Even a “man of the cloth” can be a black sheep... Consider the case of Rev. George Washington
Hays.
I used to be church historian at the church where I grew
up. One summer I decided to read all
the board minutes, starting at the beginning—1858. Not far into the project, my eyes were drawn
to the word “alcoholic”— and I knew I had a story.
Rev. Hays was born in Macomb, Illinois in 1837, son of a
physician. He was educated at Maryland
College, then Princeton Theological Seminary after he gave up the study of law
to prepare for the ministry.
After finishing up at McCormick Seminary, he got his first
pastorate—First Presbyterian Church in Aurora, Illinois, shown in this drawing—in
1863. It wasn’t long before he married
Elizabeth Hannah, daughter of a prosperous local merchant and church board
member. And it wasn’t long after that
that the previously healthy Elizabeth suddenly died.
Biographical sketches from his days at Princeton and
McCormick, along with ancestry.com, got me this far. This is where the board minutes come into
play.
In June 1866 Elizabeth’s father stopped attending
church. He was warned by the board not
to shirk his duty and to stop circulating reports that the pastor had a hand in
Elizabeth’s death. A hearing took place,
pitting the pro-father forces against the pro-pastor forces. In three days of testimony, the father
accused the pastor of drunkenness, refusing to allow a doctor to see Elizabeth,
hoping she would die—and giving her a double dose of morphine to speed the
process. (The attending doctor was
another church elder, who left the church shortly after Elizabeth’s death.) The board sided with the pastor and voted 3-1
in January 1867 to suspend Elizabeth’s father until such time as he repented of
his slandering, which he refused to do, so in September 1867, he was
excommunicated.
Nevertheless, Rev. Hays left under a huge cloud of suspicion
in 1868—“leaving the church nearly extinct, having passed through a church
fight that left it depleted in numbers and burdened with debt,” so said a church
historian. But what next caught my
attention was the almost gypsy-like wanderings of the reverend for the rest of
his career.
In 1868 George found work at two churches in Carroll County, Ohio, where he married a
woman named Harriet; they eventually had eight children. By 1871 they were in Saline County,
Kansas. I found out by writing to his
church there that he left there in 1873 due to a scandal; the board minutes
said that they debated whether to contact the authorities or allow him to leave
quietly, and decided on the latter.
After that, it was on to Henry County, Iowa until 1878; then
Washington County, Iowa until 1881; then Scott County, Iowa until 1883; then
Black Hawk County, Iowa until 1885.
In 1885 he settled in California and his wanderings ceased. Did he find peace at last? Or had he simply put enough distance between
himself and whatever he was running from?
For whatever reason, George stayed nine years at one church in Sonoma
County and then seven years at two more—but as “pulpit supply,” not installed
pastor.
By 1903 he retired to a farm in Sonoma County he co-owned with
his brother-in-law Horace. Harriet died
about this time, and in 1916 George died in Alameda County.
I wonder what really happened to his first wife? And what happened in Saline County that caused
him to leave Kansas altogether? Was
George a good husband and father? What stories survive about him in the
family? Why did he wander from place to
place? More questions than answers on
this one.
Sounds like this man had a very unfortunate and unsettled life. If this had happened today would he have been helped; imprisoned? Would his wife have had more opportunities to save herself? Thanks for sharing this interesting tale.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I never expected to find a story like that in the church board minutes!
DeleteThis post is on my list of most interesting blog posts of 2013: http://ancestralworld.blogspot.nl/2013/12/interesting-blog-posts-of-2013.html
ReplyDeleteHappy new year from Utrecht, The Netherlands!
I appreciate that, Joan! "Truth is stranger than fiction," as they say. swm
DeleteP.S. I've been to the Netherlands (briefly, years ago), and it was lovely. :-]