Hays Cemetery

Located in Section 35
Hickory Point Township

     The private cemetery, on a hillside south of Mound Road and three-fourths mile east of Rt. 51 was started by the great-great-grandfather of Edwin Hays of 580 East Mound Road.

     The cemetery now contains thirteen graves, the eldest of which dates back to Dec. 24, 1844, when the small daughter of john and Rebecca Hays died.  Three of the persons buried there are Bretts, related to the Hays family thru the marriage of another of John Hays daughters, Rebecca, to Alexander Brett.  There were more graves at one time, but they were moved to the Boiling Springs Cemetery.

     John (a native of Pa) and Rebecca (Hadley) Hays (a native of New York) came from Ohio into Indiana and on to Monticello, Ill., spending four years there, and then migrating on to Hickory Point Township in 1841.  The old homestead was destroyed by fire in 1872.  It was located about 400 feet northwest of the small cemetery.

     John R. Hays, a son of John and Rebecca (Hadley) Hays was born in Indiana in 1830.  He married Rachel Montgomery, a native of Clark Co., Ohio, b. Apr. 9, 1837, a dau. of Wm. & Amelia (Suver) Montgomery.  Rachel died Jan. 3, 1910; John died in 1900, owning 600 acres of land in Hickory Point Twp. at the time of his death.  Parents of five children, Charles, Wm. J., Frank, Cynthia who died at  yrs. of age., and one child died in infancy.

     Charles, son of John R. and Rachel (Montgomery) Hays was born Sep. 27, 1859.  In 18889 he married Miss Elizabeth Landis, a daughter of Henry and Amanda (Reeser) Landis.  Edwin now lives on some of the original Hays land.

     Forty acres of the original Hays farm has recently been sold for a city park.  A new Parsons elementary school, also has been built on the Hays property.

I will be adding notes here and there to other links so please watch for them. ~ Sharon