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 John
Coffee "Jack" Hays (1817-1883) - Born in Little Cedar Lick, Tennessee
on January 28, 1817, to Harmon and Elizabeth (Cage) Hays, he was one of
several children. When he was just 15 years-old both of his parents died
and the young man soon moved to Mississippi where he began an
apprenticeship as a
surveyor. By 1836, he had moved
west to
Texas and joined the Texan army under General Thomas Rusk and was
soon appointed as a member of a company of Texas
Rangers, where he took part in several armed conflicts including the
Indian and the Mexican-American wars. His bravery in these battles earned
him the promotion to deputy and in 1840, he achieved the rank of captain.
During his reign as captain, Hays was
responsible for improving the quality of recruitments and initiating tough
training programs for the new
Rangers, as
well as initiating an "esprit de corps" within his command.
Described as a man who looked very slender and looking far younger than
his age, his manners were unassuming and he was a man of few words. Hays
has often been given credit for giving the
Rangers' cohesion and discipline
and became a rallying figure to his men. From those that he commanded, came a number of celebrated Ranger
captains including
William Alexander Anderson "Bigfoot" Wallace, Ben and Henry McCulloch,
Samuel H. Walker, and Robert Addison "Ad" Gillespie.
After the
Mexican-American War ended, Hays
left the Texas
Rangers in 1848 and first traveled to
San Antonio, before he followed
with thousands of other men to the California Gold
Rush. Settling in San
Francisco County, he was elected sheriff in 1850 and became active in
politics. In 1853, he was appointed United States surveyor General for
California.
Ever expanding, he was one of the founders of
the city of Oakland,
California and served as the first mayor. An
ambitious man, he soon held interests in real estate, ranching, banking
and utilities. In 1860, he re-entered soldiering service when he was
called on to lead an expedition during the
Paiute War in Nevada
which had temporarily shut down the
stage and Pony Express service over the western end of the Central
Overland Mail route.
When the
Civil War
broke out the following year, he held a neutral position. In 1876, he was
elected a delegate to the Democratic national convention.
Hays died in
California on April 21, 1883 and
was interred in the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland,
California.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated April,
2012.
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