The Heritage of Daniel Haston

 

John Holloway Hastings & James Bell Hastings
Related to Isaac Haston/Hastings of the Daniel Haston Family?


  
Introduction

Isaac Hastings and his probable son, William Carroll Hastings*, lived in adjacent sections of Greene County, MO in the mid-1800s.  In another section adjacent to them lived John Holloway Hastings, whose son, James Bell Hastings, apparently bought the William Carroll Hastings place when he died.  Was Isaac Haston/Hastings kinship-related to John Holloway Hastings and James Bell Hastings?

*Note:  Some Haston researchers have suggested that this William Carroll Hasten/Hastings (not to be confused with David Haston's youngest son who had the same name) may have been a son of Daniel Haston and, thus, a brother of Isaac Haston/Hastings.  Read more about this William Carroll Hasten.

Hastings Families of Greene County, MO

Isaac Hastings was the son of Daniel Haston, to whom this website is dedicated.  Daniel and his family settled in White County, TN prior to 1807 while Isaac was still a child.  Daniel Hiestand/Haston was the son of Swiss-German immigrant Heinrich Hiestand

Pre-DNA era family researchers often sought to connect members of Daniel Haston's family to an English (or Scots-Irish) ancestry.  Daniel's original Swiss-German surname was "Hiestandt" (the "t" was apparently dropped soon after his father arrived in America).  But, English-speaking clerks seem to have found this name difficult to spell and the surname spelling quickly morphed into a wide variety of (chaotic!) spellings.  Although Daniel Hiestand apparently was English-illiterate (but perhaps German-literate), his two oldest sons (David and Joseph) were clearly English-literate.  And it seems that David and Joseph may have decided to spell their names "Haston" while they were living in Knox County, TN (about 1800).  Whether they simply opting for an easier name to spell or were Anglicizing the name to avoid anti-German bias, we do not know.  But, the more Anglicized spelling did certainly lead people (including later generations of the family) to think that they were English or Scots-Irish descendents. 

Researchers who have studied the family of John Holloway Hastings assert with confidence that his European roots were in England.  His supposed lineage is detailed on a website maintained by the Keener family:  John Hastings (b. 1670 in Henrico Co, VA) > George Hastings (b. about 1700 in VA) > Henry C. Hastings* (b. 1727 in Orange Co, NC)  > John T. Hastings (b. 1760 in Buncombe Co, NC) > John Holloway Hastings (b. 1796 in NC)

*Note:  The supposed connection between Henry C. Hastings and the John Hastings (b. 1670) family of VA was established by Robert Wayne Haisten on page 77 of his book, Haisten: A 250-Year History of The Haisten Family (1983).  In a 1985 loose leaf update, R.W. Haisten stated a "correction" regarding that relationship between Henry C. Hastings and the VA Hastings family.  Instead, he asserts that Henry C. Hastings probably came to Orange County, NC from England through Maryland.  Source of revised statement: Haisten: A 250 - Year History of the Haisten Family, Update Number 1, January 31, 1985 (inserted in the package with the book purchased in November 2000).

Although there are differences of opinion (see note above) related to the specific ancestry of Henry C. Hastings, grandfather of John Holloway Hastings, in either case his family origin appears to be from England.  The Henry C. Hastings clan (at least many of them) moved from Orange County, NC to the Bedford County, TN area prior to 1808, which is approximately 75 miles from where the Daniel Haston family settled in what is now called "Middle Tennessee."

The Focus Question for This Page

Question:  Was the Greene County, Missouri connection between Isaac Haston/Hastings and John Holloway Hastings merely a coincidental relationship or a kinship relationship?

Answer:  If John Holloway Hastings was of English descent, then there would be no familial connection between him and Isaac Haston/Hastings.

Daniel Haston (and, thus his son, Isaac Haston/Hastings) was definitely of Swiss-German descent, not English descent.  As of October 2008, DNA evidence with various descendents of Daniel Haston have proven this Swiss-German connection beyond a doubt.

Probable Reality:

1. The close proximity of Isaac Haston/Hastings and John Holloway Hastings in Greene County, Missouri was purely coincidental and not based on a family kinship, or...

2. The two men were friends from some Tennessee connections and, based on the previous friendship, chose to live near each other.


