BIO: William Wallace HAYS, Dauphin County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, page 258.
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  HAYS, WILLIAM WALLACE, was born October 23, 1836; died March 31, 
1870, at Harrisburg, Pa.  He received his preparatory education in the 
public schools and Harrisburg Academy; entered the sophomore class of 
Jefferson College, Canonsburg, in 1853, graduating in 1856. He then 
went to Texas, where he remained two years, teaching in Victoria and 
Goliad.  After returning North, he began the study of law with Robert 
A. Lamberton, Esq., and was admitted to the Dauphin county bar December 
6, 1859.  He began the practice of his profession at Harrisburg, 
continuing until his appointment by Governor Curtin, in 1861, as chief 
clerk in the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth.  On May 1, 
1866, he was appointed deputy secretary of the Commonwealth, 
discharging the duties of that office until the close of Governor 
Curtin's administration.  He then resumed his profession of the law, 
and in connection with it served as clerk to the Board of Claims from 
January to June 1, 1868.  In October following, having been nominated 
by the Republicans of the city of Harrisburg, he was elected mayor 
thereof, the duties of which office he entered upon January 11, 1869.  
His health, however, soon began to fail him, and he died while in 
office, in his thirty-fourth year.  "Mr. Hays was a truly Christian 
gentleman, he thought more of right than he did of life.  His nature 
was of that intensity which inspires men to die for the truth, while 
his convictions on all subjects relating to the ordinary and 
extraordinary affairs of life, here and hereafter, were governed by the 
strongest principles of religion and justice."  Mr. Hays married, March 
5, 1861, Mary Straughan Day, born September 13, 1837; daughter of Dr. 
Stephen F. Day and Eliza Floyd Straughan, of Wooster, O.