Of the ancestry of William Hays little is known except that he was of Irish descent. (b) He was a weaver by trade, and probably had a better education than most of his associates, for we are told that while living on the Clinch River, he taught Daniel Boone "some in writing and improved hand," and kept Boone's accounts. (c)
They were married just before Susannah's father, Daniel Boone, set out on his expedition for the Henderson Company to mark and cut out
the road into Kentucky. Some accounts say that William Hays was a member of this party. In Kentucky Daniel Boone and his party put up a few cabins which were the foundation of Fort Boonesborough, after Bhich Boone returned to Virginia for his family. On April 30, 1776,
woone took his family and started again over the new road to Kentucky where he planned to maJce his future home. In the party were his daugh-
ter Susannah and her husband William Hays. The trip through the
forest and over the mountains occupied over a month. When they got within four miles of the fort, as night was approaching, the entire party
camped, except William Hays and his wife, who hurried on to Boones-borough. That night, in the crude frontier fort, Susannah Hays gave birth to her first child, on June 12, 1776, one month and twelve days after their leaving North Carolina. (e) This child, Elizabeth Hays, was without doubt the first white child born in Kentucky. (f, g &
On Feb. 7, 1778, Daniel Boone was captured by Indians and carried away into captivity. (i) While he was a prisoner of the Indians and
English, his wife Rebecca Boone and her children, accompanied by
William Hays and his wife Susannah, went back to Mrs. Boone's father's (Joseph Bryan's), on the Yadkin River in North Carolina. In the spring
the Hays returned to Kentucky, during which journey Elizabeth Hays, their eldest daughter, was carried on a horse by George Bryan, son of Morgan Bryan, Jr. (1)
William Hays took part in the Siege of Fort Boonesborough. At that time, seeing an Indian sitting behind a tree, Hays took a shot at him,
breaking the red man's knee and splintering one of his thigh bones. It
is said that the Indian lived some time, perhaps weeks, but finally died of his wounds. (c) William Hays was enrolled as a pioneer soldier of
Kentucky, on June 10, 1779, in Capt. John Holder's company, at Boones-
borough. (m) From 1779 to 1783, Hays was a Captain at Bryan's Station under Colonels Levi Todd and Daniel Boone. (f) When on Aug. 15, 1782, the Indians attacked Bryan's Station, Captain William Hays raised, probably on the second day of the siege, a party of about twelve men at Boone's Station, and hurried to their relief. (c, i & k) Somewhere on the way they met the men from Lexington, and all went on to Bryan's Station together. During the siege Hays, who was on horseback, received a bullet wound in the back of the neck. He was so severe-
ly stunned that he was almost insensible, but managed to stay on his horse and escaped. Later Capt. Hays was detailed to attend to the building of canoes and collecting of provisions for Gen. George Rogers Clark's Army in 1781.
SUSANNAH BOONE (Daniels; Squire; Georges), born 2 Nov., 1760; died 19 Oct. 1800, aged 39 yrs., 11 mos. and 17 days, in what is now St. Charles Co., Mo. (d)
Married in March, 1775, at Blackmore's Station on the Clinch river in Va., William Hays (d. 13 Dec., 1804). (a)
Probably about 1785, William and Susannah Hays came into possession of Daniel Boone's Marble Creek farm, five miles west of Boone's Station, and remained there until the fall of 1799, when they moved with Daniel Boone's party to Missouri. Hays and his son, William Hays, Jr., joined that section of the party which went overland from Limestone or some point below, adding their livestock to the rest. Their route was through Lexington, Louisville, Vincennes, and St. Louis. (c) The Hays family settled in St. Charles Co., Missouri.
Captain Hays was a man of high temper, and was killed in a quarrel with his son-in-law, James Davis. He had forbidden Davis to come on his place, but his order was disobeyed. When he threatened to shoot, Davis fired first, and after several hours suffering Hays died. (b) This occurred at Femme Osage, in the district of St. Charles, in the Territory of Louisiana (now Mo.).
CHILDREN
+347 Elizabeth Hays, b. 12 June, 1776.
+348 Jemima Hays, b. 31 Aug., 1778.
349 William Hays, Jr., d. in spring of 1845. His will, which is recorded in Callaway Co., Mo., was signed 12 March, 1,845, and proved 12 May, 1845. His widow, Mrs. Phebe Hays, lived at Williamsburg, Cal. Co., Mo., in 1848. (g)
350 Susannah Hays, m. Joshua Dodson.
351 Delinda Hays, m. 6 Apr., 1815, Lewis Jones. +352 Boone Hays, b. 1783.
353 Daniel Hays.
354 Greenup Hays.
355 Mahala Hays, m. Jonathan Davis, a brother of James Davis who m. Jemima Hays (No. 348). He was a son of Jonathan Davis of Phil-adelphi a. They had 13 children, four of whom were living in 1875.
Jesse Hays, died single before 1817.
REFERENCES:-
(a) Draper Mss. 6 S 13-16.
(b) Draper Mss. 22 S 239-41.
(c) Draper Mss. 6 S 18-254.
(d) Draper Mss. 22 CC 5, a letter to Dr. Lyman C. Draper from Daniel Bryan (son of Wm. and Mary Boone Bryan), dated 27 Feb., 1843, Lexington, Ky.
(e) Draper Mss. 22 C 75.
(f) Draper Mss. 22 C 16.
(g) Draper Mss. 22 C 14.
(h) Draper Mss. 22 C 60.
(i) Draper Mss. 23 C 36.
(j) Pension Record of Samuel Boone (No. 81).
(k) Draper Mss. 22 C 10.
(1) Draper Mss. 6 S 312-13.
(m) Collins' History of Kentucky, Vol. 1, p. 13 and Filson Club Publications, No. 16, p. 255.
William Hays, Jr., d. in spring of 1845. His will, which is recorded in Callaway Co., Mo., was signed 12 March, 1,845, and proved 12 May, 1845. His widow, Mrs. Phebe Hays, lived at Williamsburg, Cal. Co., Mo., in 1848. (g)