HAYES FAMILY HISTORY Jeremy Hayes, TN Jeremy Hayes, Mt. Juliet

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John Coffee Hays is the third great granduncle of Jeremy H. G. Hayes.

In 1836, at the age of 19, Hays migrated to the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston appointed him as a member of a company of Texas Rangers because he knew the Hays family from his Tennessee years. He met with Houston and delivered a letter of recommendation from then-President Andrew Jackson, his great uncle. Rachel Jackson was Hays' great aunt of the Donelson family, a relative of his mother.

In the following years, Hays led the Rangers on a campaign against the Comanche in Texas, and succeeded in weakening their power. He rode with a Lipan Chief named Flacco who led the charge into every battle with him. The duo led and inspired the Rangers. In 1840 Tonkawa Chief Placido and 13 scouts joined with the Rangers to track down a large Comanche war party, culminating at the Battle of Plum Creek.

Later, Hays commanded the force against the invasion from Mexico of 1842. During the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), Hays commanded the First Regiment of Texas Rangers at the Battle of Monterrey, established six companies along the northern and western frontier of Texas. He then commanded the Second of Texas Rangers in Winfield Scott's Mexico City campaign. Later, while fighting under Gen. Joseph Lane, who was defending the American line of communications with Vera Cruz, Hays defeated superior numbers of Mexican cavalry at the Affair at Galaxara Pass and Mexican guerillas in the Skirmish at Matamoros and the action of Sequalteplan. The Rangers excelled during this conflict, gaining nationwide fame. Hays was the first to use the Navy Colt Paterson five-shot revolver. He expedited Samuel Walker to meet with Samuel Colt which led to the design of the legendary Colt Walker six-shot revolver used in the Old West.

Governor William Hall is Jeremy H. G. Hayes' fifth great granduncle.

Governor Hall was the seventh Governor of Tennessee. 

Born in Surrey County, North Carolina and moved with his parents to Tennessee at the age of ten. In 1796 he was commissioned a Second Major in the Sumner County Militia and became Colonel and ultimately Brigadier-General in the Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. He served four terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives and four in the Tennessee Senate. As Senate Speaker in 1829, he became governor upon the resignation of Sam Houston, serving until the inauguration of his successor. Two years later he was elected to a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives, after which he retired to his estate near Castalian Springs in Sumner County. There he wrote Early History of the Southwest. He was a delegate to the Nashville Convention of 1850, which considered means by which Southern states might protect the rights of their people in the U.S. territories. Hall died at his home in Sumner County, where he is buried in the family graveyard.

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837, seeking to act as the direct representative of the common man.

Andrew Jackson was married to Rachel Donelson, who was John Coffee Hays' great aunt.

Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, was the dominant actor in American politics between Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Born to obscure parents and orphaned in youth, he was the first "self-made man" and the first westerner to reach the White House. He became a national hero when he fought the Federal Reserve, and as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man. 

Andrew Jackson married Rachel Donelson (of the Hays family), and the land where the Hermitage sits today was once owned by the Hays family before selling it to Jackson.

President Andrew Jackson is the husband of Jeremy's fifth great grand aunt.

William de Hay of Leys is Jeremy's twenty-second great-grandfather.

William de Hay is part of Clan Hay, which is still honored today as one of Scotland's historic families.

The Hay are one of the major clans of Scotland, whose Chiefs, the Earls of Erroll, have been hereditary Lords High Constable of Scotland since Sir Gilbert Hay of Erroll was rewarded with that office after the Battle of Bannockburn by King Robert the Bruce in 1314.

There are societies and non-profits set up in the name of Clan Hay, and in Scotland this is still one of the honored families.

 President Rutherford Birchard Hayes is Jeremy's fourteenth cousin three times removed and served as the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. 

A staunch abolitionist from Ohio, he was also a brevet major general for the Union army during the American Civil War. As an attorney in Ohio, Hayes served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861. 

Rutherford B. Hayes also is a member of Clan Hay, and is in the blood line of Jeremy H. G. Hayes.

 James Knox Polk was the 11th president of these United States, and is the brother-in-law of Jeremy's fifth great-grand uncle.  

