Answer Man: As I write this, I sit in front of my fireplace patiently awaiting word from City Utilities that my power has been restored this cold morning. I live on Ginger Blue Avenue in the Cinnamon on the Hill subdivision. I've noticed an odd sight on the power outage map. Near my home are the words “Nancy Haden Grave.”
Who was Nancy Haden, and why was she buried all by herself near my house?
— Donald E. Woody, of Springfield
The remains of Nancy Haden were there long before there ever was a Cinnamon on the Hill subdivision and even before there was a War Between the States.
Nancy Ann Haden, mother of four, maiden name Porter, died May 13, 1850. She owned the land where she is buried.
Her family goes back to the early days of Greene County. Her two sons owned a grist mill and whiskey distillery which, I think, was on the property.
Don, her grave actually is on the land of one of your neighbors.
It's about 10 yards from the railroad tracks on the private property of Jon C. Thomas. He's the neighbor behind you, Don, the one with the large, irregular-shaped parcel of six acres.
Thomas tells me he built the house in 2011 and knew then that there was a gravesite. As far as Thomas can tell, only one person is buried there, but oftentimes in rural areas, more than one person was buried in the family cemetery.
Found only one mention in News-Leader
Thomas provided me information that he has gathered on the gravesite of Nancy Haden. It suggest that her husband is buried somewhere nearby.
“The only visible marker is the stonebox grave which has fallen in. The inscription is on the large top slab. There are no other markers but there are some indications that there might be other burials nearby.”
The information, from a summary of Greene County cemeteries, also states that the body of Nancy Haden's husband, John Haden, who died in Eureka Springs in 1831, was moved to the “family graveyard southeast of the city.” The source listed is the Springfield Republican newspaper.
I checked the archives of the Springfield News-Leader and found only one mention of Nancy Haden. It was in a 1949 letter-to-the editor supporting the idea of a Springfield history museum.
Ralph W. Mills wrote back then: “For example, very few people know where there is a lone grave in an isolated woods wherein lies the remains of ‘Nancy Haden, consort of Joseph Haden, born June 22, 1781 and died May 13th 1850.'
“Consort” is a fancy word for a wife or husband.
She married at 18 in Virginia
She married Joseph Peatross Haden in 1806, when she was 18, in Virginia. They moved to Kentucky with four young children. Joseph Haden died at age 48 in 1831. He never made it to Missouri in his lifetime.
In 1830, Nancy Haden is listed as owning 200 acres of land in Kentucky, along with 11 enslaved people and four horses.
Much of the information I found on her and her family comes from findagrave.com.
She moved to Missouri in the winter of 1839-1840, and according to 1845 property records, she paid her son-in-law John DeBruin $600 for the land that would someday become Cinnamon on the Hill.
SGF man shoots photos of gravesites as a hobby for findagrave.com
The photos in the story were provided courtesy of Lee Shafer, 74, of Springfield, who in retirement has taken up the hobby of photographing gravesites and then posting the photos on findagrave.com.
Shafer has no familial connection to Nancy Haden. He received permission from Thomas, the property owner, before taking photos of Haden's grave.
He tells me he saw no evidence of other graves or markers, but he was there in July and the site was thick with trees and brush.
Oldest child moved to Douglas County
Haden's oldest child was Rezin Porter Haden, born in 1806. It's clear he is not buried in Greene County.
He moved to Douglas County, died in 1893 and is buried at Spring Creek Cemetery in Douglas County.
He and his wife had one child, although there are documents that suggest he might have had other children with enslaved people he owned.
His obituary states: “The deceased came to this county in 1868, and by his uniform honesty and integrity had won a host of friends who look upon his death as a personal affliction.”
I could find nothing definitive about where his three siblings were buried.
The second oldest child was Elizabeth Tooley Haden, born in 1809. She married Dr. John Childress Farmer in 1835, in Kentucky, and according to records, they were living in St. Francois County late in their lives. They had six children.
The third oldest was Mary Kasiah Haden, born in 1810. She married the first time in Kentucky and had two children. Her first husband died and she married John DeBruin in Greene County in 1844. Mary and John DeBruin sold land to Mary's mother.
‘Will keep constantly on hand whisky by the barrel'
The youngest of the four was Joseph Douglas Haden, born in 1814. He married Nancy Proctor in Kentucky in 1836. They had five children.
Apparently, Joseph Haden initially worked for his older brother at the whiskey distillery and then bought it.
He placed an ad in the “Springfield Mirror” stating: “Having bought the mill and distillery 5 miles east of Springfield, of R. P. Haden, I will keep constantly on hand whisky by the barrel at the store of McGinty & Haden in Springfield.”
I found a Greene County record in which Abner McGinty was elected Greene County coroner in 1852.
The reason I know Joseph Douglas Haden worked at the distillery prior to buying it was because he was sued twice.
In December 1850 he was charged with selling liquor without a license and in January 1852 he was accused of “the sale of one quart of whisky and suffering the same to be drunk at the place of sale, without a grocer's dramshop keeper's or innkeeper's license.”
He went to court twice and charges were dropped each time.
This is Answer Man column No. 62.
