Kings County Biographies


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HAYS, JOHN N.
 
     The president of the Hays Cattle Co., John N. Hays, a prominent business 
man of Kings county, Cal., has had a career the history of which thus far is 
both interesting and instructive, and it should be an encouragement to young me 
who would succeed in spite of lack of capital and in the face of many obstacles. 
Mr. Hays was born in Missouri, February 3, 1854, and came to California in 
September, 1872, when he was in his nineteenth year. The first eighteen months 
of his life here were spent in Mariposa county, where he was employed by some 
relatives who had come on before him. Late in 1873 or early in 1874 he came to 
Lake Tulare (then in Tulare but now in Kings county), where his people took up 
land on the border of the lake. For two years they farmed on rented land in the 
Dingley Addition, now the site of Lemoore, Mr. Overstreet, his stepfather, 
having been in charge, and there Mr. Hays remained until 1886, when he disposed 
of his interests at the lake and moved to Cholame valley, Monterey county, where 
he lived and labored ten years. At the expiration of that time he came back to 
Lemoore and went into the stock business and in 1894 he bought three hundred and 
twenty acres of land, a mile and a half west of Guernsey, which he devoted to 
grazing. He operated independently until 1911, increasing his business from year 
to year till he took rank with the big cattle men of central California. He then 
organized and incorporated the Hays Cattle Company, of which he is president; 
Roy D. Hays, vice-president; R. W. Forbes, secretary. The company expects to 
dispose of about six hundred to eight hundred cattle annually, its last year�s 
business having amounted to six hundred, and is renting forty thousand acres of 
pasture for its stock. 
 
     Oil developments in the Devil�s Den country has interested Mr. Hays, who 
has investments there and he owns also an interest in oil lands in the Cholame 
valley district. He has from time to time had to do with business of other kinds 
and his interest in the community makes him a citizen of much public spirit. 
Fraternally, he affiliates with the Circle and with the Woodmen of the World. He 
married Miss Lillie Mills in 1882 and she passed away in 1891, leaving three 
daughters and a son. Floy is the wife of R. W. Forbes, of Lemoore. Roy D. is 
vice-president of the Hays Cattle Company. Pauline married Clarence Esrey of 
Lemoore. Alice is Mrs. William McAdam and her husband is operating in the oil 
field. In 1907 Mr. Hays united his life with that of Mrs. Jeanette Bryan, who 
has borne him children whom they have named Richard Upton, Dorothy and Ann. 
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 314, 315
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn