Edward Haley

James Edward "Ed" Haley (August 16, 1885 – February 3, 1951) was a blind professional American musician and composer best known for his fiddle playing. Ed Haley was born on August 16, 1885, on the Trace Fork of Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia. At the time of Ed's birth, Upper Hart was known as Warren. Ed's father, Thomas Milton Haley, was a well-known fiddler in the Guyandotte and Big Sandy valleys. His grandfather, Benjamin R. Haley, was an active Unionist in the Big Sandy River Valley during the American Civil War, as well as a fiddler. 

Ed's mother, Imogene "Emmy" Mullins, was a daughter of Andrew Jackson and Chloe (Gore) Mullins and descended from "Money Makin' Sol" Mullins, Appalachia's famous counterfeiter. Milt and Imogene married on March 22, 1884, in Logan County. Ed was an only child. Ed Haley was one of the best-known fiddlers in his region of Appalachia. He traveled frequently and performed in a variety of venues. 

He played over WLW in Cincinnati and made occasional studio recordings for friends, such as for Doc Holbrook in Greenup, Kentucky. He seldom recorded commercially because he was worried that record companies would take advantage of a blind man. Late in life, he made recordings for the family on a Wilcox-Gay disc-cutting machine brought home from the service by his stepson Ralph. The recordings feature Ed, Ella, Ralph (on guitar), and daughter Mona (vocals). 

Ralph eventually distributed the recordings among his five siblings. Eventually, about one-half to one-third of those recordings were released to Rounder Records. It is estimated that two-thirds of Haley's recordings are still missing, lost, destroyed, or unreleased by family members. Beginning in 1990, bluegrass and folk musician John Hartford began researching the story of Haley's life and music. Generally, Hartford spent the last years of his life promoting Haley and his significance in the world of music. 

He learned a number of Haley's tunes and recorded them on the Grammy-nominated albums Wild Hog in the Red Brush and Speed of the Old Long Bow: A Tribute to Ed Haley. Hartford and Brandon Kirk, a Harts-area historian and genealogist, collaborated on a Haley book project from 1995 until Hartford's death in 2001. In March 2000, Smithsonian magazine featured a story about their research. The Ed Haley manuscript remains unpublished.