BIOS: John G. HAY, Brothersvalley Township, Somerset County, PA

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BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Vol. XXXII, Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of 
Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania. Boston, Biographical Review 
Publishing Company: 1899, p 205.

  John G. Hay, a retired farmer of Brother's Valley was born in this township, 
January 15, 1815, son of George and Mary (Countryman) Hay.  His paternal 
grandfather was Simon Hay, a German who settled in Brother's Valley when a young 
man, and built at Hay's Mills in 1796 the grist-mill and stone house which are 
still standing.  Grandfather Hay married a Miss Ankany.
  George Hay, son of Simon, was a lifelong resident of Brother's Valley; and his 
active years were devoted to farming.  He was prominently identified with the 
Reformed church.  He died at the age of sixty-three years.  His wife, Mary, who 
was a daughter of Jacob Countryman, was the mother of ten children, four of whom 
are living, namely: Simon, who resides in Brother's Valley; Harry, a resident of 
Milford, Pa.; Mary, who married Jeremiah Braucher, of Jefferson; and John G. the 
subject of this sketch.
  John G. Hay obtained his education by improving the limited opportunities 
afforded by the district-school system in boyhood.  He resided at home until 
1837, when he went to Milford, where he remained eleven years.  Returning then 
to the home farm, he cultivated that property until his retirement in 1878; and 
in 1879 he removed to the farm of five hundred and sixty acres where he now 
resides.  This property, with the exception of one hundred acres owned by his 
son-in-law, Chauncy Bowman, and two hundred acres owned by John Stahl, now 
belongs to his son Rufus.  In 1837 Mr. Hay married Sarah Musser, daughter of 
Henry Musser.  Eight children were the fruit of this union, and seven of them 
are living, namely: Eliza, who married Chauncy Bowman, and resides in Brother's 
Valley; Adaline, who married John Stahl, of this township; Henry, Rufus, and 
Simon F., who also reside here; Melissa, who married Henry Coleman, and lives in 
Bedford County; and Allen, a resident of Brother's Valley.  The mother died in 
1875.  In 1877 Mr. Hay married for his second wife Matilda Walker, of Brother's 
Valley, widow of Jonathan Walker and daughter of Peter F. Hay.
  Politically, Mr. John G. Hay is a Democrat.  His first Presidential vote was 
cast for General William Henry Harrison in 1840.  He is a member of the Reformed 
church, and has acted both as Elder and Deacon.