William Leo Hayden (1785 - 1867)

Born 16 Dec 1785 in Kentucky

Ancestors

Husband of Anastasia (Pike) Hayden — married 5 Feb 1810 in Bardstown, Nelson, Kentucky, United States

Husband of Mary Elizabeth Hayden — married 31 Dec 1812 in Washington, Kentucky, United States

Descendants

Died 6 Dec 1867 at age 81 in Kentucky

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Biography

William was born in 1785. He was the son of Henrietta Cole. He passed away in 1867.

Little Willie was the son of Basil Hayden & Henrietta Cole. He married Anastasia Pike on 5 February 1810. They had 1 son. He married Mary Hayden on 4 January 1813 & they had 4 children. [1]

Henrietta, mourning her lost children, probably depressed, and possibly angry with Basil for taking her to the wilds of Kentucky made a huge mistake. She had a fling with one of the men in the fort and became pregnant. She confessed her indiscretion to Basil who then publicly denounced her, but there would be no divorce. Several years later, they must have made peace with each other as another three children were born to this couple.

Henrietta’s child, born December 16, 1785, was named William Leo Hayden. He was raised and educated with the other children. Known in the family as Little Willie “Not Blood” Hayden, he would bear the stigmatism of illegitimacy throughout his life. Little Willie wanted to become a priest and even the church rejected him.

Father Baden wrote “Mr. Rohan who is keeping school on my land has among his school-boys a subject that might become a clergyman were not the illegitimacy of his birth an obstacle to it. I thought proper to inform you of his virtue and talents, and also that the parents are willing and in some degree able to pro-cure him a liberal education. He belongs to Mr. Hayden’s family, tho he be not his father: he is twelve or thirteen years of age.”

When Basil Hayden made his will in 1804, he also named Willie, devising to him half of the money he left to his own children but no real estate. Basil could have ignored him entirely, but to his credit, he did not.

About a year after Basil’s death, Henrietta married Charles Ewing (believed to have been Willie’s birth father). You have to wonder “what was she thinking?” Father Baden was incensed and wrote, “The widow Hayden who had disgraced herself in marriage, has renewed her past scandals and finished by marrying hextrodoxum coramheterodoxo (a protestant).” The marriage ended in divorce and annulled by the church. It seems that when he married Henrietta, Charles Ewing was still married to another woman.

Little Willie married Mary Hayden, daughter of William Hayden and Elizabeth Thompson. They moved away from the rest of the family to Daviess County, KY. Despite his rejection by the church, he remained a devout Catholic, supported the church financially throughout his adult life, and left the church property at his death in 1866. Henrietta died in 1837 and is buried beside Basil at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Marion County,

In January of 1886, Richard R. Coomes wrote and mailed the following letter to Webb (Beaven, Blandford, etc. by Sister Donnelly}: Hon. B. J. Webb: As some of St. Raphael's congregation appear to show some dissatisfaction of the short and, in truth, an unjust reference to the said congregation, I feel bound to give some items concerning it. The facts concerning its settlement are these: In 1834 a man well known about Holy Cross as Little Willie Hayden, son of Basil Hayden, sold his farm near the church and came to Daviess Co., KY, to look for better situations for himself and boys. With him came his brother, Lewis Hayden, and selected lands adjoining the St. Raphael farm. Willie agreeing to purchase 1400 acres in a body, adjoin in the 200 acres that he had selected for the church and Lewis, a like amount adjoining ti in the neighborhood if Wm. R. Griffith would donate the 200 acres to the church. He, Griffith, willingly gave the 200 acres and by doing so made the sale of the 3,000 acres to the 2 brothers and made a start in the sale of a great deal of land that he owned in that part of the county, both benefitting himself, the Hayden brothers, and the Catholic Church. The lands around St. Raphael's are good and now well settled up by prosperous farmers. The above purchase was made in 1833 or 4. There was not at the time a Catholic living nearer than Owensboro 10. Little Willie's family came in 1835 as the first settlers in St. Alphonso's congregation, his house the first and only station for the church until the first log church was built in 1844 and he the principal head and front of CAtholic affairs so long as he was able to get about. He died Dec 6, 1867, aged 82 years. There was another William Hayden who settled near St. Raphaels but moved within the bounds of St. Alfonsus before 1840.

In 1841 when I moved within the bounds of the then St. Raphaels, now St. Martin's, there was living in the St. Raphael's congregation Randall Blanddforde, William Sims, Reson Cravens, John Livers, Charles Clayton, John Hayden, John Mattingly, Sylvester Hayden, James M. Hayden, Phillip Hayden's widow, and family, Thadius Coomes, and others whose names I can't now recall. But this I can say, that after 1845, by marriages and immigration the county filled up very fast so that it was soon necessary to build the church of St. Alfonso within seven miles of St. Raphael's and a few years thereafter that of St. Martin's, both principally within the original boundary of St. Raphael's all of which may be said to be a fairly prosperous farming country so that the Hayden purchase gave to the Catholics of KY a chance for homes without having to go so far west, and as a general thing, to do better nearer home, not that I am opposed to going West by any means, some of my own brothers and a sister went and did better. I hope this will give you a better idea of the St. Raphael country.

Sources

• Reno, Linda. The County Times, St Mary's County, MD, [2], 24 Feb 2011, Page 23, A Journey Through Time, www.scribd.com/document/79537276/2011-02-24.

• [3] Ancestry.com research and supporting documentation

• [4] Find A Grave Memorial

• Ancestry Sources: 1850 United States Federal Census, 1860 United States Federal Census, Ancestry Family Trees, Family Data Collection - MarriagesKentucky, Compiled Marriages, 1802-1850, Kentucky, County Marriage Records, 1783-1965, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current

• Donnelly, Mary Louise. HAYDEN / RAPIER AND ALLIED FAMILIES COLONIAL MARYLAND, KENTUCKY, USA, Ennis, TX: MLD Genealogy Company 1991