Minerd.com Biography of Peter and Mary A. (Jones) Hayden of Columbus, OH and New York City

Peter Hayden
(1865-1935)

Unlike his brothers, who were sportsmen of the first rank and welcomed publicity of their exploits, Peter spent his life outside of the limelight, except when personal circumstances were unavoidable. His paper trail is very thin.

Peter was named for his grandfather, industrialist Peter Hayden, who built a fortune of millions in the Columbus steel and banking industries.

The young Peter at age of 15 resided with his parents in Columbus at the time of the 1880 census. He would have moved with his parents back and forth to New York over the years, including to the family's treasured summer home in the Thousand Islands, named "Fairyland."

At the age of 27, in 1891, Peter eloped with 16-year-old Mary Ayres (1876-1904), daughter of Augustus Ayres, a partner in the spoke manufacturing firm of Ayers, Root & Co. He waited until his parents were overseas in France, and called at her home, asking her to go out for a carriage ride. He already had secured a marriage license and had a clergyman waiting at his home, and she went through with the nuptials. When she did not return home, her family called the police and the couple later were found in the Hayden residence, "happy as two doves," said the Cincinnati Enquirer. The match caused a sensation in Columbus at the time as she was so young and he so rich.

A newspaper observed that as a newlywed, despite his wealth, Peter "went to work in a machine shop, and finally ran an engine on the [Columbus, Hocking Valley and Toledo] Railroad. He was a hale fellow well met. The wife was popular in society and comes from an excellent family."

In 1894, Mary gave what the Cincinnati Enquirer called "a handsome reception" for her new sister-in-law Louise Deshler (Kinsman) Hayden at her residence along Broad Street in Columbus.

The marriage between Peter and Mary only lasted for about five years and ended in May 1897 with him him suing for divorce.

The matter was "ugly," said the Cincinnati Enquirer, saying it had "caused a sensation which has shaken the Four Hundred of [Columbus] from center to circumference..."

The divorce was granted in July 1897, with Peter adamant that he wanted custody of his son. After that time he made his home in Columbus and New York City, apparently living occasionally under his parents' roof in Catskill, Greene County, NY.

He may be the same "Mr. Peter Hayden, of Columbus, Ohio," who in March 1902 made news when he shot a rare European Widgeon bird while hunting on the Licking Reservoir. According to one published report, in The Wilson Bulletin, "The specimen was given to Mr. [Irving A.] Field, and is now in the collection of Dennison University. The frequent occurrence of this Old World form in the eastern part of this country makes it a possible visitor to any of our inland lakes. This record for central Ohio fills in a considerable gap in its inland distribution."

Apparently not having learned from his first experience of marrying a teenager, Peter at the age of 35 tied the marital cord again, on Christmas Day 1899, with a 17-year-old, Cecil Ong (Oct. 1882- ? ), daughter of William Ong. Pastor W.F. Oldham officiated.

The union lasted for eight years until dissolving, with Peter suing for divorce. In February 1908, he told Judge Keeler that "he ruined his health trying to keep the pace set by his wife in society at Columbus, in their eight years of married life." He complained that "She dressed far beyond my means. I worked hard but could not keep out of debt. My wife was an iceberg around the house, but in society she was vivacious. We parted at Chicago one year ago. My nerves were shattered and I could not sleep at nights. I took a hunting trip to Canada, but was so weak I had to come to Cleveland. I am not able to engage in business yet." The divorce was granted.

Former wife Mary married her lover, Raymond E. Jones. Grief blanketed this family when she died in June 1904, leaving her widower and 12-year-old son. Peter then secured a court order for custody of the boy.

The son ran away shortly afterward and was considered missing. He made his way to the home of an uncle, stage manager William Ayres, in New York, and once he was discovered there, it made news in Ohio newspapers. The uncle then escorted young Hamilton to the residence of his grandfather William B. Hayden at 150 West 59th Street. Reported the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Although the detectives from Columbus will to-morrow make an effort to secure possession of the boy to return him to his stepfather in Columbus, their attempt will be in vain, for Peter Hayden declared to-night that he would fight to retain custody of the boy, even if the aid of the Courts had to be invoked."

