The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes | Page 2

had removed, he was captured and carried off by the French and
Indians. He was held as a prisoner in Canada for five years, and being a
young man of great physical strength and vigor, the Indians adopted
him as one of their race. His freedom was finally purchased through the
intervention of a Frenchman, the colonial assembly of Connecticut,
sitting at New Haven, having made an appropriation of public funds in

aid of that specific purpose. An account of the captivity of this early
defender of New England homes is found in Phelps' "History of
Simsbury, Granby, and Canton." The wife of Daniel Hayes was the
daughter of John Lee, who was noted for his bravery in fighting
Indians.
Captain Ezekiel Hayes, who gained his title in the military service of
the Colonies, married the great-granddaughter of the Rev. John Russell,
the famous preacher of Wethersfield and Hadley, who concealed the
regicides at Hadley for many years.
Rutherford Hayes, the grandfather of the subject of our biography, was
born at New Haven, Connecticut, July 29, 1756. He married, in 1779,
at West Brattleboro, Vermont--whither he had removed the year
before--Chloe Smith, whose ancestry fill a large space in the "History
of Hadley," several of whom lost their lives while fighting in defense
their own and neighboring towns. From this fortunate and happy union,
which continued unbroken for fifty-eight years, have sprung a race of
accomplished women and honor-deserving men. One daughter married
the Hon. John Noyes, of New Hampshire, who served in Congress
1817-19, and died in 1841, at Putney, Vermont. A daughter of this
marriage is the mother of Larkin G. Meade, the sculptor; whose sister is
the wife of William D. Howells, the novelist, and present editor of the
Atlantic Monthly. Another daughter of Rutherford and Chloe Smith
Hayes married the Hon. Samuel Elliott, of Vermont, who attained
distinction in Congress and as an author.
In a diary still existing, kept by Chloe Smith Hayes when she was
eighty years of age, are found evidences of this good woman's
intellectual cleverness and vigor, and abounding proofs of her
fruit-bearing piety and affectionate tenderness for her offspring and
kindred. At this advanced age she seems a philosophical observer of
natural phenomena and political events--minutely describing eclipses,
floods, and storms--and, while moralizing over the inauguration and
death of President Harrison, giving expression to the shadowy hope
that wise and good men would take the helm of government, and,
rebuked by the presence of death, be taught the lesson of mortality.

Rutherford, the grandfather, bore the commission, dated 1782, of
Governor George Clinton as an officer in the military service of the
State of New York.
Rutherford Hayes, the father of Governor R. B. Hayes, was born at
West Brattleboro, Vermont, January 4, 1787. On the 19th day of
September, 1813, he was married, at Wilmington, Vermont, to Sophia
Birchard, daughter of Roger Birchard and Drusilla Austin Birchard, of
that place. The Birchards had emigrated from England to Saybrook and
Norwich, Vermont, as early as 1635. They soon became men of note in
Norwich and Lebanon, and many of their descendants have continued
to be men of mark since that time. The family has had representatives
in Congress from Illinois and Wisconsin, and noted members of it in
the pulpit in New York and elsewhere.
Rutherford Hayes was engaged in business as a merchant at
Dummerston, Vermont, until 1817, in which year he removed to
Delaware, Ohio, with his family, consisting at the time of a wife and
two children. In January, 1820, a daughter--Fanny--was born, and in
October of the following year, a daughter, at the age of four, was lost.
In July, 1822, Rutherford Hayes, the father, died of malarial fever; at
the age of thirty-five; and on the 4th of the following October was born
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the since distinguished son. Three years
later, the widowed mother was called to suffer a most distressing
calamity in the death, by drowning, of Lorenzo, aged ten, a hopeful and
helpful son.
The father of Governor Hayes was a quick, bright, accurate, active
business man. He possessed both energy and executive ability. He had
the independence which intelligence gives, and his dry humor served
him well in exposing shams and exploding humbugs. He was rigidly
honest, and was, in the words of one of his neighbors, "as good a
citizen as ever lived in the town of Delaware." He could do a great deal
of work, and do it well. He was a witty, social, popular man, who made
warm friends and few enemies.
The mother of Governor Hayes united force of character with
sweetness of nature. Her self-reliant energy is shown by her making a

trip, in the summer of 1824, to Vermont and back--a distance of sixteen
hundred miles. The