Santa Clara County CA Archives Biographies.....Hayes, Jay Orley 1857 - 
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Author: Eugene T. Sawyer (1922)

  JAY ORLEY HAYES.—Representative of the best type of citizenship, Jay Orley
Hayes is justly accorded a prominent place in the business, municipal and social
life of San Jose. His name is widely known and carries with it an influence
which ever wields its power toward the betterment of the community in every way,
its moral uplifting, its physical welfare, the promotion and upbuilding of all
enterprises calculated to increase the prosperity of city, county and state.
First a citizen and patriot, Mr. Hayes labors with untiring zeal for the best
interests of the country; afterward a Republican, he gives his strongest support
to the advancement of the principles he endorses. Though not known as a
politician, he was selected by his friends as a candidate for governor at the
time that Governor Pardee, then the incumbent, ran for office. Although
defeated, this action, the result entirely of his standing as a man and citizen,
brought Mr. Hayes prominently before the public and has added to his following
many influential men of the state, who appreciate his sterling integrity and
ability. Absolutely sincere and honest and imbued with the highest and best
motives, he is an ideal citizen, willing to spend his time and money in the
betterment of the conditions of town, county and state. The value of his work
thus far in San Jose and vicinity has ample testimony in a clean city
government, good streets, good schools, good buildings, all of which have felt
his strong and earnest effort. What has been done locally can be done generally
for the entire state, should opportunity and the call of duty ever demand that
he give up the peace and quiet of his princely home for the turmoil and arduous
task of a great public office. Mr. Hayes' personal magnetism is of that lasting
order that comes only from the conviction of meeting a truly honorable man and
one who loves his fellow-men. This feeling is heightened when one is permitted
to observe him in his home, which is the best test, after all—his devotion to
his family, to his church duties, impress one that he is an example of the true
life precepts which he has been taught and which he has followed from infancy.

  A native of Waterloo, Jefferson County, Wis., Mr. Hayes was born October 2,
1857, a son of Anson E. Hayes, the representative of an old American family of
Scotch descent, the first member of which settled in Connecticut in 1683. For
many generations the family flourished in the New England states, various
members adding luster to the name through their associations with the early
colonial history. In time the family name became a familiar one in the states of
the middle west. Mr. Hayes was reared in Wisconsin, receiving his preliminary
education in the common schools of his native city. Upon the completion of the
common school course he entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and was
graduated in 1880 with the degree of LL.B. He also studied law in the office of
Gen. William F. Vilas and was admitted to the bar one year after his brother,
Everis Anson Hayes, with whom he has been associated in both a professional and
business way. They began the practice of law in Madison and continued in that
location for two years, when they removed to Ashland, there forming a
partnership with Col. John H. Knight. A large and lucrative practice was
established in the four years following, their prestige extending throughout
Ashland and Bayfield counties. The partnership was dissolved in 1886, when the
Hayes brothers located in Ironwood, Mich., where they had previously acquired
extensive interests in iron mines of the Gogebic iron range. For one year they
gave their sole attention to these interests. In the spring of 1887 they came to
California and in the vicinity of San Jose purchased a fine ranch for their
home. This property they have improved and developed, conducting a fruit
enterprise which has added no little to the prestige of Santa Clara County in
this line. Mr. Hayes is secretary and treasurer of the Hayes Mining Company and
treasurer of the Harmony Iron Company. In 1900 the Hayes brothers became the
owners of the Herald. the leading evening paper of San Jose, and in 1901
purchased the Mercury, the only morning paper in that city; the two papers were
later consolidated under the name of the San Jose Mercury-Herald and Mr. Hayes
is the president of the Mercury-Herald Company, owners of these newspapers. Mr.
Hayes has spent much time in the iron mines in Michigan during the last few
years and almost all the thirty months immediately after the war. Fortunately
their mines produced a high grade of ore that found a ready sale and when other
mines were closed down, their mine was operated during the entire period without
a shutdown.

  Mr. Hayes was married June 16, 1885, to Clara I. Lyon, a daughter of ex-Chief
Justice W. P. Lyon, of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. They are the parents of
five children: Mildred M. now the wife of A. E. Roth, comptroller of Stanford
University, Lyetta A., Elystus L., Miriam F., now the wife of Edgar C. Kesler
with Robert Dollar Company, San Francisco, and J. Orlo. Mr. Hayes has taken a
prominent part in the organization of the California Prune & Apricot Growers
Association, having been a director since its organization and is a member of
its executive committee and has given much time and thought to its upbuilding,
realizing that in the success of the association depends the further prosperity
of the prune and apricot growers of California. It is the consensus of opinion
of men of affairs that he has had more to do with the growth of the association
than any other person. He is a man of varied and large interests in California,
but is particularly fond of Santa Clara County and optimistic for its rapid
growth and future greatness. A very prominent Republican in state and national
politics, he was, for years, a member of the State Central Committee and its
executive committee and for eight years served as vice-chairman and has been
prominent and active in all the great movements of the Republican party in the
state. He was delegate-at-large from California to the national Republican
convention at Chicago that nominated Hughes for president in 1916 and was a
member of the notification committee that proceeded to New York and notified Mr.
Hughes of his nomination for president by the Republican convention at Chicago.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
EUGENE T. SAWYER

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
1922


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