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Welcome To Sullivan County, Indiana
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John S. BaysThe late John S. Bays, of Sullivan, was widelv known and deeply honored by the court and bar of both Sullivan and Vigo counties, his prominence as a corporation lawyer bringing him very frequently to the courts of Terre Haute and other points in southern Indiana. Commencing in Sullivan county as a general practitioner, nearly a quarter of a century ago, his strong mind became more and more interested in the development of the great business and industrial development of the section of the state which he had made his home, and those forces themselves began to call upon him with ever increasing insistence for his careful, wise and practical legal guidance. The most important development of southern Indiana centered in its coal interests, and prior to their consolidation Mr. Bays had become the legal counsel for most of the large companies. By thus specializing he achieved a standing which placed him among the best informed and most successful lawyers in the country devoted to the management and exploitation of these vast properties. About two years before his death he effected a consolidation of the coal mines of southern Indiana, and this master stroke extended his reputation as a corporation lawyer throughout the central states. The vast business that resulted from this combination passed through his hands, and he did the work quickly because many years of application had made him thoroughly familiar with the details. He had always been a tremendous worker, all his habits were temperate, his constitution was vital with magnetism and based upon an abundance of physical strength, and yet it is doubtless true that the incessant and concentrated labors which finally gave birth to this last and greatest success of his professional life had much to do with the undermining of his health and his inability to resist the inroads of the disease which, with such comparative suddenness, snatched him from his business associates, his professional co-workers, and his loving kindred and friends. He spent the winter preceding his death in California, but, upon his return to Sullivan in the spring it was found that the change had been unavailing, and after several months of heroic struggling and the final resignation of a calm and resigned Christian, he died in the midst of his family on the 13th of August, 1906. On the day of his funeral the whole citv practically suspended business, and the memorial resolutions of the bar associations of Sullivan, Greene, Vigo and Knox counties indicated how general was the feehng of deep loss which pervaded the ranks of his professional associates. In the procession which accompanied his re- mains from the church to the grave were representatives of these organi- zations, as well as from the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he had long been active. "Coupled with his commanding ability as a lawyer," says one of the tributes, "was a high character as a citizen and a lovable disposition as a man and a friend. Ever kind and courteous in his bearing toward his associates at the bar and litigants, fair and honorable in his professional conduct, respectful and considerate of the judge on the bench, and faith- ful above all to those who were so fortunate as to become his clients, he has left among us a name to be cherished and an example to be emu- lated with profit." John S. Bays was a native of Point Commerce, Greene county, Indiana, where he was born on the 27th of January, 1850. His father, William S. Bays, was born in Virginia, and after his marriage to a Kentucky lady came to Indiana, where he prosecuted his dual calling of hardware merchant and farmer. The parents both died on the old Bays homestead near Worthington, Greene county. John S. obtained his preliminary education in the common schools of his native place, and in 1867, at the age of seventeen, entered the Indiana University at Bloomington. Because of the illness of his father he was obliged to leave the university, after completing a three years course there. In 1871 he entered the law department of the university, from which he was graduated. Shortly afterward, in 1875, he began practice at Worthing- ton, where he remained for five years, being also the publisher of the Times during a portion of that period. In 1880 he removed to Bloom- field and formed a law partnership with Hon. Lucien Shaw, the firm practicing in Los Angeles, California, in 1883-4. (Judge Shaw is now a member of the supreme court of California.) In the latter year Mr. Bays returned to Indiana, and located at Sullivan, his home thereafter until his death. His talents and strength were all devoted to the practice of his profession and he ever preferred the career of an attorney, as he repeatedly declined to be a candidate for judge of the fourteenth judicial district. In politics he was a Democrat, but was never a candidate for any political office ; but during the administration of Governor Durbin he was appointed as the Democratic member of the board of directors of the Southern Hospital for the Insane, which position he held at the time of his death. The deceased was a member of the Methodist church, the Sullivan lodge of Odd Fellows, and a charter member of Sullivan Lodge No. 911, B. P. O. E. He was instrumental in securing many public improvements for Sullivan, among others the founding of the Carnegie library, of which he was one of the first trustees. In 1876 Mr. Bays was united in marriage with Miss Hettie Fenton, of Indianapolis, but a native of Canada. She is a daughter of John Fenton, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, and married in Clifton, Eng- land. He came to Canada in the fifties with his wife and when they migrated to the United States located in Ohio. Mr. Fenton served in the ranks of the Union army throughout the Civil war, and afterward located in Indianapolis, where hoth he and his wife spent their last years and where Mrs. John S. Bays was educated. The widow still resides at Sullivan, the mother of the following: Lee, born January 30, 1878; Harold, born January 26, 1880; and Fred P., whose biography is else- where given. Lee received a thorough literary training at DePauw University and graduated in law at the University of Wisconsin. He married Miss Zoe E. Chaney, daughter of Congressman John C. Chaney. Harold, the second son, graduated from the Sullivan High School, and served four years in the army, his experience covering campaigns both in Cuba and the Philippines. He then graduated from Culver Academy, and while a student there held the western academic record in the hammer throw for 1902-3. He married Miss Glenn Lucas, daughter of Captain V. H. Lucas, a sketch of whose life is given in other pages of this work. Harold C. Rays is now head of the artillery department of the Culver Military Academy and instructor in English and mathematics. He has two sons. Lee and Fred Fenton Bays are now associated in the practice of the law, the former having previously been connected with his father. A history of Sullivan County, Indiana, closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth THOMAS J. WOLFE EDITOR ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK CHICAGO 1909 |
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