JOHN COFFEE HAYS
JOHN COFFEE HAYS, one of the line of soldiers and
himself named for a soldier, Gen. John COFFEE, was born at Little Cedar Lick,
Wilson County, Tennessee, on the 28th of January, 1817. His grandfather,
the founder of Fort Haysboro in Tennessee, served through several Indian wars
with General JACKSON, to whom he sold the Tennessee family home, the
Hermitage. His father, Harmon HAYS, was one of JACKSON's later officers
in many campaigns.
John Coffee HAYS, one of several children, was
educated in the Nashville Academy until the age of fifteen, when the death of
his parents left him facing the prospect of an uncongenial career in business,
and the young Southerner chose rather to try his fortune in the West. A
short apprenticeship at surveying in the swamps of Mississippi equipped him for
a venture into the border State of Texas, where his temperament and the
stirring times soon led him to drop his surveyor's chain and notebook for a
horse and rifle. In the frontier life of guerilla raiding by both
Mexicans and Indians, and under master frontiersmen as DEAF SMITH and KARNES,
young HAYS quickly picked up the technic of border fighting, and developed it
into a brilliant craft all his own. Through the fight for Texan
independence he served as a scout and spy under several commanders, and when
the new Texan Republic, too poor to keep up a regular army, organized a force
of seventy-five young fighters for the protection of the border, HAYS was offered
the command. This band of Texas Rangers did valiant service in
guarding the frontier against the guerilla invasions of Mexicans, and in
affording the outlying Texan settlers protection against the Indians. The
heroism and dash of these hard-riding Americans became almost a legend in
the countryside, and the stories of the difficulties and dangers they got into
and out of penetrated even to Mexico City. When after good service
through the Mexican war, the Rangers rode into the City of Mexico with the
United Stares Army, the women rushed from the balconies into the house, and the
men lined the streets. After the war Colonel HAYS led an expedition to
mark out a route from San Antonio to Chihuahua, and later accepted the contract
to provide beef for a party of soldiers marching overland from Texas to
California, coming to that state during the gold rush of '49.
While still in Texas, Hays met and married Miss Susan
CALVERT, born in Huntsville, Alabama, one of the Baltimore CALVERTS who trace
their lineage to Lord BALTIMORE. Six children were theirs, John C.,
Richard, Kitty, Harry, Susan and Betty. Mrs. HAYS came across the Isthmus
of Panama and by boat to San Francisco, where the two made their home.
Soon after HAYS arrival, in a picturesque election in which he captured the day
by appearing on horseback in the streets, Colonel HAYS was elected sheriff of
San Francisco and filled that thankless office with credit through the
tumultuous days of the first Vigilante Committee. The dissatisfaction was
with the treatment of the criminals of those days after arrest, with the courts
rather than with the police, and more than once prisoners were stolen out of
jail after the sheriff had been carefully decoyed out of town.
At the beginning of the Civil war Colonel HAYS was
serving as surveyor general of the state. At the outset he did not commit
himself to the cause of either the North or the South. The result
was that, owing to his military experience and his other qualifications he was
sought at once by the leaders of both sides to assist them in the momentous
struggle. California was then filled with both Northerners and
Southerners and both factions desired to avoid as far as possible, the local
havoc that would follow participation in the war. Both sides, therefore,
urged Colonel HAYS to take no part in the struggle, and he accordingly remained
neutral. But his services were in urgent demand and he was pursued by
both factions and was offered a generalship by officials representing both the
Union and the Confederate armies. Still he evaded their solicitations in
order to prevent local outburst and conflicts that were sure to succeed his
acceptance of the offer of either army.
At a later date, when the whole bay region was
wrathful over the tragic and much-discussed TERRY-BRODERICK duel, and when
Judge TERRY had sought a hiding place to avoid the probable violence that
would likely follow his appearance in public, it was learned that he had sought
refuge in the home of Colonel HAYS at Fernwood, near Piedmont, and that he had
fled from this refuge, when about to be captured, to the ranch of Capt. John
MCMULLIN in the vicinity of Stockton, and had remained in that concealment
until the excitement had calmed down.
This Captain MCMULLIN had an eventful and momentous
career somewhat similar to that of Colonel HAYS. He grew up in Florida
until he reached the age of fifteen years, and then went West to Texas, where
the fame of all the Rangers was attracting widespread attention, particularly
among all adventurous and daring young men. Upon his arrival there he at
once joined their ranks. On his way to the "Lone Star State" he
managed to secure a horse, which he rode all the way to the region where the
Rangers were believed to be located. It was there, as a Ranger, that he
first met Colonel HAYS, with whom he begged to be received as a member of the
troops. His plea was finally granted and he soon was one of the most
conspicuous and venturesome members of the Ranger ranks. Some time afterward,
when the border had been quieted and subdued, he retired, from the service with
the rank of captain, and accompanied Colonel HAYS to California, where he at
once embarked in the cattle business, made of it a surprising success and
became the owner of one of the largest cattle ranches in the Stockton
district. He retured to Kentucky and married Miss Eliza Fleming MORGAN,
of that state, and to their union the following children were born: Anna,
Lilo, Susan, Elizabeth, Rebecca, John, Beauregard, Morgan and Henrietta.
Their home was a fine one for those early days, being constructed in the
East and shipped in sections, all the way by vessel around Cape Horn, being
probably the first portable house in California.
John Coffee HAYS, the eldest son of Col. John C. HAYS,
married Anna daughter of Captain MCMULLIN, thus uniting the two famous
families. To John and Anna two children were born, John C. III, and
Harry. What still further united the families was the marriage of Betty
HAYS to John MUCMULLIN, JR., who was a leading graduate of Princeton
College. He entered the banking business, and when only twenty-eight
years old became president of the Fresno National Bank. Their children
are John, Eliza and Harmon H. HAYS, all of whom were born in California.
Mr. MCMULLIN died in 1903 and his widow is living at San Rafael. All
three of these children took an active part in the World war. John was
with one of he first units of the Expeditionary Forces to reach France.
Harmon HAYS served overseas with the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Field
Artillery. John Coffee HAYS was stationed on the Pacific Coast as major
in the Ninety-first Division.
Transcribed by Deana Schultz.