My 4th Great Grandfather William Hays

William Ranney's 1849 painting "Boone's First View of Kentucky" is among those currently on exhibit at the Speed Museum in Louisville.


William Hays b. 1754, and Susannah Boone b.1760, Daniel's daughter, were my 4th Great Grandparents. He was a soldier, and a pioneer, and taught his father in law Daniel Boone to read and write. After drinking and quarrelling with his son in law, he met his death in 1804.


Biography of William Hays

Of the ancestry of William HAYS little is known except he was of Irish descent. William Hays was born and raised in Ireland, and came to America with his mother and grandfather when he was about 16 years old . His mother being a widow.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.

They were married just before Susannah's father, Daniel Boone, set out on his expedition for the Henderson Co. to mark and cut the road into Kentucky. He accompanied Daniel Boone on his first expedition to cut “The Wilderness Road” into Kentucky. William was a soldier and was well educated. He became a Captain in Captain John Holder's company at Boonesborough in 1779. He and Susannah moved with her parents to Missouri in 1799. In Kentucky, Daniel Boone and his party put up a few cabins, which were the foundation of Boonesborough, after which Boone returned to Virginia for his family. On April 30,1776, Boone took his family and started again over the new road to Kentucky where he planned to make his future home. In the party were his daughter 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 Boonesborough. That night, in the crude fort, Susannah Hays gave birth to her first child, on June 12,1776, one month and 12 days after leaving North Carolinas. This child, Elizabeth Hays, was without doubt the first white child born in Kentucky. On Feb.7,1778, Daniel Boone was captured by Indians and carried away into captivity. 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. 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 3 weeks but finally died of his wounds.

William Hays was enrolled as a pioneer soldier of Kentucky, on June 10, 1779 to 1783, Hays was a Captain at Bryan's Station under Colonels Levi Todd and Daniel Boone. 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. 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 severely 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 provisions for Gen. George Rogers Clark's Army in 1781.

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. The Hays family settled in St. Charles Co., Missouri.

William Hays was killed by James Davis, his son-in-law, on 13 December 1804 in St. Charles County. William Hays had quarreled with James Davis and had told him not to come on his place, but he did anyway. Mr. T.P. Davis of Wright City, Missouri, a descendant of James Davis, said in 1958, that the argument was over a land dispute. William Hays was said to have been a heavy drinker and prone to fights and disturbances. Apparently because of his 'rough reputation' sympathy seems to have been with James Davis. In fact it is said that even though Daniel Boone, as Commandant of the Femme Osage District, was the one who arrested James Davis and delivered him to the "calabazo" in St. Charles, he spoke up on his behalf and believed that William Hays had pulled a pistol on James Davis first. The shooting was eventually determined to be "self defense." This occurred at Femme Osage, in the district of St. Charles in the Territory of Louisiana , in what is now Missouri.

Timmy Travolta's Disco Inferno

Tonight I am paying tribute to my brother, who happens to love the BeeGees. SO............Get your MOJO on, and go listen to some BeeGee's.

Stayin Alive
I started a Joke
Mend a broken Heart
More Than A Woman
Should be Dancin
Jive Talkin

Have a Good Week
Daniel