Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Viets is a Republican, an upright and
fair minded man, interested in every pub-
lic enterprise and institution. That he
enjoys the trust and confidence of the
towns people goes without saying, as he
has held the office of town treasurer for
six years, holding both offices at the same
time.
HAYES. William James,
Tobacco Grower, Public Official.
Now one of the prosperous, progres-
sive tobacco growers and packers of the
Connecticut Valley, having one hundred
and forty acres under cultivation, Mr.
Hayes can recall from the momentous
day, long ago, when with many misgiv-
ings, he planted his first acre in tobacco.
He has been steadily progressing in area
cultivated and in the quality of his pro-
duct during these years, and among the
many innovations which he is responsible
for introducing into the business is the
growing of the crop under shade. As a
tobacco grower he has also had the novel
and somewhat remarkable experience of
growing and marketing four crops in two
years, but the explanation is that in the
years 1901-02, after getting his crop into
the sheets, he went to Porto Rico, and
there grew another crop which matured
and was gathered the same year. Mr.
Hayes' farm and packing house is at Tar-
iffville, Hartford county, Connecticut,
eleven miles from Hartford on the Farmington
river and Central New England
railroad. He is a son of Thomas and Ann
(Clark) Hayes, his mother a daughter of
Owen Clark, of County Meath, Ireland,
who on coming to the United States set-
tled at Tarifrville, William J. Hayes be-
ginning his tobacco growing operations
on the farm of his grandfather, Owen
Clark.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
106
Thomas Hayes was born in County
Wexford, Ireland, a descendant of the
ancient O'h-Aodha family which derived
descent from Aodh(Hugh), the ninth son
of Cas. They were formerly chiefs of
Musary-Luaxlura, a territory in the barony
of Coshlea, County Limerick. This
name, O'h-Aodha, was anglicized as
O'Hea, Hay, Hayes, and Hughes. The
Hayes family of Ireland bore a coat-ofarms
with a motto : Serva Jugnm.
Thomas Hayes, when a young man, came
to the United States and here learned the
carpenter's trade. He married Ann Clark,
who died in 1865, daughter of Owen
Clark, of County Meath, Ireland. The
Clarks came from Ireland when their
daughter, Ann, was two years old, set-
tling in Tarifrville, where Owen Clark for
a time followed his trade of stone mason,
later becoming a farmer and land owner.
Thomas and Ann (Clark) Hayes resided
in Bloomfield, Connecticut, where she
died aged twenty-eight years, the mother
of four children, John, Mary, Francis,
and William James, the last named the
only living member of the family. After
the death of his wife, Thomas Hayes went
to Cleveland, Ohio, having married a
second wife, and there he died in 1875, at
the age of thirty-eight years.
William James Hayes was born in
Bloomfield, Connecticut, October 6, 1863.
He was but two years old when his
mother died, and from that time he was
cared for at the home of his grandparents,
Clark, in Tariffville. He attended the
Tariffville public school, and worked on
the Clark farm until he was eighteen
years of age, then became a carpenter, at
which trade he spent some time. He engaged
in the butcher business on his own
account and has a market in Tariffville.
In 1890 he gave up that business and
began tobacco growing on his grand-