IMPORTANT NOTES for HAYS/SIMS of Middle Tennessee

Updates from Cressie Richard Dixon, E-mail: [email protected] on the John "of Hermitage" HAYS who m. Mrs. MAXWELL and the John HAYS who d. Smith Co., TN 1814: From his predigree chart on Stokley B. HAYS - son of Leander (Lee) HAYS b. 26 Sep 1835 Cottage Home, Wilson Co., TN, d. 17 Jun 1906, m. 11 Mar 1880 in Wilson Co., TN to Cynthia Francis KEATON b. 11 Apr 1851 d. 01 Jan 1904 Wilson Co., TN. Leander HAYS was the son of James T. HAYS, Sr. b. 03 Apr 1803 TN, d. 08 Jul 1864 Wilson Co., TN., m. 23 Feb 1825 in Wilson Co., to Malinda KNIGHT b. 11 Jun 1807 NC, d. 09 Sep 1875 Wilson Co., TN. (dau. of Robert and Mary LINDER KNIGHT). James T. HAYS, Sr. was the son of Charles HAYS who d. c1820 (Smith Co. Will & Court Records) on Smiths Fork, Smith Co., TN and his wife Elizabeth UNKNOWN. Charles was the son of John HAYS, Sr. John HAYS d. 1814 (Smith Co. Will & Court Records), and was married to Mary UNKNOWN, a probable second wife (and not the mother of Charles HAYS). Mr. Dixon said that Mary HAYS owned the land on which her family lived, as indicated in John HAYS' will. John HAYS, Jr. died in 1816, about 2 years after his father John Hays, Sr., died. Mr. Dixon formerly believed this John HAYS, Sr., WAS the same as Hermitage John, but has since reversed his opinion regarding this matter. The next two paragraphs show the children and time-line Mr. Dixon worked out for "Hermitage John HAYS".

Pedigree of "Hermitage John HAYS" from Cressie Richard Dixon: John "Hermitage" HAYS died 1811 in Wilson Co., TN. His wife was Rebecca MAXWELL who d. 1819 Wilson Co., TN. CHILDREN: Sally, Rachel (m. Isham F. DAVIS), Ann (m. Julius ALFORD), Harmon A., Thomas T. HAYS. Rebecca Maxwell HAYS' will was made 25 Mar 1819, recorded Wilson Co., TN 14 Oct 1819. In this will she named her children, leaving them the following slaves: Sally (called Sally DANE) rec'd a Negro girl named Harriot; Rachel (called Rachel DAVIS) rec'd a Negro girl named Pherrbye; Ann (called Ann Alford) rec'd a house girl named Hannah; Harmon A. HAYS rec'd a Negro child named Mana; Thomas T. HAYS rec'd the land on which his mother, Rebecca, lived and Negroes named Charles and David. He was the executor of his mother's will. (My notes: we know from marriage records the approximate age for Racel: c1791 - and Ann: c.1788, and Thomas T., if approximately 21 years of age at marriage would be born c1795. From her will there apparently was no son named John Hays who could be our ancestor. And our John Hays was born in VA. Rebecca's children appear to have been born in TN.) Mr. Dixon wrote "of special interest is Robert HAYS, who was apparently a very active land broker in a large area emcompasing Nashville as well as "Hays Country". Hays Country is about 60 miles southeast of Andrew Jackson's Hermitage on the east outskirts of present day Nashville. Other HAYS mentioned in the records for the Hermitage Area are Samuel, Hugh, Nathaniel, James and William Hays". Hugh HAYS, Samuel HAYS and Nathaniel HAYS each received grants of 640ac in Davidson County surveyed June 1785, registered 1788 & 1789 (Land Deed Genealogy of Davidson County TN 1783-1792 Vol. I). These grants were adjacent and located between the Cumberland Rivr and Stones Creek. They were within 3 miles west of the present day Wilson/Davidson County, TN lines. Robert Hays received grants covering 6000ac in the vicinty registered in 1789. Nathaniel Hays sold 215ac of his grant to Thomas Taylor in 1804 and the remaining 425ac to Andrew Jackson in 1805. Andrew Jackson built the Hermitage on this acreage acquired from Nathaniel Hays.

