BIO: COL. JOSEPH E. HAYS
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From:  Sandi Gorin sgorin@scrtc.blue.net
To: "KYBIOGRAPHIES discussion list"
Subject: BIO#104 - RUSSELL CO - HAYS, COL. JOSEPH E.
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 10:24:44 -0500

Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, ed. 8-B,
Russell County

COL. JOSEPH E. HAYS, was born in Russell County, KY, December 8, 1822, and
is a son of G. and Martha (Coffey) Hays. G. Hays was born in Virginia and
came to Kentucky with his parents and settled in Adair County, now Russell
County; he was born in 1792, and died in 1846, and was a son of G. Hays,
Sr., who was a native of Scotland.  G. Hays, Sr., came over to the American
colonies and went into the war of the Revolution, arose to the position of
major, and served in that capacity until Independence was achieved.  Late in
life he was sheriff of Adair County, KY, out of which Russell County was
carved.  Martha (Coffey) Hays was born in Adair, now Russell County, was a
daughter of Cleaveland Coffey, a native of North Carolina, who was an early
settler in Adair, now Russell County, KY; he was a farmer and stock-trader,
and a son of Joel Coffey, also a native of North Carolina, whose father,
Joel Coffey, Sr., was of English parentage.  Joseph E. Hays is of Scotch
descent on his father's side, and of English on the mother's.  He is the
eldest of four living children, viz: Joseph E., Dr. L.G., of Bates County,
MO; Mrs. E.J. Grimes, and Mrs. Lucy Breeding.  Mr. Hays was of poor
parentage, his father was a life-long invalid, and he is self-educated.  In
youth he was generally hired out as a menial servant, buy on Sundays, nights
and leisure times was very studious.  When seventeen years of age he was
deputy county surveyor under Hiram Rowe, and about the age of nineteen he
began teaching school, which occupation he followed about five years.  At
the age of twenty-one he was elected a militia captain, and arose to the
position of colonel of the militia of his county.  He then read law with
Gen. Rice Maxey, and in the fall of 1846 was admitted to the bar.  He soon
reached the front rank in his profession, and in 1852 was elected to the
office of county attorney for Russell County, and was re-elected by the
voters of his county at the close of his first term.  October 19, 1848, he
married S.M. Saufley, of Virginia, daughter of Adam Saufley.  She died March
14, 1853, a member of the Presbyterian Church.  March 26, 1854, Mr. Hays
married Mary A. Coffey, of Russell County, KY, a daughter of Elias Coffey.
Four children bless this union, viz: Mrs. S.M. Stone, now the wife of Judge
W.S. Stone; Hiram Rowe, Mary A. and Rosa L.  When the civil was between the
States broke out, Mr. Hays having been a life-long Democrat, and being then
the largest slave holder in his county, sympathized with the South, and was
broken up by the war and the destruction of slavery.  At the close of the
war he again resumed the practice of his profession with increased energy.
He was appointed by the late Judge G.T. Fox, master commissioner of the
Russell Circuit Court, and served in that office ten or twelve years.  May
24, 1860, Col. Hays' second wife died.  August 8, 1874, he married Miss C.E.
Young, of Wayne County, KY, daughter of Major G.W. and Margaret Pemberton
Young.  After the war Col. Hays had a leading practice in many counties and
soon accumulated another fortune for his locality, and is still vigorous,
efficient and leading in his profession.  His son, Hiram Rowe, was born
December 7, 1858, and was educated in the Christian college of Columbia, KY.
He read law with his father, and was admitted to the bar at the age of
seventeen years and six months.  He taught the public school in Jamestown,
KY, when only fourteen years old.  He was one year in the State of Texas,
and when twenty years old returned home, and located in Monticello, Wayne
County, KY, to practice his profession.  About the following year he was
elected county attorney of Wayne County, and at the close of that term was
re-elected and served out a second term.  He married Miss Eva, daughter of
S.R. Owens, a distinguished physician of Pulaski County, KY.  Hiram R. Hays
was a man of more than ordinary ability, and of rare personal popularity,
and but for the failure of his health, would soon have reached the head of
his profession, as well as distinguished political preferment.  After his
marriage, one daughter, Mary Owen Hays, was born of the union, and he fell
into pulmonary consumption, and died at Dr. Owens', January 14, 1888, and
was interred with the departed members of the family of his bereaved wife.
He was an honored Freemason, of high degree, and left many friends who mourn
his loss.  In the fall of 1882 he was a candidate for Congress, with good
prospects, and while on the canvass was seized with hemorrhage of the lungs,
at Munfordville, in Hart County, and compelled to withdraw from the field.
Col. Joseph E. Hays and all his family save the first wife, are members of
the Christian Church, and he for nearly twenty years was an elder in his
congregation.  He and his son were always firm Democrats.

Hays, Coffey, Grimes, Breeding, Rowe, Maxey, Saufley, Stone, Fox, Young,
Pemberton, Owens
=
VA, TX, NC, Bates-MO, Adair, Hart, Pulaski, Wayne


Sandi Gorin	205 Clements Avenue, Glasgow, KY 42141-3409
		(502) 651-9114 or sgorin@scrtc.blue.net

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