Hays, Nathan Henry

Born in Stephenson County, Illinois, in 1850, Nathan Henry Hays grew up in Wisconsin and Ohio before returning to Wisconsin to farm. In 1877, he married Staffordshire, England native Emily Cork, the daughter of Methodist minister Hugh Cork. Seeking a milder climate, the couple relocated to California in 1889, initially purchasing a forty-acre tract in Easton, Fresno County.

In the fall of 1890, Hays acquired a sixty-acre property three miles southeast of Clovis, transforming raw stubble land into a productive agricultural estate comprising Muscat and Thompson vineyards, peach orchards, and alfalfa. He and his wife raised eight children who reached maturity: Mabel, Ressie, Ray W. (a World War I army captain and Fresno attorney), Gertrude, John (a U.S. Army sergeant), Loverne, and Pearl (a son, Percy, died at age twenty). A dedicated civic figure, Hays served nine years as a trustee for the Jefferson School District, belonged to local agricultural cooperatives, and maintained active memberships in the Masons, Odd Fellows, Eastern Star, and the Christian Church at Clovis.