Wayne County

L. P. Hay

1884 Biographical Sketches of Barnhill Twp

HAY, L.P., farmer, P. 0. Fairfield, was born November 22, 1823, in White County, Ill.

He is a son of John Hay, born 1776 in Allegheny County, Penn.. where he farmed. About 1817, he located in White County, IL, on Little Prairie, near the Grand Chain, , and then removed to Big Prairie, where our subject was born. Here he farmed, and in partnership with his Uncle Lowry, put up a distillery, which he operated for a number of years, he doing the main buying and selling, and flat-boating the produce (whisky and pork) South on the Wabash, and then to New Orleans, an occupation he had followed several years during the war of 1812, and after. The number of porkers killed and shipped by them would amount to from 500 to 1,000 in one year.

John Hay died 1836. His father, John Hay, Sr, was a native of Virginia, where he farmed. He died in Pennsylvania. His father, or the great-grandfather of our subject, was Alexander Hay, a native of Scotland; he died in Virginia.

The mother of our subject was Hannah (Webster) Hay, born in Virginia; she died 1856 in White County, Ill. She was a daughter of Henry and Lucretia Preston Webster, natives of Virginia. She had ten children, of whom two are now living, viz.:

  1. Hon. Lowry Hay, former Sheriff of this county, and once a Representative of White County, Ill.
  2. Lawrence P., our subject, who was educated in White County, Ill., in the old fashioned subscription schools

He came to Wayne County, in March. 1842, and bought 320 acres of land, owning at one time several hundred acres in adjoining counties. Here he was married, September 4, 1846, to Miss Jane E. Borah, born July 22, 1828, in Wayne County, Ill. Her parents were John and Sarah (Wilson) Borah, whose history appears in another part of this work. Nine children blessed this happy union, viz.:

  1. Samuel T., deceased
  2. Mary J., wife of McK. Sunderland
  3. Sarah A., born December 12, 1850, wife of Peter Cox; now a resident of California
  4. Clemence A., born February 16, 1853, wife of Henry Koontz, also a resident of California
  5. Nancy H., born August 19, 1855, wife of George B. Sunderland, now living in Ohio
  6. Eliza H., deceased
  7. Kate, born September 30, 181;
  8. John W., born September 11, 1864
  9. Joseph M., born February 9, 1867
  10. Lucy, born July 12, 1872

Mrs. Hay is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Hay obeyed the call of his country to save the stars and stripes, by enlisting September 13, 1861, in the Fifth Illinois Cavalry, Company D, in which he served till May, 1865. He made his way from private to Quartermaster Sergeant, then Second Lieutenant, and was afterward promoted to First Lieutenant. He served in the Trans-Mississippi Department, resigning at La Grange, Tenn.

He is a radical Republican, and a member of the G. A. R.

Note from Sandy: one digit of birth year of Kate is missing in the book

Visit Our Neighbors
Marion Clay Richland
Jefferson Edwards  
Franklin Hamilton White
Search the Archives