New E-mail regarding Ann Hays, daughter of John Hays: Sept 20, 2008 from Mark Pollock: I'm descended from Ann Hays/Alford/Byrum, daughter of John Hays. Ann was married to Julius Alford, who died rather young. She then married Jeremiah Byrum, and was living with him in abject poverty in the 1840s. She had at least one daughter, Mary Byrum, and probably others as well (apparantly one more daughter named Ann, who married a William White, but that's another story, and I have even LESS information about that line). She then moved with her Alford children to California in the early 1860's. Mary Byrum married James Jackson Sanders in Arkansas in 1848, and moved here in the 1860's. I have no idea what happened to Ann Byrum, but she is in a census record from Shasta County in 1860, as Ann Byrum, age 72, born in Tennessee. I would never have figured ANY of this out if it weren't for a biographical note on Mary, in "The History of Northern California", where she mentions that she is an own cousin to "John C. Hays, the Old Texan Ranger". I did some research, and things started to click together."

TIME-LINE for John "Hermitage" HAYS from Cressie Richard Dixon: This John HAYS lived on Cedar Lick Creek in Wilson Co., TN very near to the Hermitage in Davidson Co., TN. Mr. Dixon wrote that the Hermitage Area was complicated by the changes in county lines during the pertinent periods of times: 1790, the Davidson & Sumner County area and HAYS COUNTRY was in Sumner County; 1800, the Hermitage Area was in Davidson & Wilson Counties with HAYS COUNTRY in Wilson County; 1810, the Hermitage Area was in Davidson & Wilson Counties and HAYS COUNTRY was in Wilson & Smith Counties -

1789 - Davidson Co., TN Court Records 1783-1790:
     1789-John HAYS served on Jury (p325)
     1790-Court ordered that John HAYS keep a ferry across Cumberland River at the mouth of Dry Creek having given bond of 200 pounds with
     Robert HAYS and Andrew Jackson. (This was near the present day Davidson Co./Wilson Co., TN line near the Hermitage) p.385
1797 - Sumner Co., TN
     1797-Andrew Jackson of Davidson County sold John HAYS of Davidson County 640ac on the south side of the Cumberland River
     on Spencers Creek including Spencers Lick. Recorded 26 Sep 1797. This tract was granted to Joseph Hendricks by the State of NC,
     patent #247 on 10 Jul 1788 being formerly in the county of Davidson, now in Sumner Co. (presently Wilson Co.)
     1798-Joseph Hendricks sold 640ac to John HAYS. Deed acknowledged by Court Jan 1798 p143. Dated 01 Jan 1798
     covering 640ac located south of the Cumberland River on both sides of Cedar Lick Creek.
     This land was a "preemption" granted to Joseph Hendricks by Patent #354 dated 1792.
     1799-Jan term 1799, John Hays was made overseer of road to Nashville that passed by his own property on Cedar lick Creek. p194
1803-1807 Wilson Co., TN Court Minutes:
     1803-Tax list, 1000ac on Cedar Lick Creek p.10
     1803-Deed from John Brownlee to John Hays of same county, 256ac Cedar Lick Cr.
     1804-Tax list, 1000ac on Cedar Lick Creek p.72
     1805-Deed from Joseph Camp to John Hays covering 130ac, p112
     1805-Tax list 256ac, 640ac, 150ac all on Cedar Lick Creek, p.142
     1806-Deed from John Hays to Robert Johnson 70ac March Term, p.185
     1806-Deed from Newet Drew to John Hays 200ac, Dec Term, p273
     1806-Deed from John Hays to Scion Bass 130ac, p297
     1807-Deed from John Hays to Scion Bass, 385ac, June Term, p300
     1807-John Hays 1807 tax list 456ac Cedar Lick Creek, p309
1807-1840 Wilson Co., Wills & Inventories:
     1811-Inventory of John Hays June Term 1811, Rebecca Hays, wife, Exec.
     1819-Will of Rebecca Hays 25 Mar 1819

We gratefully thank Mr. Dixon for this enormously helpful information he provided us.

