My Genealogy Hound

CAPT. ABRAHAM HAYS (deceased), late of Mifflin township, this county, was born in 1809, on the old Hays homestead, located on what is now known as Whittaker’s run, one and one-half miles above Homestead, and about one and one-half miles from the Monongahela river. He was reared on the farm, and was a private pupil of H. M. Turning, a well-known teacher, for several years, until eighteen years of age, when he commenced the trade of millwright with his brother-in-law, Charles Gibbs. This business he followed until his marriage with Miss Sarah Brenneman, of Mifflin township, soon after which event he moved into Pittsburgh, where he formed a partnership with his brother, Thomas, in the manufacture of flaxseed oil. (Their mill stood near the present site of the Pennsylvania union depot.) Some years later, his health failing, Capt. Hays moved to Butler county, Pa., where he followed farming about three years, and then returned to the old homestead. Some years later he moved down the Monongahela river, above Homestead, where he followed his trade several years; then engaged in steam-boating in partnership with his brother, James H., Harvey Robinson and James Lindsey, owning steamboats and towing coal. Afterward he purchased a farm near his residence, just above Homestead, where he died Sept. 10, 1887. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church at Lebanon. They had two children: Almira Painter, who died unmarried at the age of twenty-four, and Capt. W. Seward B. Mrs. Hays was a daughter of Jacob and Susan Brenneman, who came from Westmoreland county, Pa., and settled in Mifflin township on a farm which is now in the borough of Duquesne. They were Presbyterians, of German descent, and had a family of six sons and six daughters.