Interesting Connections: Isaac Haston/Hastings and John Holloway Hastings

1. Isaac Hastings and John Holloway Hastings lived very close to each other in Greene County, Missouri.

As stated and illustrated above, John Holloway Hastings lived in an adjacent section to Isaac Hasting in Greene County, MO. 

This was not the first time that these two families had lived within the same area.  Apparently, John Holloway Hastings' father's family lived in Knox County, TN at or near the same time that the Daniel Haston family lived there.  Peggy Hastings, who married John Ault in Knox County, TN on November 22, 1809, was the sister of John Holloway Hastings.  She has sometimes erroneously been identified as a daughter of Daniel Haston, because she lived in Knox County in the same general era as Daniel's family. 
Source:  John T. Hastings will

The Daniel Haston family and the John T. Hastings (father of John Holloway Hastings) family both moved to middle Tennessee (Daniel Haston to White County; John T. Hastings to Bedford County) in the first decade of the 1800s.

But, although they lived fairly close to each other in Tennessee, in the East Tennessee and Middle Tennessee sojourns of these families there is no known evidence to indicate that they had any interactions.

2. Daughters of John Holloway Hastings (& Rachel Cannon Hastings) probably traveled to California with the Isaac Haston/Hastings family.

"I'm told the Hastings females, except Sara who married William Prather went to California by 1860. These would be the daughters of John & Rachel Cannon Hastings. They may have gone to California with Isaac Hastings...Isaac died in 1872, Bennett Valley, Sonoma Co, CA."

Source: Descendents of John Hastings website - John Holloway Hastings' entry

We do know that John H. & Rachel Hastings' daughter, Margaret Ann Elizabeth Hastings, and her husband, Isaac Ackerson Delzell, moved to California. 

Margaret Ann Elizabeth HASTINGS:  b. 12 Jan 1834  d. 12 Aug 1877, CA
Isaac Ackerson DELZELL:  b. 30 May 1829  d. 12 Nov 1863, Sonoma County, CA
     m. 11 Apr 1850, Greene Co, MO
Source: Nelda Hastings files

In Sonoma County, California, Isaac's son, Fletcher Dilay Hastings, lived next door to William B. Delzell, probable son of Isaac Ackerson Delzell and Margaret Ann Elizabeth Hastings Delzell.  Source:  Page 58 of Illustrated Atlas of Sonoma County, CA - 1897-1998.


3. The change of Isaac Haston's name to Isaac Hastings might have been influenced in some way by his association with John Holloway Hastings.

Although the surname for members of the Daniel Haston family was often spelled "Hasting" or "Hastings" by various clerks, Daniel's sons David and Joseph (the only Daniel Haston family members known to have been English-literate) spelled the surname "Haston" (as early as about 1800). 

When Isaac moved to Missouri, his name was sometimes spelled "Hastin" or "Hasten." If it is true that he was not literate, then he was totally at the mercy of other people to spell his surname, based on how they heard him pronounce it or what common surname they assumed it to be associated with.

On the Federal census the name was spelled "Hastings" and "Hasting."  Later, in California the "Hastin" and "Hasten" spellings continue but it appears that, later in life, the name gradually shifted to "Hastings." 

The name probably just shifted to "Hastings" because that was a more common name, a name with which English-speaking clerks and others were familiar.  Since Isaac lived adjacent to a Hastings family, local clerks and others probably assumed that the two families were related and assigned the "Hastings" surname to Isaac based upon that assumption.  And, not being literate, Isaac and his family may not have known the difference--or even cared. 

Opinion of Isaac Haston's Grandson

In a November 3, 1960 letter from Samuel Perry Hastings (grandson of Isaac and great-grandson of Daniel) to his niece Laurann Coleman, Mr. Hastings wrote, "Pleasant (Henry Pleasant Hastings, Perry's brother) told that Pa told that there were three brothers who came over from England." 

Note:  It isn't clear if the "Pa" was Pleasant's and Samuel Perry's father, Hartwell Greene Hastings, or their grandfather, Isaac Haston. 

Source:  letter in Wayne Haston's Isaac Haston file

Note: Isaac Haston would have known that his father was of some German descent.  One likely-reliable source indicates that, not only was Daniel "Dutch" (German), but that he was even barely able to speak English.  Isaac definitely would have known that his father was not an English man.