Greene County, Arkansas - Centennial Edition 3

Greene County Arkansas

Paragould, Arkansas

Centennial Edition Section 3

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Monday, August 29, 1983~Paragould Daily Press

All in the family

		Mom, Dad and the girls: The other members of the McHaney family were frequent subjects of Tom McHaney's camera. All three of these hotographs were taken in the early 1900s, not long after he opened his Paragould studio. From left, his mother Amanda Allison Shearer McHaney, father John T. McHaney and sisters Estelle and Meda. Estelle's daughter, Talma Buchanan Hayes of Flint, Mich., says Tom took pictures of his sisters just about everytime they got a new dress. Estelle married Lev Buchanan in 1906 and the couple lived in Halliday where they raised three children. Meda married Jim Walker in 1925, the day after her 50th birthday.


		Photo courtesy Talma Buchanan Hayes
Both sisters taught school, as Tom had before he took up photography, and several photographs of their classes are among the collections belonging to various McHaney relatives. This September 1901 picture of Bramlet School near Paragould is labeled "Estelle McHaney's first school as a teacher." The continued background activity around the small schoolhouse and the slope of the bench add interest to a traditional pose		The whole McHaney clan gathered in July 1899 at "Walnut Place,: John T. McHaney's homestead in the Friendship community. The elder McHaney--the one with the beard in this photograph--is credited with naming Friendship township and donating the land for the first log church of the same name. Tom is thought to be the gent leaning against the tree, while Estelle plays a lute. The others are stepbrothers and sisters. It was a second marriage for the parents, both having survived their spouses, and both had children from their first marriages. In 1901, the family moved to Paragould to 121 N. Third St. where Tom, Estelle, Meda and their parents pose on the porch.

Transcribed from the 1983 Centennial Edition by : PR Massey