Also relating to these same above mentioned HAYS people, comes an interesting E-mail this Sept. 2000 from Mr. Robbie Jones, Architectural Historian for The Hermitage, Home of President Andrew Jackson. He wrote: "My job over the next year is to complete a Historic Structures Report for the original log house that Andrew Jackson built ca.1804, which the LHA is going to complete a $1.4 million restoration for in the next couple of years. (Completion date of summer 2004, the 200th anniversary of the purchase of the Hermitage property from Nathaniel Hays.) Since the land that Jackson established his famous Hermitage plantation on was originally owned by the Hays family, I would like to "flesh" out their history for my report. In addition, there is a long-standing oral tradition that Jackson actually moved into an existing log house that Nathaniel Hays had already constructed, but there is no hard documentation to support this. I have uncovered a lot of scattered information on Nathaniel Hays and his neighbor to the south Samuel Hays and his neighbor to the north Hugh Hays. Jackson ended up with the entire 640-acre preemption NC Land Grants of Nathaniel and Hugh Hays and a section of Samuel Hays' 640-ac preemption NC Land Grant as well, where the Hermitage is now. His houses, including the famous Hermitage Mansion, the Hermitage Church, and Andrew Jackson Donelson's Tulip Grove Mansion, are all located on Nathaniel Hays' original land grant. I've been able to determine that Hugh Hays was living in Greene County, TN when he sold his 640-ac land grant to William Donelson & Andrew Jackson in 1795-96. (They bought it for William's brother and Andrew's business partner Samuel Donelson--Rachel Jackson's brother--to move to so he could be closer to the family--he lived at nearby Gallatin, although he never did before he died in 1804.) I also believe that I have circumstantial evidence that Nathaniel Hays was also living in Greene County, TN and moved back and forth between Greene County and Davidson County in the frontier era. A Nathaniel Hays shows up in Washington County (now TN) in 1779 (along with Charles Hays--a son of John Hays of VA), is in Davidson County in 1780, and back in Greene County by 1783, where he marries Elizabeth Gillesipie ca.1792. His son Charles Hays is born in Greene Co. ca.1794 and daughter Jane Hays soon thereafter. Nathaniel is located in East TN until around 1802?, but shows up in Davidson County in 1803. He then settles temporarily at his land grant before selling it (in two sections) to Thomas Taylor and Andrew Jackson in 1804. Where he goes next, I do not know, but Jackson sold some land to a Nathaniel Hays in Bedford County, TN in 1809 (that Nathaniel was already there), but I can't confirm that it's the same man at this time. Samuel Hays, who owned the land just south of Nathaniel, was in Davidson County by 1780, built the fortified Hays Stations on Stoner's Creek ca.1782-83, and was killed by the Creek Indians nearby in early 1793. His wife Elizabeth continued to reside at Hays Station until selling it in 1807 and then moved to neighboring Wilson County, TN. Her sons Campbell, Andrew, Hugh, and Charles grew up at Hays Station, were wards of Andrew Jackson in the 1790s, and moved to Wilson County, TN before 1807 as well I believe. Apparently, some of these sons served under Jackson in the Creek Indian Wars of 1813-14, and are documented in your webpages! I know very little about Hugh Hays, who owned the land grant north of Nathaniel Hays, and who lived in Greene County when he sold it to Jackson and William Donelson (Rachel Jackson's brother) in 1795-96. He and Nathaniel applied for their adjoining land grants on the EXACT same day in 1785 and received them on the EXACT same day in 1786 (registered on the same day in 1789). Daniel Smith of nearby Rock Castle in Sumner County surveyed the grants at the same time as well. Perhaps Hugh and Nathaniel were brothers? Due to the "myth" that Nathaniel Hays built the log house that became the original Hermitage, I would especially like to find more information on him. I believe that we have enough circumstantial evidence to prove that Andrew Jackson built the original log Hermitage "from scratch" in the summer of 1804, but it would be nice to complement that working theory with more substantial information. Nevertheless, that the Hays family owned the land that became the Hermitage is very important to my project and a story that I would like to get correct. The Hays family had strong ties to both the Donelson and Jackson families and I would like to make sure the story on exactly how they were is accurate." If you can help Mr. Jones, please write to him at [email protected]. Another person interested in this project is Marsha Mullin, who wrote that she was the Curator at The Hermitage. She wrote in Aug. 2001 that Nathaniel & Elizabeth (Gillespie) HAYS' children were Jane, Patsy, Charles and Nathaniel.

The following was posted on the TNWILSON-L mailing list: The Texas Rangers, A Century of Frontier Defense by Walter Prescott Webb, published by The University of Texas Press, 1935, Second Edition, Fifth Printing, 1996: "John C. Hays, known in Texas as Jack Hays, was born at Little Cedar Lick, Wilson County, Tennessee, on January 28, 1817. He was from the same section of the country as the McCullochs, Sam Houston, and Andrew Jackson, and was the same adaptable sort of person. It is said that Jackson purchased the Hermitage from Jack Hays's grandfather, John Hays, who served with Jackson in some of his Indian wars, and who built Fort Haysboro. Jack's father, Harmon Hays, also fought with Jackson and named his son for General John Coffee, one of Jackson's trusted officers. Hays came to Texas in 1837 or in the early part of 1838--then about 21 years of age--and took up his residence at San Antonio. Some accounts say that he joined the Texas Rangers and fought Indians and Mexicans under Deaf Smith and Henry W. Karnes."