The Catskill Recorder in the spring of 1914 reported that Peter, his parents and brother Allan "yesterday closed their residence on the river bank and started for their Summer home in the Thousand Islands." At the Christmas holidays of 1915, the Recorder noted that Peter won a turkey shoot contest at the Catskill Gun club, and that his brother Allen had won a bird shoot.

Fairyland, the Hayden family's idyllic summer estate in the Thousand Islands near Alexandria, NY.

Kensico Cemetery

Peter and his son Hamilton were mentioned in a 1916 newspaper obituary of Peter's father, William Buck Hayden. A year earlier, son Hamilton was named in a Catskill Recorder article for having attended a society ball benefitting the Home for Aged Women of Greene County, on which his aunt Ida (Werner) Hayden served on the board of directors. Also attending the ball at the State Armory, and sitting in the family's reserved Box No. 1, were Hamilton's grandparents, Uncle Allen and Aunt Ida.

Peter was living in New York City in 1925 (at age 60) at the time of his mother's passing. In 1931, at age 66, he resided in Catskill, Greene County, NY at the time of the untimely death of his brother John "Harold" Hayden. By 1935, he had a home at 63 Ferris Lane in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, NY.

Peter spent his final years in Chaffey's Lock, Ontario, Canada. On Jan. 11, 1935, at the age of 70, he died in Chaffey's Lock. His remains were returned to New York to rest in the family mausoleum at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, near White Plains, Westchester County.

At his death, he bequeathed an estate worth $5,000 to his brother Langdon, of New York. An Associated Press story, published in the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, said that the will had been filed for probate in New York.

After his parents' divorce, he and his mother moved into the household of his 50-year-old grandmother, Eugenia M. Jones in Columbus. The 1900 census shows 24-year-old Mary A., marked as having been married for eight years, with one child. It also lists six-year-old "boarder" Hamilton Hayden in the Jones household, and marked as "at school."

He stood 5 feet, 8½ inches tall and weighed 175 lbs., with blonde hair and blue eyes At some point in young manhood, he obtained Canadian citizenship.

On Feb. 10, 1917, in Kingston, NY, Hamilton married Frances Wood (1892- ? ), daughter of postal carrier Francis R. Wood of Kingston, NY.

Together they produced two sons, Hamilton Peter Hayden and Dr. John Wood Hayden.

Hamilton was required to register for the military draft during World War I. He disclosed that he was living at 2 Brinkerhoff Street in Ridgefield Park, NJ and employed as a clerk for the Central Railroad of New Jersey, reporting to work at Pier 11 of the North River in New York City.

In 1920, when the census was enumerated, they lived on Manhattan Avenue in New York. Hamilton was marked as a salesman - machine company, most likely for one of the Hayden family's many businesses. He may have been a member of the De Molay Order in Poughkeepsie circa 1934.

He received his mail in 1923 at Room 950 of the Ellicott Square Building in Buffalo, NY.

Circa 1937-1939, they resided in the former home of Hamilton's late father, at 63 Ferris Lane in Poughkeepsie. The Poughkeepsie Evening Star and Enterprise reported in mid-September 1939 that son John would spend his junior year of college in Cleveland, rooming in Picklands hall dormitory. Frances served as a volunteer with the American Association of University Women at Vassar College in 1938 and helped organize a benefit performance to raise scholarship funds.

Federal census records for 1940 show the family continuing to live at 63 Ferris Lane. Hamilton's occupation is listed as "salesman - road machinery." His employer at that time was Good Roads Machinery Company of New York.

The day after Christmas 1946, Hamilton was named in a legal advertisement printed in the Catskill Examiner-Recorder as an heir-at-law of his late uncle, Cotton Allen Hayden. At the time, his address remained as 63 Ferris Lane, Poughkeepsie.

The 1950 U.S. Census lists Hamilton, Frances and son Peter in Poughkeepsie, with Hamilton earning a living as a machinery salesman for a distribution company. Later Hamilton made a home in Staatsburg/Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, NY.

Hamilton eventually relocated to Wisconsin, where his son John was living in LaCrosse. His final address was 1315 Cass Street. He died in a LaCrosse hospital on Oct. 24, 1980. The body was returned to Rhinebeck. A short obituary was printed in the LaCrosse Tribune.

