Thomas A. H. Hay (1855 - 1925)

Born 1 Jul 1855 in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Helen Moore (Ruger) Hay — married 7 Sep 1881 in Montana

Died 27 May 1925 at age 69 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

Problems/Questions Profile managers: John McVey [send private message] and Julianne Willsher [send private message]

Biography

Thomas A. H. Hay was born on 1 July 1855, in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Jacob Hay and Annie Wilson. ^[1][2]

The 1880 census reports him living in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. He was single, and worked for the US Mint.^[3]

He was a merchant, and a US Government stamp agent.^[3]

He was educated at Lafayette College.^[4]

On 7 September 1881, he married Helen Moore Ruger, in Montana.^[5]

He died on 27 May 1925, at Lankenau Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of carcinoma of pancreas. An exploratory laparotomy contributed to his death. On 1 June, he was buried, in Easton Cemetery. ^{[2] [6]}

His obituary is a useful summary of his life: ^[7]

'THOMAS A.H. HAY DIES IN LANKENAU HOSPITAL

'Prominent Eastonian Succumbs to General Physical Breakdown

'Thomas Abraham Horn Hay, former president of the Easton Board of Trade and one of Easton's most active business men, died at 8 o'clock Wednesday evening in the Lankenau hospital, following a general physical breakdown. Previous to the actual breakdown he was left in a considerably weakened condition by the effects of "Oriental fever" from which he suffered during a recent extended trip into the Near East. He was aged 69 years, 10 months and 26 days, having been born on July 1, 1855.

'Educated in the public schools of Easton, graduating from the High School in 1872 and from Lafayette College in 1876, he entered upon a life which from the start was devoted to "cold business and hard work." He was the son of the late Jacob Hay and Anna Wilson Hay, long prominent residents of Easton, Jacob Hay having been Easton's leading wholesale dry goods merchant for a number of years, and most active in civic affairs. Entering his father's business on graduation, the son remained but a few years and then was appointed assistant superintendent of the United States assay office at Helena, Montana, where he remained from 1879 to 1884. He engaged at the same time in sheep and cattle raising and in real estate. While there, he met and married Miss Helen Moore Ruger, daughter of General T. H. Ruger, of the United States Army, and soon after they made their home in Easton. Mrs. Hay preceded him in death four years ago last January, and he is survived by two daughters and one son, Mrs. J. Mark Smith and Mrs. George F. Wilson, of Easton, and Ruger W. Hay, of New York City; also by a brother, William O. Hay and a sister, Mrs. Annie W. Dickinson, both of Easton.

'On returning to Easton, Thomas Hay become identified with the business of his father and remained with it after the wholesale shoe business had been connected with it and after his father had passed away. His brother, William O. Hay, was engaged in the same business. President Harrison, in 1889, appointed him as United States Postal Stamp Agent at New York City and he served for four years in connection with his affairs here in Easton. Prior to that, from 1887 to 1889, he was secretary of the board of prison inspectors of this county. Mr. Hay became best known, however, as a promoter of electric light and power companies and of electric street railway enterprises, and was the president of a number of these, among them Easton Power Company of New Jersey, the Easton Power Company, of Easton, the Slate Belt Street Railroad Company, of Easton, and Nazareth Street Railway Company and the Delaware Valley Railroad Company, this latter running from Stroudsburg to Bushkill.

'He was the original promoter of what is now the Northampton Transit Company with lines extended from Easton to Nazareth and from Easton to Portland. He was associated with a number of financial men in other cities, principally in Boston, in these enterprises and in the building of the Easton-Washington electric line, which recently passed out of existence. Many still believe that had the Messrs. Hay been able to carry out their idea of having this line brought into Easton instead of terminating at a distant place from the business center in Phillipsburg, it would have been a financial success.

'Mr. Hay was a director of the Northampton Transit Company, of the Doyle-DeCosta Company, of the Wahleta Silk Company of Catamauqua and prior to going abroad was a director of numerous other corporation. He was a member of the Brainerd-Union Presbyterian church and of many fraternal organizations and clubs both in Easton and elsewhere.

