The Four Chaney Brothers
of Carroll Co., AR
Robert (Bob), Hosea (Hosie), Hezekiah (Kye) & Ninevah (Bud)

A General Overview

It appears that the four Chaney brothers, settled in Carroll Co., Arkansas, sometime in the 1840s although little is known about when or where they lived before.  It is not known if their father was with them.  Later census records indicate that Robert and Hosea were born in Indiana.  Hezekiah in Missouri or Arkansas.  "Bud" was born in Missouri.  Their mother, Sarah, was living with one brother or another in later years but there is no indication of who their father was.  It is assumed that the family was in Indiana for the last half of the 1820s when Robert and Hosea were born.  Then they apparently lived in Missouri before settling in Carroll County, Arkansas, sometime in the 1840's.

The first known records of them appear in the 1860 census of Carroll Co., Arkansas.  Robert and Hezekiah appear in the 1870 census as well.  The 1852 tax list of Carroll County, lists a Hosa [sic] Chaney who may be Hosea.  He was listed at Osage South in the southwestern part of the county near John D. Chaney and James C. Chaney.  Robert, although he seems to have worked in Texas from time to time, apparently spent most of his life in Carroll County.   Hosea and Bud died during the Civil War.   Hosea, a Confederate soldier, reportedly died as a prisoner in a Union hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1864.  Family tradition, according to the late Jesse Gerald Chaney, Sr.,  is that Bud, although he had served in the Confederate Army, had been discharged and was at home when he was attacked by Bushwhackers.  These roving bands of men generally supported neither side in the conflict but preyed upon both sides, looting the land and often killing anyone who got in their way.  Bud hid in a cave but was found and shot down.  The women claimed his body and buried him in the Rule Cemetery.  By 1890, Kye had moved his family to McLennan Co., TX.

The brothers' mother, Sarah A., appears in the 1860 and 1870 census with one or another of her sons.  She was born in North Carolina circa 1795.  Their father's name is a mystery although one of Robert's descendants thought he was also named Robert.  This descendent believed that he had "proven" this and objected to a statement that the brothers' father was named Bob or Robert "according to family tradition."  He insisted it was fact!  Yet, the only source is what his father told him and nothing has appeared elsewhere to document it.  The father probably was named Robert or Bob but nothing at all is know about him.

It appears that the brothers, settled in Carroll Co., Arkansas, sometime in the 1840s although little is known about when or where they lived before.  It is not known if their father was with them.  None of the family has yet to be found in the 1850 census. The 1860 census records indicate that Robert and Hosea were born in Indiana.   Hezekiah was born in Missouri or Arkansas according to various census records.  "Bud" was born in Missouri.  It is assumed that the family was in Indiana for the last half of the 1820s when Robert and Hosea were born.  Then they apparently lived in Missouri before settling in Carroll County, Arkansas, sometime in the 1840's.

Family tradition, passed down in the eldest brother's family, holds that in the late 1840s, they moved to Bell County in central Texas where they lived for a couple years.  It is unknown if their father was alive and with them.  They lived somewhere near the Fort Griffin area which is near present Little River community.  A roadside marker commemorates the location of the Fort which had been known as Smith's Fort, the Block House, Fort Griffin, and Little River Fort.  There were several settlements in the general area that considered the fort a source of protection.  According to The Handbook of Texas Online entry on Bell County, these "settlements were deserted during the Runaway Scrape, reoccupied, and then deserted again after the Indian attack on Fort Parker in June 1836. In their retreat from the fort several of the settlers were overtaken by Indians and killed. The area was reoccupied in the winter of 1836-37. In November 1836 George B. Erath established a fort on the Little River about a mile below the Three Forks, which has been variously known as Smith's Fort, the Block House, Fort Griffin, and Little River Fort. The settlements along the river were considerably troubled by marauding Indians. The more important engagements of 1837 were the Elm Creek Raid on January 7 and the Post Oak Massacre in June. Little River Fort was abandoned, and by 1838 all settlers had left the Bell County area. On May 26, 1839, the Bird's Creek Indian Fight, a bloody but indecisive skirmish between Texas Rangers and Comanches, took place about 1½ miles northwest of the site of present Temple.

