William Hayes. For many years some of the burdens of agricultural industry and business affairs have been carried by members of the Hayes family in Ogden Township. Mr. William Hayes is a young and progressive business man, manager of the local elevator at Ogden, and has also had practical experience from early boyhood as a farmer.
Mr. Hayes was born at Ogden, February 8, 1881, son of John and Elizabeth (Huckin) Hayes. His father was a native of Ireland and his mother of England. They married in Indiana, and about fifty years ago came to Champaign County, where the father lived to develop a good farm and witness the magnificent transformation of the county from a prairie to a landscape that has been fitly characterized as a garden. In the family were six children, four sons and two daughters, William being the third in age.
Mr. Hayes graduated from the Ogden High School in 1899. His boyhood days were spent on the farm and at the age of twenty-one he married Miss Laura A. Green. She was born in Oakwood Township, daughter of Wilson and Julia (Fredrick) Green. She was educated in the Union district school. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes after their marriage moved to Vermilion County, Indiana, and for six years farmed there. They then returned to Ogden and Mr. Hayes took charge of his father’s homestead and the home of his youth. This farm consisted of 160 acres. After his parents died in Ogden he continued the management of the farm for a time and was then able to buy forty acres of the old home. He has since farmed this in general crops and live stock.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have two sons, John, who is a student in the grammar schools of Ogden and in another year will enter high school, and William, the baby. For the past seven years, in addition to farming, Mr. Hayes has been a coal dealer at Ogden and is now manager of Supple’s grain elevator in that town.
The Hayes family have always been closely identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he is a Republican and was practically born and reared in that party. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic lodge. Mrs. Hayes is an active member of the Eastern Star. Like the majority of Champaign County citizens, progress has been the keynote of the Hayes family and they have manifested that spirit of push and energy that has brought about notable results.