Frederic William Hays and Elizabeth Ida "Lizzie" Lashells
Husband Frederic William Hays 1 2 3
Born: 17 Mar 1842 - Meadville, Crawford Co, PA 4 Christened: Died: Buried:
Father: Col. Joseph Caldwell Hays (1810-1891) 5 6 7 Mother: Anna Maria Betts (1808-1892) 4 5
Marriage: 12 Jun 1873 8
Wife Elizabeth Ida "Lizzie" Lashells 1 2 8
Born: 26 Nov 1850 9 Christened: Died: Buried:
Father: George Edward Lashells ( -Bef 1873) 9 Mother: Eliza Baskin ( - ) 9
Children
1 F Bessie Hays 1 9
Born: 13 Jun 1875 9 Christened: Died: 19 Mar 1881 9 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
2 M John Lashells Hays 1 9
Born: 24 May 1878 9 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Maude Walker ( - ) 9 Marr: 21 Dec 1906 9
General Notes: Husband - Frederic William Hays
He received an excellent education, taking his collegiate course at Allegheny College, where he was graduated in June, 1861, in the same class with James D. Chadwick, of Franklin, Pennsylvania, and Rev. B. F. Delo, who became well known and popular in Venango County as a minister of the Methodist Church. During the next few years Mr. Hays did some reportorial and editorial work on his father's paper, and in 1868 became assistant assessor of internal revenue under his brother, John B. Hays, the assessor for the district, devoting some months to the duties of this position at Oil City. Meanwhile he had commenced the study of law with Derrickson & Brawley, of Meadville, and on Sept. 20, 1870, was admitted to practice in the Crawford County courts, receiving admission to the Venango County bar in October of the same year. On April 10, 1871, he located at Oil City, where he has been in active practice ever since. Some of his early contemporaries at the Venango County bar were John Galbraith, Isaac Ash, William McNair, David Sterritt, Henry A. Converse, John B. McAllister and Hugh C. Graham, and the district (then consisting of Venango and Mercer counties) was presided over by Judge Trunkey. The first case which Mr. Hays had involved the ownership of a pig worth three dollars, the litigants being Thomas McCash, plaintiff, whose lawyer was James Dorworth, another young attorney, and Alexander Cameron, whose cause was handled by Mr. Hays. Many witnesses gave testimony before the Squire, the peculiarities of that pig being described with wonderful minuteness, and the deciding testimony was the substantiation of a few freckles on the pig's back. Judgment was accorded the plaintiff. Such was the modest beginning of a career devoted to useful and serious legal labors. In 1871 Mr. Hays was commissioned notary public, serving as such until he went to the legislature. In 1874 he became city solicitor, filling the position for ten years, during part of which time the city was governed under the charter as rewritten by him. Oil City had received its first charter in 1871, and this in 1872 was redrawn by Mr. Hays, by action of the legislature becoming a new charter, which served its purpose until 1881, when the general law regulating cities of the third class superseded it. In this connection it is interesting to note that Mr. Hays has continued to be a close student of the law all his life, and he was yet in the early part of his legal career when he compiled a digest of the various acts of the legislature affecting cities of the third class, a work of value and convenient for reference which has received copious commendation at the hands of many leading jurists.
Mr. Hays has served two terms in the State legislature, having been first elected in 1888 and reelected in 1890, on the Republican ticket. His colleague during the first session was Oliver P. Morrow, of Rockland, and during the second session Henry James, of Franklin. It is noteworthy that the first resolution introduced in the legislature looking to the submittal of a prohibition amendment was presented during his first session, and his own vote was cast for it; and previous to a special election to pass on such amendment his voice was heard in earnest advocacy of its acceptance. It was rejected, but he takes pride in the fact that Oil City even then cast a majority vote of over two hundred in its favor. In the second session Mr. Hays served as chairman of the Reapportionment committee, to reapportion House members, the bill which the committee presented becoming a law, while one affecting the senators was defeated in the Senate. Mr. Hays was also one of the twenty chosen as a steering committee, whose activities resulted in more systematic and harmonious legislative action by his party.
When he assumed the duties of legislator Mr. Hays formed a legal partnership with John L. Mattox which lasted five years, but generally he has preferred to practice alone. He has served a number of times in the city council, was president of that body in 1910 and 1911, and was city solicitor for two years, 1914 and 1915. While he was serving in the latter capacity the council passed an ordinance compelling all companies using low tension wires to place them in a conduit which had been laid by the Petroleum Telephone Company. One company refused upon the ground that the city could not compel them to make such use of a private conduit, and was sustained in the court of Common Pleas, but the decision was reversed in the Superior court and the ordinance upheld. In his private practice Mr. Hays has been equally courageous in upholding the rights of his clients against adverse decisions in the lower courts whenever he felt that an honest interpretation of the law would justify his stand. Arriving at an early realization of the value to developing sections of well conducted building and loan associations, encouraging the ownership of property and the construction of substantial homes, Mr. Hays devoted considerable time to the study of their legal problems and to the promotion of such enterprises in his own community. He has been solicitor of local organizations of that kind since 1872, and helped to organize seven different associations, making it possible for hundreds of people of moderate means in Oil City to own their own homes and creating a thrifty class which raises the standards of living and citizenship appreciably. He is a stockholder in the Imperial Realty Company. For fifteen years he has been attorney for the Oil City Trust Company. Though he has made some good local investments Mr. Hays has found his material success principally through professional channels.
His earlier investments, in oil properties and stocks, were not particularly fortunate, though they proved profitable eventually, and his subsequent financial ventures have been in fields where there is less fluctuation in values and more satisfaction to the investor not actively associated with operations.
Like his father, Mr. Hays has been a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church, having been an elder of the First Church of that denomination at Oil City since June 3, 1877. For forty-seven years he has been an active worker in the Sunday school, having taught a class throughout that period except for the two years that he served as superintendent. During all this time Mr. Hays has cooperated heartily in all church enterprises, supporting them with his means and giving freely of his own time and labor, and he has also participated in the wider work of the denomination, having served several times in the Erie Presbytery, from which he was twice sent to the Synod of Pennsylvania. He has also represented the Presbytery twice in the general assembly, at Springfield, Ill., in 1882, and at Los Angeles, Cal., in 1903. Fraternally he is a Scottish Rite Mason, affiliated with Petrolia Lodge, F. & A. M., of Oil City, the chapter, Calvert Commandery, K. T., and the Lodge of Perfection. He has served as a director of the Oil City Y. M. C. A. [CAB, 503]
General Notes: Wife - Elizabeth Ida "Lizzie" Lashells
from Meadville, Crawford Co, PA
1 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 339.
2 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 883.
3 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 501.
4 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 503.
5 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 336.
6 —, The History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warner Beers & Co., 1885), Pg 743.
7 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 502.
8 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 504.
9
Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 505.
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