BIO: John Hays, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.

                          BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

378  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

  JOHN HAYS, president of the Carlisle Deposit Bank, and a prominent 
and successful member of the bar, is a descendant of the Hays and 
Blaine families, two of the oldest and most prominent in the State.  
His paternal great-grandfather, Adam Hays, was a descendant of a 
Holland family, who immigrated to America at an early day, and who 
became members of the Swedish settlement at New Castle on the Delaware.  
Adam Hays was born at New Castle, and immigrated to Cumberland County, 
Penn., and settled on the north bank of the Conodoguinet Creek, in 
Frankford Township, in 1730.  His sons, Adam and Joseph (the latter the 
grandfather of our subject), were born in Cumberland County.  Joseph 
married and had three sons:  Adam, John and Joseph.  John was born in 
August, 1794; was a farmer in early life, and at thirty years of age 
engaged in the iron trade.  He married twice:  first, Miss Jane 
Pattieson, of Cumberland County.  They had one daughter, Annie E.  (She 
also married twice: her first husband was Lieut. Richard West, a nephew 
of United States Judge Taney; her second husband was Lieut.-Col. J. W. 
T. Garder.)  Mrs. Jane (Pattieson) Hays died in 1822 or 1823, and Mr. 
Hays married Mrs. Eleanor B. Wheaton, a daughter of Robert Blaine.  She 
was a grand-daughter of Col. Ephraim Blaine, of Cumberland County, who 
was born in Ireland, and came with his parents to Cumberland County in 
1745, when he was but a year old.  Col. Ephraim Blaine was a prominent 
man and served his county and country.  He was a friend and confidant 
of Washington, and was sheriff of Cumberland County in 1771, and during 
the Revolution was deputy commissary-general with the rank of colonel.  
Mr. and Mrs. John Hays were members of the Presbyterian Church.  He 
died April 29, 1854, and she January 9, 1839.  They had two sons and 
one daughter:  Robert Blaine Hays, Mary Wheaton Hays (who married 
Richard O. Mullikin, of Baltimore), and John Hays, the subject of our 
sketch.  The last named graduated from old Dickinson College in the 
class of 1857, and that year entered the law office of Hon. R. M. 
Henderson, and was admitted to the bar of Cumberland County in August, 
1859.  In 1862 Mr. Hays entered Company A, One Hundred and Thirtieth 
Volunteer Infantry; was promoted first lieutenant, then adjutant of the 
regiment, and then adjutant-general of a brigade.  He was mustered out 
May 1, 1863.  He was wounded in the right shoulder at Chancellorsville 
by a musket ball, and had seven other balls that cut his clothing and 
killed his horse under him.  He was in the battles of Antietam and 
Fredericksburg.  The Second Corps, of which his regiment was a part, 
lost 5,500 men at Antietam.  The entire regiment was commanded by the 
gallant Col. H. I. Zinn, as the regiment was not organized at the time 
and had no field or staff officers.  At Fredericksburg Col. Zinn lost 
his life.  After his regiment was mustered out, Mr. Hays returned to 
Carlisle and formed his present partnership with his preceptor, Hon. R. 
M. Henderson.  Mr. Hays married Miss Jane Van Ness Smead, August 8, 
1865.  She was born in the city of New York, a daughter of Capt. R. C. 
Smead and Sarah (Radcliffe) Smead.  Her father was a graduate of West 
Point, and captain in the Mexican war.  He died of yellow fever while 
on his way home at the close of the war.  Capt. John R. Smead, brother 
to Mrs. Hays, was in command of a battery in the battle of the second 
Bull Run, where he was killed.  Our subject and wife are members of the 
Presbyterian Church at Carlisle, and have two sons and three daughters:  
Anna A., Elizabeth S., George M., Raphael S. and Eleanor B.  Mr. Hays 
is a prominent and successful business man.  He is a Republican, and 
was a delegate to the National Convention in 1880.  He was one of the 
original trustees and mainly instrumental in the management of the 
building of the Metzgar Institute of Carlisle, of which his uncle, 
George Metzgar, was the founder.  Mr. Hays is a member of the board of 
directors of the Carlisle Gas & Water Company; vice-president and 
chairman of the executive committee for the Carlisle Manufacturing 
Company.