HAYES STATION
by Ruth Moore Craig
Date Unknown
Generously transcribed and submitted by Nancy Bray, thanks Nancy!
Original pictures generously contributed by Mr. Stanley Bishop, thanks Stan!

Hayes Station Valley
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Folks in Pendleton County believe the Garden of Eden ought to have been in Hayes Valley.  This fertile valley is in the midst of a land where much of the soil is stony, where most farmers till their ridges and leave the hill land for pasture.  Eight hundred lush acres, watered by powerful limestone springs, securely cuddled between the hills and the South Licking River, each acre as level as a tabletop - this is Hayes Valley.  A dam, erected by sportsmen, held back the water of the South Licking just as it would escape from the valley.  Vacationers and fish swim side by side in the pool which backs up between maple shaded banks.  For centuries different factions have vied for possession of this paradise.  When a Doctor Monroe and surveyors named Frazer came here from Virginia in 1792, Indians watched their activities jealously.  The last white person to fall by Indian's hands in Pendleton County was a girl, scalped in the valley.  Hayes Station is an ideal location for many enterprises, but it is divided into farms of 100 acres or less.  The owners are justly proud, fiercely determined to hold their land.  It was Frazer and Doctor Monroe who built the first homes in the valley.  Frazer built his home on a plateau in a curve of the South Licking.  It was built of brick, made on the spot, of clay dug out of the river bank.  Monroe built a log house in the center of the valley.

Beside each house was a spring of cold, sparkling water.  On May 21, 1828, the worst storm the area ever saw ripped through the valley, demolishing every building except Monroe's log house.  Monroe saved his home by thrusting iron wedges under the doors so they could not blow open.  Straw, sticks and leaves believed driven into the chinking by the powerful wind, were found when the house was torn down almost 100 years later.

His brick house left a pile of rubble by the wind, Frazer built a new residence of timbers.  His heirs kept possession of the home and surrounding land for 156 years, selling it only a few years ago.

The Monroe family remained in their log house.  They continued to drink the sweet limestone water from the spring.

By this time, other families had come to buy this rich land and build homes.  The valley had only one disadvantage, its inaccessibility.  Although it is just over the hill from Falmouth, and on the same side of the South Licking, you had to cross the river twice when going from Falmouth to Hayes Valley.

Beginning in the curve where Frazer built his brick house, the river makes a long hair pin bend, with a steep, rocky hill jutting against the top of the pin.  The slaves of early settlers dug back into this hill, making a narrow trail for horseback riders.

Through the years the road was widened until it became passable for spring wagons and buggies.  At some narrow places, passing was impossible, but the ring of horseshoes on the rocks warned of another rig approaching, and a man would pull off into passing places and wait.

During the Civil War the Louisville and Nashville Railroad ran a single track through the valley, reaching Cynthiana in 1865.  Like the old river trail this railroad had side tracks where a train might wait while one going the opposite direction passed by.  In 1864 Confederate soldiers wrecked a train on the track.

The railroad played havoc with the river trail.  The railroad dug back into the hill at a higher level, and slides of rock and dirt piled down onto the road below.  To make amends, the railroad scheduled stops in the valley for two passenger trains each day.  Residents might ride into Falmouth in the morning and back with supplies at night.

Shortly after the turn of the century, the peace of this pastoral scene was abruptly shattered.  Timothy Hayes, a Cincinnati distiller, saw possibilities in this fertile soil and limestone water.  He bought up almost all the land in the valley.

Hayes had learned the distilling business the hard way, working in his youth for wages as low as $9.00 a week.  But he had perfected and patented a superior whisky yeast, and the sale of this patent made him a fortune.  He became the owner of the Mill Creek Distilleries, as well as a great deal of real estate in Cincinnati.

On the very spot Monroe had chosen for his log house, Hayes built a three-story house, with 10 feet high ceilinged rooms, huge halls, and an elaborate staircase.  this was the Hayes summer home.

Corn and wheat, raised in the fertile valley, were ground in the Hayes Distillery.  The mash, mixed with limestone water from the spring, was dumped into huge concrete vats, where it was fermented by the special Hayes yeast.

After the whiskey was run off, it was poured into charred oaken barrels to age.  The average output of the Hayes Distillery was 20 barrels a day.  Before the aged whiskey was bottled, testers often found it to be 120 proof.  It was watered down to 90.  The liquor was sold all over the country as "Hayes Valley Whiskey."

The first distillery burned in 1906.  Valuable shorthorn cattle, kept near the distillery, to fatten on waste mash, perished in the blaze.

Hays put up a much larger distillery.  The L. & N. Railroad, built a spur to its door.  This spur was a great boom to the valley.

Hayes built a post office.  People began coming there to board passenger trains when they stopped to leave mail.  The stop began to be known as Hayes Station, and the valley, which had been nameless, became knows as Hayes Station.

As time went by, the need increased for a bridge across the Licking - to make possible a turnpike to Falmouth.  The L. & N. started a bridge fund with a gift of $4,000.  Each landowner who would benefit from the bridge gave $5 for each acre of bottom land he owned, and $3 for each acre of hill land.

Young ladies from the valley canvassed Falmouth, soliciting donations.  Merchants, anxious to provide an easy way for potential customers to reach town, responded handsomely.

The bridge was completed in 1913 at a cost of $7,000.  It has been estimated that Timothy Hayes was worth half a million dollars at the time of his death.  His heirs tried to keep the distillery going, but the venture lost money.  Two years after Hayes' death, the land was divided into farm-size plots and sold.

During the last five years, one more brief flurry of activity disturbed the peace of the valley.  Falmouth businessmen bought a strip of land along the river and constructed the Pendleton County Airport.  For several months the roar of planes echoed from surrounding hills.  Air shows attracted huge crowds who found their way down the pike, scattering dust and soft-drink bottles.

But the planes have moved on, and corn grows tall on the runways.  And the trains neither whistle nor slow down as they pass through Hayes Station.

This photo  was taken of the distillery when it burned in 1940.  Stanley said that he saw it when the lightning hit it, and it was gone really quick.  As you can see the foundation is all that is left, and it was still smoking when the photo was taken.  The back of the photo states:
 "Fire at old Hayes Distillery - 1940.  Located on the John J. Coleman farm on Hayes Station Road."

Update concerning the first railroad through Pendleton County:
Generously contributed by Brian Gregg, thanks Brian!

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