Edward A. Hays

As printed in 1908

EDWARD A. HAYS, a representative citizen of Springfield Township, whose fine farm of ninety-eight acres is all in one body and is situated on the Gillett Road, about two and one-half miles south of the city of Springfield, was born May 7. 1859, at Springfield, Clark County, Ohio, and is a son of Samuel and Emily (Otstot) Hays.

The paternal grandfather of Edward A. Hays came to America from Scotland and for some years afterward he lived in Michigan. Later he established his home in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and there Samuel Hays, father of Edward A., was born October 9, 1825. He died on his farm in Springfield Township, Clark County, April 23, 1894. "When he came to Springfield in 1842 he had completed his apprenticeship to the trade of cabinetmaker and this he followed until about 1863, when he purchased a team of good horses and rented a farm, that tract of land now being practically a part of the city of Springfield. He followed farming here for five years and then moved to the farm on which Edward A. Hays resides. It was the girlhood home of his wife, the old Otstot farm, and here he continued agricultural pursuits until the close of his life.

Samuel Hays was married at Springfield, to Mrs.' Emily (Otstot) Crossland, who was the widow of Jacob Crossland. She had one son born to her first marriage, Albert Crossland, who resides on his farm in Springfield Township. Mrs. Hays was a daughter of Jacob and Mary (Hinkle) Otstot. She was three years old when her parents left Pennsylvania and came to Springfield Township, the long journey being made in wagons. She was too young to remember the wild condition of the country at that time or to recall the many pioneer privations to which the family was subjected, but learned of these as she grew older and left many stories of the early days with her children. Her father secured 160 acres of Government land for which he paid $5.00 per acre, and he built his first log cabin on the site of the present Hays home. In this little cabin his daughter grew to womanhood and she was quite regular in her attendance at the district school. The log structure used as a schoolhouse stood on the present site of Congress Hall. Jacob Otstot came to Clark County with money amounting to $1,700, which he had earned at the cooper trade. He was an expert workman, but did not follow his trade after leaving Pennsylvania, finding plenty to occupy his time in clearing up his pioneer farm. The death of his wife preceded his own and his last years were spent with his daughter, Mrs. Hays, where he died in

1883, aged eighty-three years. The farm and household possessions came then to his daughter and her husband. Among the latter is a clock that was made by John Hoff, of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which is over 150 years old, an ancient spinning wheel and many tools and implements. Another relic was a silver dollar that was coined in 1800, the year of Mr. Otstot's birth, which he had always carefully preserved, and it, with all the other objects, are now just as carefully treasurer by his gi'anson, Edward A. Hays.

Samuel Hays and wife had two children: Charles 0., who was born in 1857, is engaged in farming in Harmony Township, Clark County, and Edward A. The mother of these two sons died October 6,

Edward A. Hajs was four years old when his parents moved to Spring-field Township and almost the whole of his life has been spent on a farm. After his marriage he continued to reside on the home place and from his father he received sixty-one acres of the land that his grandfather had obtained from the Government. In 1902 Mr. Hays purchased almost thirty-eight acres of the old Hinkle land. In 1894 he built his commodious and comfortable frame house and in 1895 he remodeled his barn. The latter building was destroyed by fire in April, 1906, but he lost no time in rebuilding and had another structure ready by the time his crops were harvested.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

As printed in 20th century history of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio, and representative citizens (1908). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.