William Hays

HAYS, WHITE, OLMSTEAD, KELLEY, HAIR, KNIGHTS

Posted By: Diane (email)
Date: 2/24/2002 at 21:10:05

William Hays took up his place of abode on section thirty-six, where we now find him, in October 1854. Mr. Hays was born in the State of Virginia, October 17, 1824. He was left motherless when only eight years of age, and in 1840, emigrated with the balance of the family to Illinois, and settled in LaSalle county, where his father died in about 1844.
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In 1845, Mr. Hays married Miss Rachel White, a native of New York, and in 1854, accompanied by his wife and four children – Robert Olmstead and family, Marshal Kelley and wife, James Hair and family, Myron Hair and his parents, started for Iowa. At Cedar Falls they were joined by Gilbert Knights; they then arrived in Butler county, where they all settled. Mrs. Hays died in 1863, leaving six children – Elizabeth, Nancy, Calista, Sarah, Tina and Benjamin.
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Source: History of Butler and Bremer Counties, Iowa
Union Publishing Co., Springfield, IL, 1883
Page: 616