Francis Edwin Hayward
In fertility of resource, in the practical application of every scientific force, in genius of organization and in breadth of operation, America leads the world. Ohio and the Middle West have not failed to supply their due quota of minds rich in natural faculties to the long list of American men of ability, and the subject of the present review, Francis Edwin Hayward, of Ironton, has well won a place on the roll of successful promoters and manufacturers. Mr. Hayward was born May 13, 1848, in the Lower French Grant, Scioto County, Ohio, and is a son of Eliphaz Hayward and Mary (Cadot) Hayward, and a grandson of Moses Hayward and Claudius Cadot.
The boyhood and youth of Francis Edwin Hayward were passed at the place of his nativity, his early education being secured in the public schools, this being subsequently supplemented by a course at Duff's Commercial College, at Pittsburgh, where he was graduated in 1870. He began his business career as a salesman of Singer sewing machines for George D. Selby, his territory being Lawrence and Jackson counties, Ohio, and the success which he gained in this line of endeavor leads him to regard it as the most notable achievement, all things considered, in his long and uniformly successful career. Succeeding this, Mr. Hayward spent three years in the mercantile department of the Los Gatos Manufacturing Company, of Los Gatos, California, and in the spring of 1874 returned to Ohio and established himself in the retail grocery business at Ironton, an enterprise with which he was identified for a period of twenty-six years, merging it into the exclusive wholesale grocery business with Drake S. Murdock, March 26, 1900. For a long period of years he was a director in the Ironton Fire Brick Company, was its secretary and treasurer for eighteen years, and eventually became its president, a position which he held until 1903, when, because of ill health, he sold the two plants at Ironton and Hayward, Carter County, Kentucky, together with his mineral lands, to the Ashland Fire Brick Company, of which he became vice-president. At the time of the death of the president, S. S. Savage, in 1904. he was prevailed upon to accept the presidency of the concern, but in 1906 resigned from that position, sold his fire brick interests and retired from active business. Mr. Hayward then took his wife and daughter to California, where he spent four months, and since returning to Ironton, in 1907, has devoted his attention to the handling of stock and various other local investments. Mr. Hayward has long been greatly interested in business and financial enterprises at Ironton, and to their upbuilding has given the benefit of his broad experience, able management and shrewd business judgment. He is a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Ironton, of which he was vice-president for six years, a stockholder and director in the Ironton Portland Cement Company, and was formerly secretary of the Lawrence Telephone Company. One of his most notable achievements is the brick plant at Hayward, Carter County, Kentucky, which he erected in 1900. This became known as one of the most remarkable ventures of its kind in the country, because of the ease with which it was operated and the cheapness of production, and is still known as one of the most perfect plants of its kind to be found. Although now somewhat retired from the activities and worries of business life, Mr. Hayward continues to be a force
and an acknowledged power in whatever movement he engages in. As a citizen be has done much to advance the best interests of Ironton, and bis name is synonymous with strict integrity, business probity and public-spirited citizenship. In political matters he is an uncompromising republican.
On January 28, 1874, Mr. Hayward was married to Miss Julia A. Work, and three children have been born to this union, as follows: Frank Roy, who was four years with John Wanamaker and became assistant superintendent of the great department store of Siegel, Cooper & Company, of New York City; Claude Cadot, who was an attorney of Ironton, was with the law firm of Beleher & Hayward for a time and is now sales manager for the Ashland Fire Brick Co., of Ashland, Kentucky; and Mary Elizabeth, who resides with her parents.
From "A Standing History of the Hanging Rock Iron Region of Ohio" by Eugene B. Willard, Daniel W. Williams, George O. Newman and Charles B. Taylor. Published by Lewis Publishing Company, 1916