Arkansas) was the youngest child in Mary’s family, it is likely that her husband (Wiley B.) died within a year or two (or so) of their arrival in Sebastian County, Arkansas.
Van Buren County, TN Chancery Court – 1870 & 1871 (Book A, pages 27, 34, 40, 69)
Mary Hasting, widow of Wiley B. Hastin, Sr. vs. Wiley B. Hasting, Jr., James Hasting, et. al.
Mary (Durham) Haston, widow of Wiley B. Haston, Sr., was involved in a Van Buren County Chancery Court case. Apparently, the case was related to Wiley B.’s estate settlement, particularly the 935 acres in Turkey Cock Cove that Mary’s father, Nathan Durham, had gifted to Wiley B. and Mary on September 12, 1859 (eight months or so before they left for Arkansas). It appears that more than two dozen descendants were trying to get part of the 935 acres.
The court concluded that the deed assigned to Wiley B. Haston had been destroyed before it was registered and was thus void. The court “ordered and decreed … that the title to the above [land] be divested out of the defendants [the family members trying to get some of the land] and vested in complainant [Mary Durham Haston] … and that the deed so made to complainant by the said Nathan Durham be set up.”
In other words, Mary ended up being the legal owner of the land and the defendants [the people trying to get what they deemed to be their share of the land] got nothing.
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