Welcome! If this is your first visit to our blog, please read our Intro post here. To date we have written posts about all known members of the first, second, and third generations of descendants of William Loney of Co Longford, Ireland and we will continue to add new information about their lives and families in the days and weeks to come.
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We hope that the information you find here will be helpful to you in your genealogical research and we remain forever optimistic that we will hear from family members who have some old photos to share.
In a previous post we wrote about Samuel Kasooth Bell Loney and his wife Sarah A Hastings. Samuel was the first known son of Charles C. Loney and Charlotte Cole and the grandson of William “Orange Billy” Loney and Mary Fee.
Today we’ll be sharing a bit more about Sarah and her family. As we mentioned in our earlier post, she was born 2 June, 1875, in Fredonia, Wilson Co, Kansas and came to Walla Walla as a young girl.
A little about Fredonia: The city of Fredonia is within the Center Township. In the 1880 census the population was 923. In 2010 Fredonia (population 2,482) was the second largest city in Wilson Co, just four people shy of Neodesha. Fredonia is the county seat and the Wilson County Historical Society is located in the former Wilson Co Jail and Sheriff’s residence (built in 1915). The mascot for each of Fredonia’s school district’s three schools is the yellow jacket.
Sarah Hastings’ parents were William Hasting and Susan Elizabeth Hilton. William was born 11 Jul, 1848 in England and immigrated to the U.S. about 1865.*
*According to a 2 May, 1905 Walla Walla Evening Statesman article William was preparing to visit England for an extended visit for the first time since coming to the U.S. 40 years before.
Susan Elizabeth Hilton was born 7 Apr, 1851 in Illinois.
We have been unable to find any information on William or Susan’s parents and it is unknown how they both came to live in Kansas, but on 23 July, 1874 they were married at the home of Susan’s father in Wilson Co, assumedly in Fredonia where Sarah was born the next year.
Sarah Hastings appears to have been the couple’s first child. They reportedly had five children, all girls. Sometime after 1881 (when Sarah’s sister Mildred was born in Kansas) and before 1885 (when her sister Alice was born in Washington) the family moved from Fredonia to Walla Walla, Walla Walla Co, WA.
In the early 1900’s, the family lived at 504 W. Moore and William was a wood dealer.
Sadly, after a long illness, Susan Elizabeth Hilton died 18 Jan, 1906 at the age of 54. She is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Walla Walla.
By 1910 William Hastings had remarried. His second wife was Sarah Ann Martin. She was born 16 Jul, 1855 in Shelby Co, Kentucky.
In the 1910 Census the couple was living at 807 N 7th and by 1923 they had moved to 502 W Moore an address they lived at until 1933.
807 N 7th, 502 W. Moore, and 504 W. Moore were all very close together. William Hastings lived for over 30 years in houses that were basically next door to each other.
Although the 1910 Census indicates that William (at age 62) was retired, Walla Walla City Directory listings after that give his occupation as tanner (1918), laborer – farmer engineer (1920) and warehouseman (1929) and the 1930 Census indicates that, at age 82, he was working as a sack patcher in a grain warehouse.
William Hastings died 9 Dec, 1934 at the age of 86. At the time of his death, he was living at 9 North Spokane Street (shown below), assumedly in an apartment on the second or third floor.
William Hastings is buried with his first wife, Susan Elizabeth Hilton in Mountain View Cemetery.
Sarah Ann Martin died 1 Jul, 1936 after six months of failing health. She was living at the 9 North Spokane address at the time of her death. She is also buried in Mountain View Cemetery.
Do you have additional information about William Hastings, Sarah Elizabeth Hilton or Sarah Ann Martin? Perhaps a picture? We’d love to hear from you!
Loney Family from County Longford, Ireland 