Ralph W. E. Hayes

As printed in 1910

RALPH WALDO EMERSON HAYES.

No history of Galva would be complete without extended reference to the Hayes Pump & Planter Company and the men who are prominent in managing and controlling its affairs. In this connection special reference should be made of Ralph W. E. Hayes, the manager of the company and one of the foremost men of Henry county. He was born in Stark county, Illinois, February 19, 1872, and is the eldest of the five sons of Eugenio and Matilda (Dack) Hayes, of whom extended mention is made elsewhere in this volume, together with the ancestral history of the family in the paternal line. The maternal grandfather of our subject was John Dack, a native of Dublin, Ireland, and a shoemaker by trade. When four years of age he accompanied his parents on their voyage across the Atlantic to Canada, and when he came to the United States he settled in Stark county, Illinois, about 1834. Only two years before had the Black Hawk war occurred and the environments of pioneer life were his during his early residence in the Mississippi valley. After three years spent in Stark county he purchased land in Henry county lying at the southeast corner of Wethersfield township. There his remaining days were passed and with the early development and progress of the county he was closely associated, his labors constituting a factor in its reclamation for the purpose of civilization. He married Miss Jane Michaelson, who died at the age of eighty-two years. She was about three years old when she left Scotland, her native country, her birth having occurred in Edinburg. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Dack were born ten children, five sons and five daughters, eight of whom reached years of maturity: Sarah Ann, John E., Matilda J., Albert L., Thomas E., Frederick E., all of whom are now living; William E., who died at the age of twenty-two years; Charles H., who died in Andersonville prison during the Civil war, when he was twenty-one years of age; and two, who died in infancy.

Ralph W. E. Hayes has been a resident of Henry county from the age of three years. The family home was maintained on a farm about two and a half miles east of Kewanee until he was nine years of age, when his parents took up their above in the city of Kewanee, coming thence to Galva, when he was fourteen years of age. He attended the public schools of Galva and Kewanee and was graduated from the Galva high school with the class of 1889, He afterward spent two years as a student in the Northwestern University at Evanston and in the fall of 1891 he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he practically completed three courses. He studied both mechanical and electrical engineering and was graduated with the class of 1895. He then returned to Galva and has since been associated with the Hayes Pump & Planter Company. He designs all their manufactured goods, his labors proving an important factor in the success which the enterprise now enjoys. The business had been established in Kewanee in 1881 but in May, 1886, was removed to Galva and has remained one of the most important of the productive industries of the city since that time, employment being now furnished to between two hundred and two hundred and fifty people.

On the 25th of February, 1896, Mr. Hayes was united in marriage to Miss Estella Mink, a daughter of William K. and Mrs. William K. (Fenton) Mink. She was born in New Marion, Indiana, and her parents were also natives of that state. They came to Henry county about 1885, settling in Galva where Mrs. Mink passed away. Mr. Mink continued to reside in Galva until 1908, when he removed to Galesburg, Illinois, where he is now living. Four daughters of the family still survive: Jennie, Estella, Nora and Nettie.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hayes has been born a daughter, Charlotte Lucile. The parents are members of the Methodist church and Mr. Hayes belongs to Galva Lodge, No. 243, A. F. & A. M., of which he is now senior warden. He has taken the degrees of capitulary Masonry in Kewanee Chapter, No. 47, R, A. M. and of chivalric Masonry in Kewanee Commandery, No. 71, K. T. He likewise belongs to Peoria Consistory, S. P. R. S., and to Peoria Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, while both he and his wife are connected with the Eastern Star,

His political endorsement is given to the republican party and, taking an active interest in its local work, he does all in his power to promote its growth and insure its success. He is now serving for the second term as a member of the city council and exercises his official prerogatives in support of those measures and movements which are of value as factors in a progressive and municipal life.

As printed in History of Henry County, Illinois (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.