'He was a member of Easton Lodge No. 152, F. and A. M.; Easton Chapter No. 173, R. A. M.; Hugh de Payens Commandery No. 19, Knights Templar; Easton Forest No. 35, Tall Cedars of Lebanaon; Rajah Temple Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Easton Lodge No. 121, P. O. Elks; General Judson Kilpatrick Camp No. 233, Sons of Veterans; the Pomfret Club; the Art Club of Philadlephia; the Pennsylvania Society, of New York; the Manhattan Club, of New York, and other clubs and organizations in other cities.'

Research Note

The original GEDCOM included this reference:

Object:

Format: jpg

File: /Volumes/Data/My Documents/Active Documents/Reunion Documents /Reunion Pictures/Thomas A. H. Hay.jpg

Title: Thomas A. H. Hay

Type: PHOTO

Primary or Preferred: Y

SIZE 385.000000 476.000000

Sources

1. ↑ Entered by Julianne Willsher, Sunday, August 25, 2013.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Bureau of Vital Statistics, Pennsylvania, death certificate, file no. 47,135 (27 May 1925), Thomas A. H. Hay; image copy, Ancestry ([https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42342_649063_0657-02576 https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42342_649063_0657-02576 : accessed 8 November 2021).

   Thomas A. H. Hay

   [on the death certificate, 'Easton, Pa' is written after his name]

   male, white, widowed, retired

   born 1 July 1855, Easton, Pa, to Jacob Hay (born Wms [?] Township, Northampton County) and Annie Wilson (born Easton Pa)

   informant: Mrs Jno [?] Mark Smith, Easton Pa

   died 27 May 1925, Lankenau Hospital, Philadelphia

   cause of death: carcinoma of pancreas; contributory: 'exploratory laparatomy'

   buried 1 June 1925, Easton Cem

   undertaker Geo L Shellinger, Easton Pa

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} apparently imported from the original gedcom with no referent
4. ↑ Source: #S15 Page: p. 279
5. ↑ Source: #S108 Page: p. 38
6. ↑ 'Thomas A H Hay, death notice, Philadelphia Inquirer, Friday, 29 May 1925, p.15, col. 2; image copy, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com/image/171087381/ : accessed 8 November 2021).

   'HAY—THOMAS A. H., suddenly, at Lankenau Hospital, yesterday, May 27. Services at his late hom, Spring Garden at N. 14th st., Easton, Pa., Saturday, 2.30 P. M. (standard time). Int. Easton Cemetery.

7. ↑ 'Thomas A. H. Hay Dies In Lankenau Hospital', The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania), Friday, 29 May 1925, p.15, col.7; image copy, Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com/image/281185550/ : accessed 8 November 2021).

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWNR-3KZ : 16 July 2017), Thomas A H Hay in household of Jacob Hay, Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district ED 77, sheet 475D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1161; FHL microfilm 1,255,161.

• Thomas A. H. Hay (1855-1925) on Find A Grave: Memorial #148380174 Retrieved 22 November 2017.

• Source: S15 Type: Book Author: Jordan, J. W., E. M. Green, and G. T. Ettinger Periodical: Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of The Lehigh Valley Publication: The Lewis Publishing Co., New York, 1905, Vol. 2

