Union County, Ohio Biographies Project - William M. Hayden

WILLIAM M. HAYDEN

    William M. Hayden, a dealer in sewing machines, was born in Morrow County, Ohio, September 9, 1837.  He is the son of John and Rachel (Evans) Hayden, the former born in Pennsylvania in 1812, of German descent, and the latter a native of Wales.  They were married in Pennsylvania, and, emigrating to Ohio in 1830, located in Morrow County, where the father still resides, the mother having died in 1857.  Our subject is the second child of a family of four children; he was raised on the farm, and received a good education in the public high school and at Mount Hestmer College-a college of the Society of Friends.  At the age of seventeen years, he began teaching district school, which he followed four years.  In 1862, he enlisted in Company D, Sixty-fifth Ohio Infantry, as a Corporal, and, in 1863, re-enlisted in Company B, Tenth Ohio Cavalry.  He was the Regimental Commissary Sergeant; was promoted to Second Lieutenant of his company in 1863, and in December of the same year was commissioned First Lieutenant, in which capacity he served until the close of the war.  He was with Sherman in his march to the sea, in Kilpatrick's raid, in Libby Prison for a short time, and was finally discharged in August, 1865.  In 1866, he embarked in the mercantile trade at Alliance,Ohio, but two years later sold his business and purchased a farm, which he operated successfully for two years.  He then disposed of his farm, and engaged in selling the domestic sewing machines.  He orders machines by the car load, and has sold at retail over 1,600 machines.  He understands his business in all its branches, is a ready salesman, and a practical sewing machine man.  In 1867, he married Ellen K. Hall, a native of Ohio, of Scotch descent, who died in 1876, at Elmira, N. Y., leaving one child, Ordella, now in the Richwood graded schools.  Mrs. Hayden was a member of the Baptist Church.