Son Hamilton Peter Hayden (1917-1996) was born on Dec. 2, 1917 in New York City. He was a graduate of Poughkeepsie High School. In 1940, when he was 22, he lived at home with his parents. He joined the U.S. Army during World War II and was assigned to the Signal Corps. Hamilton earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering/physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was employed as an engineer by Westinghouse Electric Corporation and at one time was chief machinist in the physics department of Franklin and Marshall College of Lancaster, PA. Over the years. he dwelled in Lancaster and toward the end moved to LaCrosse, WI, where his brother was living. At the age of 78, he died in LaCrosse on Oct. 15, 1996. An obituary was published in his old hometown newspaper, the Poughkeepsie Journal. The remains were transported back to New York for burial in Montrepose Cemetery in Kingston, with Rev. Frank Walner leading the obsequies.

Son Dr. John Wood Hayden, MD (1922-2016) was born on Oct. 3, 1922 in Buffalo, NY. He was a 1940 graduate of University School in Cleveland and a 1944 alumnus of Hamilton College. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Following his discharge from military service, he used the V12 Bill to attend medical school at the State University of New York in Syracuse, graduating in 1947. An internship followed in pathology at Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital under the tutelage of Nobel Prize laureate Dr. George Whipple. While in Rochester, he met Mary "Phyllis" Briddell (April 16, 1925-2013), daughter of Charles David and Grace (Maddox) Briddell. On Dec. 28, 1948, the pair were wed in Crisfield, MD. Their union endured the ebbs and flows of an extraordinary 65 years together. Phyllis had studied piano at Syracuse University and earned bachelor's and master's degrees there in piano performance in 1948. She went on to employment as a music instructor at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. At the outbreak of the Korean War, John was recalled into Navy service as general medical officer on the aircraft carrier USS Midway and at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. His Naval Academy colleague Dr. Adolph Gundersen recruited John to join him in a new venture but John declined, instead accepting a position in Boston as a resident at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital and as chief orthopedic resident at Boston Children's Hospital. His final tenure in Boston was three years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, working for Dr. William T. Green, a longtime mentor. But the pull of Dr. Gundersen's earlier offer was strong and so in 1958 John then left the world of academics to move to Wisconsin to join the Gundersen Clinic "to help bring orthopedic care to western Wisconsin," said an obituary. One condition of the deal was that he could bring his trainee Dr. Douglas G. Tompkins onto the clinic staff. The family traveled from Boston to LaCrosse in a Ford station wagon in making their relocation. Once arrived, John and Tompkins "established the orthopedic department of the Gundersen Clinic-Lutheran Hospital," said the obituary. "Here, he excelled in general orthopedics, performing some of the first total hip replacements in the region. Beginning in the 1960s, he served on Gundersen Clinic' Board of Directors, as president of the Lutheran Hospital-La Crosse' medical staff, and as a member of Hospital's Board of Trustees."

John and Phyllis were the parents of five -- Melissa Hayden, PhD, Sarah Kahrl, Dr. Charles Hayden, John H. Hayden and Christopher B. Hayden. Remaining in LaCrosse for good, John helped found the LaCrosse Community Theatre, performed flute in the La Crosse Sumphony, volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and served on the vestry and in fundraising for Christ Episcopal Church. One of his favorite church projects was restoring the church's stained glass windows. He liked to hunt as well as depict the outdoors in photographs and pastel paintings, and enjoyed crafting handmade furniture as gifts. Their favorite dining spot was Schmidty's Restaurant. In her own right, Phyllis was active in the development of the LaCrosse Symphony and Music Study Club and performed for the LaCrosse Community Theatre as an accompanist. Said her obituary, "Phyllis was a dedicated and devout 55-year member of Christ Episcopal Church, where she was a leader in the Altar Guild on a local and later a national level. A desire to engage young women in church life led to her innovative development of the Junior Altar Guild program for high school girls in the early 1970s, which captured national attention." She held a term as president of the National Altar Guild of the church from 1981 to 1985 and was a trustee of the Living Church Foundation. Phyllis passed away at the age of 88 on July 18, 2013. John outlived her by two-and-a-half years. Sadly, at the age of 94, he died on Feb. 5, 2016. Funeral services were conducted in the family church, followed by interment in Oak Grove Cemetery, LaCrosse.

Hayden mausoleum photograph courtesy of Linda Burton Kochanov.