Representative Samuel Lewis Hays

Samuel Lewis Hays (October 20, 1794 – March 17, 1871) was a nineteenth-century farmer and Democratic politician who served multiple terms in the Virginia House of Delegates and one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a district that was later eliminated when Virginia lost population. He was born in Harrison County near Clarksburg, in what was then Virginia and later became the state of West Virginia. Little is recorded about his early childhood, but he came of age in the trans-Allegheny region during a period of westward expansion and growing political tension between eastern and western Virginia. In 1817 he married Roanna Arnold, with whom he established his household. After Roanna’s death in 1841, Hays married twice more, first to Nancy Covert, who died in 1863, and later to Emma Fletcher.

Hays’s formal education is not well documented, but his subsequent public career suggests that he was sufficiently educated to manage both agricultural and legislative responsibilities in a frontier setting. In 1833 he moved from his native Harrison County to what was then Lewis County, Virginia, an area that would later be divided and include Gilmer County. There he engaged in farming, becoming part of the agrarian society that characterized much of western Virginia. His move into this developing region placed him among the local leaders who would shape its political and economic life in the decades before the Civil War.

Hays’s political career began at the state level, where he became a prominent Democratic figure in western Virginia. Lewis County voters, and at times voters in adjoining Braxton County and later Gilmer County, elected him many times to represent them part-time in the Virginia House of Delegates. Through these repeated terms, he participated in the legislative process during a significant period in American and Virginian history, advocating for the interests of his largely rural and frontier constituents. His service in the House of Delegates helped establish his reputation as an effective representative of the western counties, which often felt underrepresented in the state’s political structure.

Building on his state legislative experience, Hays was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh United States Congress, serving from March 4, 1841, to March 3, 1843. As a member of the Democratic Party representing Virginia, he contributed to the national legislative process during his single term in office, participating in debates and votes at a time marked by economic instability and sectional tensions. During his congressional term, Hays sponsored the admission of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, a fellow western Virginian, as a cadet to the United States Military Academy at West Point, an act that would later acquire historical significance given Jackson’s role in the Civil War. Hays also urged federal support for internal improvements, notably advocating the construction of the Parkersburg–Staunton Turnpike, a key transportation route intended to link the Ohio River with the Shenandoah Valley and improve access for the western counties.

After the 1840 census, Virginia lost a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives due to relative population decline, and the congressional district Hays had represented was eliminated. He made an unsuccessful bid for reelection in an adjoining district in 1842. Following this defeat, he returned to state politics and again won election to the Virginia House of Delegates, this time representing Braxton and Lewis Counties. In addition to his legislative work, Hays contributed to regional development by laying out the town of Glenville in 1845, helping to establish it as a local center of commerce and government in what would become Gilmer County.

Hays continued to play a role in shaping the political structure of western Virginia through his participation in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850–1851. Along with Joseph Smith, John S. Carlile, and Thomas Bland, he represented Randolph, Lewis, Barbour, Gilmer, Braxton, Wirt, and Jackson counties as a delegate. The convention addressed long-standing grievances of the western counties, including representation and suffrage issues, and the resulting constitution provided more equitable representation for the trans-Allegheny region. Hays’s involvement in this convention underscored his commitment to securing greater political influence and fairer treatment for his constituents in the western part of the state.

In 1857, Hays left Virginia for the upper Midwest, moving to Sauk Rapids in the Minnesota Territory. President James Buchanan, a fellow Democrat, appointed him Receiver of Public Moneys, a federal position responsible for handling funds from the sale of public lands. Hays served in this capacity through the remainder of Buchanan’s administration, continuing until 1860. After his federal appointment ended, he resumed farming near Sauk Rapids, which became an administrative center in the newly admitted state of Minnesota. He lived there through the turbulent years of the Civil War and Reconstruction, though he did not return to elective office.

Samuel Lewis Hays died on March 17, 1871, in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. He was interred at the Old Benton County Cemetery in Sauk Rapids. His life spanned the early national period through the post–Civil War era, and his career reflected the concerns of western Virginians over representation, internal improvements, and regional development, as well as the broader movement of Americans westward into the upper Midwest.