Polk also served as Speaker of the House (House of Representatives) and the ninth Governor of Tennessee. 

His sister Ophelia Clarissa Polk married John B. Hayes (Jeremy's fourth great granduncle).

He set forth an agenda, and said he would only serve one term in office.  Even though his popularity was high, he stayed true to his promise to only serve one term.

During his presidency the United States grew more than a third as he pushed for westward expansion.  

 John Donelson, who Donelson, Tennessee is named after is Jeremy's sixth great-grandfather.  Better known as Colonel John Donelson, he was a land speculator and early settler of Middle Tennessee, led over one hundred settlers on a tortuous water journey to the Cumberland settlement during the winter of 1779-80. Donelson was one of the earliest settlers of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, although the date of his arrival in Virginia is not known. His father and grandfather were involved in planting, commerce, and shipping. An educated man for his time, Donelson was the surveyor for Pittsylvania County from 1767 to 1779. He was a member of the House of Burgesses from 1769 to 1774. In 1771 he was appointed to survey the state line and found that three settlements thought to be in Virginia were actually within the boundaries of North Carolina. In 1775 he became county lieutenant, with rank of colonel, and served in campaigns against the Overhill Cherokees. As a result of Donelson's survey of the Cherokee line, he acquired a large land claim west of that line and attended the Cherokee treaty signing at Fort Patrick Henry, near the Long Island of the Holston, in 1777.

Richard Henderson selected Donelson and James Robertson to lead settlers into this Cumberland River region. Robertson made plans for an overland voyage while Donelson led another group along a water route. Donelson and approximately thirty families embarked from Fort Patrick Henry on December 22, 1779. Their boat, the Adventure, accommodated several families, household goods, and supplies necessary to sustain a settlement in a new land. At the mouth of the Clinch River, another group of emigrants joined Donelson's party. He led this flotilla of thirty or so canoes, flat boats, and dugouts on an expedition traversing the Holston, Tennessee, Ohio, and Cumberland Rivers.

The fleet carried a large number of women and children. Donelson's own large family, including his wife Rachel Stockley, their children, and approximately thirty African American slaves, were among the travelers. One of Donelson's children was his thirteen-year-old daughter Rachel, who would become the wife of Andrew Jackson. Others in the party included James Robertson's wife, Charlotte, and five of their eleven children.

Donelson kept an account of his historic journey and of the hardships they endured. On December 22 he made his first entry in his “Journal of a Voyage, intended by God's permission, in the good boat Adventure, from Fort Patrick Henry, on Holston river to the French Salt Springs on Cumberland River.” (1) During the four-month voyage, the hardy pioneers suffered Indian attacks, a smallpox outbreak, hunger, exhaustion, extreme cold, swift currents, and treacherous shoals.

On April 24, 1780, Donelson's party reached the end of their thousand mile journey and were finally reunited with family and friends at the Big Salt Lick (now Nashville). Within a week of Donelson's arrival, Henderson prepared the Cumberland Compact, of which Donelson was the fifth signer.

Donelson, his family, and slaves made camp at a tract of land along the rich river bottom of Stones River. He named this site Clover Bottom and planted corn and the first cotton crop to be raised in the area. In July the Stones River flooded, completely covering the bottomlands where Donelson had planted his corn and cotton. This disaster, as well as recent reports of Indian attacks in the Clover Bottom section, prompted Donelson to move his family to the relative safety of nearby Mansker's Station.

Once the floodwaters receded, Donelson learned that his corn and cotton crops at Clover Bottom had matured and decided to attempt to save them. A party composed of his son, Captain John Donelson Jr., Abel Gower Jr., and several others worked for several days to harvest the valuable crops. After gathering the corn, the Gower boat started down the river and was soon fired upon by a party of Chickamaugas. These attacks on the settlements, along with the serious shortage of food, prompted Donelson to remove his family and slaves to a more secure position in Kentucky.

Donelson continued his business dealings, traveling frequently between the lands of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. While returning from Virginia and Kentucky on business in 1785, Donelson learned that his family had returned to the Cumberland settlement. On his journey to Mansker's Station he was fired upon and died along the banks of the Barren River.