Settlers began to return to the Bell County area after the peace treaties of 1843-44, and Indian raids into the county became less frequent. By the census of 1850, the population of what would shortly become Bell County was approximately 600 whites and sixty black slaves. Bell County was formed on January 22, 1850, and named for Peter H. Bell...   The last serious Indian raid occurred in March 1859." 

This indicates that, if the tradition is true, that the family may have been in central Texas much earlier than the late 1840's IF they family did go to Fort Griffin.  The tradition holds that the women were uncomfortable with the Indian activities in the area.  They grew tired of having to retreat to the fort on moonlit nights due to fear of Indian attacks.  Because of this, the family moved back to Arkansas in 1850.  The families were evidently in route to Arkansas before the Bell County, TX, census enumeration and back in Carroll County, Arkansas, following the census since they do not appear in any census records.  This move seems to be supported by the fact that Robert had a daughter born in Johnson County, Texas, in 1850.  In the 1852 tax list for Carroll Co., Arkansas, there appears "Hosa" Chaney at Osage South in the southwest part of the county. This is the same area as John Dennis Chaney and James Chisom Chaney.  It is unknown if this may be Hosea Chaney, brother of Robert, Hezekiah and Ninevah but the probability is high.

The other Chaney's living in Carroll County, Arkansas, were descended from Frances Chaney of Randolph County, North Carolina.  Several of his sons settled in Overton County, TN.  One line came to Carroll County, Arkansas, early in the 1930s.  It seems that the four brothers were acknowledged as relatives but whether this was due to fact or only to having the same surname is unclear.

One researcher, a descendant of the eldest brother Robert, reported that his father passed down the tradition that the four brother's father was named Bob or Robert.  That is the only source this information has appeared.  That researcher concluded that a Robert Chaney who was in Overton Co., TN, 1820-1830-1840, was their father.  Perhaps, he accepted that the Overton County, TN, connection because the other Chaney's in Carroll County seemed to recognize kinship.  However, that  Robert appears in the 1850 census of Overton, TN, but, for some reason, he was missed in some earlier indices of the census and had been overlooked.  That Robert Chaney was married to Obedience Ray.  Two of their sons did settle in Carroll Co., AR.  This Robert, however, cannot be the father of the four brothers since his family group has been identified. 

So, the lineage of these four Chaney brothers remains unknown.  The evidence suggests that the family was in Indiana in the last half of the 1820's then lived in Missouri before settling in Carroll Co., Arkansas, in the 1840's.   It has been thought there may have been a sister named Jane who married a man named Bill Cross and moved to Coryell County, Texas.  A son of Robert, Marble Stone Chaney told his son of visiting his "Aunt Jane" and Bill "Uncle Bud" Cross.  This was reportedly in Oklahoma but this "Aunt Jane" was later in Coryell County, Texas.  (This information came from the same researcher mentioned above.)

It is known that Sarah J. Clark married William M. Cross, probably in Carroll County, Arkansas.  They lived in the same vicinity as the two surviving Chaney brothers in 1870 but were in Coryell County, Texas, by 1880.  Sarah J. was the daughter of Zuritha Chaney who married Elisha Price Clark in Missouri.  They were in Carroll County, Arkansas, and Coryell County, Texas, at the appropriate times to suggest a possible connection with the brothers.  Zuritha and Elisha lived only two or three households from a Hosea Chaney in the 1840 census of Newton County, Missouri.  This suggests that this Hosea may have been the father of Zuritha.  It also suggests that the tradition of the Robert Chaney descendants that the father was also named Robert may have been incorrect and that the Brother's father carried the same name as the second of them, Hosea, rather than the first.  However, it must be remembered that this is strictly supposition at the point.  Further research is required.

There can be no conclusive comments made concerning the lineage of the brothers.  Most details are inferred from census records and family tradition.  It must be remembered that family traditions frequently contain large amounts of fact but are often tempered with misconceptions and errors.

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