John Evans Hays
Born May 8, 1803
Died 1883
Father: James Hays, born October 15, 1772, died June 8, 1860
Mother: Elizabeth Dragoo, born April 29, 1774, died July 7, 1848
Wife: Rachel Sharpnick, born September 1, 1805, died July 21, 1852
Daughter: Elizabeth Hays, born in 1835
Son: Francis Marion Hayes, born May 8, 1837, died April 15, 1911

John Hays married Rachel Sharpnick on June 1, 1834. Somewhere along the line, the Hays spelling was changed to Hayes. Rachel died in 1852, and the 1860 census for West Virginia shows that John was married to Mary Ferrel. John moved to Minnesota with his son Francis around the year 1880, but it is unclear whether Mary was with them at the time. John and Francis are buried next to each other in the Kreidler Cemetery near Montrose, Minnesota.