Notes

Note N280

Thomas A. H. Hay, was born in Easton, July 1, 1855. He began his education in the city schools, graduating from the high school at the age of seventeen, and then entering Lafayette College, from which he graduated in 1876, the year of his attaining his majority. He began his business career as an errand boy in his father's store and was advanced as his merit deserved. In 1879, in company with Russell B. Harrison, son of President Harrison, he went to Montana, and was shortly afterwards appointed assistant superintendent of the United States assay office in that territory. He was so engaged until 1881, when he returned to Easton to become manager of the Jacob Hay & Sons wholesale dry goods business, a position which he filled with entire capability until 1896, two years after the death of his father. After closing up the affairs of the firm he joined his brother, William O. Hay, in the boot and shoe business. In 1889 Mr. Hay, at the personal request of President and Mrs. Harrison, was appointed United States postage stamp agent at New York city, and in this capacity from 1889 to 1893 he had the supervision of the postage stamp manufacturing by the American Bank Note Company. It was his distinction to suggest the Columbian postage stamp to commemorate the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, and he suggested the ideas and de-signs of that beautiful work of art which commanded the admiring attention of philatelists the world over. He was also the author of the substitution of carmine ink for green in the printing of stamps of a certain denomination; thus putting a stop to stamp-washing, and saving large sums to the government. This idea of color of his has been adopted by the International Postal Union and is used by all the civilized nations of the world today. On retiring from government service Mr. Hay identified himself more closely with the local interests of Easton, and engaged in various undertakings which he forwarded to complete success, notably the electric railway and lighting system, of which he was the pioneer, and which became of enormous value and commensurate advantage to the community. In 1896 he organized the Easton Power Company, of which he became president, with his brother, William O. Hay, as secretary and treasurer. They took the old abandoned cotton mills and developed the waterpower by the use of modern turbine wheels. This property was subsequently consolidated with that of the old Edison Company. In 1897, with Boston capital (home capital being unobtainable") was built the first interurban trolley road in the county, that from Easton to Bethlehem. In 1898, with his brother, William O. Hay, and M. P. McGrath, of Worchester, Massachusetts, Mr. Hay organized a company and built the State belt road from Nazareth to Bangor, and in the same year he began the construction of the Easton and Nazareth line, which was completed in 1901. In the latter year, with Mr. McGrath and others, be built the Delaware Valley steam railroad from Stroudsburg to Bushkill, in Pike County, and of which he was the first vice-president. In 1902, with local aid, he commenced the construction of the Easton, Tatamy & Bangor street railway. In 1903 the two companies last named were consolidated as the Northampton Traction Company, with Mr. Thomas A. H. Hay as president, William O. Hay as secretary, and Mr. M. P. McGrath as a director and member of the executive committee, the company operating from Easton to Nazareth, Tatamy, Stockertown and Bangor, traversing the center of the great slate and cement deposits of the county. In the same year Mr. Hay disposed of his stock in his pioneer power company in a merger with the Easton Gas and Electric Company, now operating with a capital of two and a half million dollars. All these large properties had their beginning with Mr. Hay, who was author of the original project and of several others which developed from it, and all primarily owed their development and success to his prescience and indomitable energy. Mr. Hay is also one of the originators of the trolley road from Easton to Lake Hopatcong and thence to Jersey City, this giving direct communication between north part of Northampton county across the state of New Jersey. In 1896, with his brother, William O. Hay, Mr. Hay purchased the abandoned fair grounds and laid out Fairview Park, which, with the property formerly held by their father, makes them owners of nearly all the vacant ground from Twelfth to Twenty-first streets, now one of the most valuable and beautiful setions of Easton. Mr. Hay is a member of numerous social and fraternal bodies, and was an incorporator of the Pomfret Club; the Commercial Club; the Orphevts Club, of which he has been president for twelve years, and the Oratorio Society. He has attained to high rank in the Masonic fraternity, and is a past master of Easton Lodge; was grand steward of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, and a member of Easton Chapter, R. A. M., and Hugh de Payens Commandery, Knights Templar. He is also a member of the Royal Arcanum, the Heptasophs, and the Easton Lodge of Elks.

When the Wahneta Silk Co., of Catasauqua was incorporated in 1905, Mr. Hay was among its original stockholders and was one of its directors.

Mr. Hay began business as wholesale Dry Goods Merchant in 1876. In 1879 he became assistant Assayer -in-Charge of Helena (Montana) Assay Office, returning in 1882 to the Wholesale Dry Goods business in Easton. In 1889 U. S. Postage Stamp agent New York City. Mr. Hay was builder, operator and Chief Executive of the Power, Light and Transportation companies.

Mr. Hay had a number of side business ventures, such as, manufacturing, real estate, building, mines, sheep, cattle and various other interests. He is a member of the Masons, Elks, Knights Templar, Shrine. Zeta Psi College Fraternity, Sons of Veterans, Easton Pomfret Club, Art Club of Phila., and Rocky Mountain Club of New York City.

Mr. Hay's business address is 341 Northampton street, and he resides on North I4th street.

Sources for this note are: #S15 Page: p. 279; #S47 Page: Vol II, p. 49; Source: #S108 Page: p. 38

Acknowledgments

Thank you to John McVey for creating WikiTree profile Hay-934 through the import of Hopkin Thomas 2500.ged on Oct 10, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by John and others.

Thank you to Julianne Willsher for creating Hay-881 on 25 Aug 13. Click the Changes tab for the details on contributions by Julianne and others.