updated 8/31/2020

Murder at Lansing
Joseph Haney, The Oldest Pioneer, Killed a Man in Brutal Fashion Then Drowned Himself

LANSING, Ia., Sept. 2 -- Joseph Haney, aged 65, murdered William Henry, aged 80, near here this morning, by choking him and pounding his head to a jelly. Haney afterwards drowned himself.

Haney was the founder of Lansing and well known throughout the Northwest. Temporary insanity is believed to be the cause.

~source: Morning Chronicle, LaCrosse, Wisconsin; September 3, 1893, page 1, column 5
~Contributed by LA

FROM LANSING
Murder and Suicide The Rumours

LANSING, Sept. 2 - This community was greatly shocked this morning by the announcement that Joseph Henry a man about 65 years old, residing about ten miles west of town, had murdered William Haney, and then committed suicide by drowning in the creek not far from his house. William Haney is between 70 and 80 years old, had for many years been an invalid, and lived with Mr. Henry's family for fifteen or twenty years. He has been a widower for thirty years, is an old time resident, was formerly engaged in the milling business, and was one of the Haney family who were among the first residents of Lansing.

Mr. Haney was found sitting in his chair strangled with a pocket strap and head beaten almost to a jelly with some blunt instrument. Mr. Henry left the house, telling the family to "send for a coroner," and his body was found in a creek within half an hour afterwards. An inquest is being held over both remains this afternoon.

A note signed by Henry was found in the room, stating how and where to bury him, and intimating that owing to disease and "our days of usefullness being over" he was tired of life. He added at the bottom: "I am alone to blame." It seems Mr. Haney had deeded his farm to take care of him as long as he should live and that the latter had tired of the bargain. Why he should so cruelly murder him is not known unless it was some crazy streek that struck him.

William Henry, as a son of John Haney, one of the original town proprietors, and a half brother of Dick Haney, formerly an attorney here, now a judge in South Dakota, and of Mrs. S.W. Hemenway, of Lansing. He was a man highly respected and esteemed, and his violent death is greatly deplored.

Heretofore Joseph Henry had been known as an orderly man of good character and his act is surprising.

~source: The Monona Leader, September 7, 1893, Monona, Iowa, Page 1
~transcribed by Cindy (Maust) Smith

William Haney
DOB: August 24, 1827
DOD: April 2, 1898
Internment: Oak Hill Cemetery; Lansing, Iowa

Joseph Henry
DOB: October, 10, 1826
DOD: September 2, 1893
Internment: Oak Hill Cemetery; Lansing, Iowa

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