First Store Built in Port Andrew, Richland County, Wisconsin

[RandyHanna]

James Haney

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.

Before 1860 James Haney built the store at Port Andrew 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. James would be 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 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 James was out 10,000. The men came home on a steamship.

Go to my website for pictures and more history of James Haney
http://www.hanna-family-history.com/jameshaneylife.html

[keith]

Good family history website you have there.

Hope you'll add these to the links on your site:

http://www.linkstothepast.com/

http://www.thebubbler.com/modules.ph...iewforum&f=828

Regards,
Keith

[CindyLouWho]

Hi RandyHanna,
I am a new member and I just read your history on the Haney family in Port Andrew. It is very interesting...I love reading stories about ancestors especially if it involves places that I know. Do you know if the original store or any part of it still there?

When I saw the name "James Haney" it brought to memory something that I read recently regarding his store in Port Andrew. It was in "Chapter 17" of the "Richland County History 1884" book at the Brewer Library in Richland Center and is titled "Dark Deeds". Here is the story:

"Benjamin Sutton was an elderly man, but recently returned from the seat of the "war between the States", then raging, having been a member of the 11th regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was engaged in keeping in a small grocery or saloon at Port Andrew in Richwood Township, and while engaged in sweeping off the sidewalk in front of his place of business, about 8 o'clock, on the morning of the 4th of December, 1862, was shot by an assassin with a rifle.

It seems, from the evidence in the case, that Milton Hubanks had a quarrel with Sutton, said to have grown out of the treatment of Sutton's daughter by Hubanks, and out of this had sprung up a deadly feud, and Sutton had made many threats to shoot Hubanks on sight. On the morning in question, the latter concealed himself in the house of JAMES HANEY, within six or eight rods from the Sutton's place, and locating himself near a window overlooking the door of that person's place, loaded his rifle with the intention of shooting him. It has been urged in extenuation that he was goaded on to this act by the threats of his enemy and the advice of some friends, on whom he relied, but whose warmth of feeling had warped their judgment. Here at the window, he waited until the old man made his appearance, and then deliberately taking aim shot him down, the ball passing through the abdomen, making a fatal wound. Sutton fell to the ground, and while lying there the dastardly assassin again shot him; this time the ball passing through the arm and entering the breast of the victim.

Sutton lingered in great agony for some hours, in spite of the strong efforts of Dr. R.M. Miller to alleviate the pain, and died before the following morning.

Hubanks was arrested and brought before a jury and they adjudging him guilty of manslaughter only, on account of the extenuating circumstances, he was sentenced for a term of four years to the penitentiary. After serving two years he was pardoned."

I don't know if you are aware that someone took time to type the whole book of the History of Richland Co. 1884 onto the internet and that you can access it by doing a search on the History of Richland Co. 1884.

[keith]

Great post, CindyLouWho - 'Rep' added!

Regards,
Keith