History of Hamilton County Ohio
Portrait (and Biography) of Joseph H. Hayes
facing page 318
transcribed by Karen Klaene

Joseph H. HAYES was born April 8, 1824, in Whitewater township, one mile below Elizabethtown, on the Great Miami. His grandfather, Job, was probably of German descent, and died three months before his son Job, the father of Joseph H., was born. His death was caused by sickness contracted while coming down the Ohio from Pittsburgh, His grandmother, Bulah TUSSEY, was born in Philadelphia, and came to South Bend in 1791. She was of Yankee origin.

Joseph HAYES, his mother's father, came from Chester county, Pennsylvania, to Switzerland county, Indiana, and remained as a farmer and machinist until 1836 or 1837, and then moved to Bartholomew county, same State, and died near 1840. His grandmother HAYES was of Swiss descent.

On his father's side his ancestors were large, strong, active men. With his mother's people quite the same was common.

His father, Job, settled below Elizabethtown for a few years; took a lease on real estate, made money, and soon moved across the Big Miami to a more favorable site. Here he bought one hundred and ninety acres of land, mostly on the hill, but made in several purchases, in Miami township he remained seven years. In 1846 he moved to Iowa, and died at seventy-eight years of age.

Job HAYES, jr., married his cousin June 28, 1816, at Middletown, Ohio. His wife died in 1873, being seventy-eight years of age.

Joseph H. remained with his parents until twenty-one years of age, all the while accumulating money outside of the parental roof, his parents providing him with common necessities - clothes, boots and food. By his active work, at the age of twenty-one, he had accumulated three hundred dollars, his mother acting as banker. The first year after becoming of age he worked for his father during the summer season, earning in all sixty-five dollars. In the summer of 1846 he engaged with his cousin, Stephen B. HAYES, to work for ten dollars and fifty cents per month, five months. In 1847 he visited Iowa, prospected a good deal, and returned in the fall to collect the three hundred dollars, which had been loaned, and returned to the State of his father. But the money was hard to collect. His notes he did not care to discount, and, by persuasion of his cousin Stephen, leased land for three years, and carried on a sort of co-partnership. At the expiration of this time he rented land of his cousin, Charles G. GUARD, and worked four years. September 23, 1852, he married Sarah J. MYER, Colonel William H. H. TAYLOR, son-in-law of General HARRISON, performing the ceremony. Mrs. HAYES was of Kentucky extraction; born in Indiana April 5, 1834. By this marriage seven children were born - six sons and one daughter, Alice, Wilson and Charles being dead; Job W., Enos, Isaac D., and Joseph G. are living, none of whom are married. Mr. HAYES is one out of eleven children-six sons and five daughters, five of the family being dead. Mrs. HAYES is one out of a family of five, three brothers and two sisters. Since marrying, agriculture has rewarded him with handsome gains. At twenty-eight fifteen hundred dollars had been accumulated, and the first year after he cleared seven hundred dollars. In the spring of 1855, the second month, he purchased fifty acres for three thousand dollars, paying two thousand cash and discounting the remaining debt before it became due. When thirty he owned a farm of fifty acres, had moved on it, and was busily engaged in the choice of his life. In 1869 he bought seventy-eight acres of Stephen W. GARRISON, paying seven thousand two hundred dollars. February, 1880, he added again, and now owns two hundred and seventy acres of good tillable land. Mr. HAYES is remarkable as a flat-boat man, making five round trips from Lawrenceburgh to New Orleans.

Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. HAYES are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, the former for twenty-three years, the latter for the same length of time.

Educationally, both belong to that class of people who develop by contact with the world, by labor and industry. Great and generous deeds hang in dusters about them, friends respect and admire their many virtues, and many aspire to reach so envied a character.