My Genealogy Hound

EDWIN R. HAYS received his education in the district schools of Newton township, where his birth occurred May 10, 1846. At the age of sixteen years he began to materially assist his father in the operation of the home farm. At the age of nineteen he came to Newville and embarked in business with his brother John S., under the firm name of Hays Bros., in the manufacture of earthenware, the pottery being located in the north part of the village, and dealt in queensware. In 1877 Mr. Hays moved from Newville to the old Hays homestead in Newton township, and followed farming there for four years. Upon his return to Newville he entered into partnership with Edwin McCandlish, in the hardware business, under the firm name of McCandlish & Hays. This business was so conducted for twenty years, meeting with the success attendant upon honorable methods and first-class goods. In 1901 Mr. Williams purchased the interest of Mr. McCandlish and the firm became Hays & Williams, as at present. This well-established house is a leader in the hardware line and makes a specialty of wire and fencing. Mr. Hays owns a handsome property in Newville. For the past eleven years he has been financially interested in the First National Bank of this place, of which he is president. It is one of the largest financial institutions of Newville and is engaged in a general banking business.

In 1876 Mr. Hays married Maria L. McKinney, daughter of Thomas and Jane R. (Glenn) McKinney, and to this union four children have been born, viz.: Thomas McKinney, who is superintendent and treasurer of the Camden Inter-State Railway Co., at Huntingdon, Va.; Rachel Glenn, at home; Robert M., a student at Dickinson College, Carlisle; and Margaret, who died in infancy. Both Mr. Hays and his wife are members of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church, of which he has been an elder for twenty-six years, and superintendent of the Sunday-school since 1892. In politics, he is a Republican. For a number of years he has been a member of the school board and served several years as its president. He has been identified with the prosperity of Newville for many years, and is justly regarded as one of the city’s most useful, representative men.