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William Hayden
Biographical Sketch On The Life Of William Hayden William Hayden, companion of Walter Scott in his early labors as evangelist of the Mahoning Baptist Association, was a man of rare gifts: with a good physique, strong intellect, tender emotional nature, clear voice and fluent speech, he commanded attention at once and held it closely both in sermon and song. He was a logical reasoner, and pressed the claims of the gospel upon thinking men with convincing power and a pathos that was well-nigh irresistible. He used to say: "If I wish to convert a man, I never debate with him in public, but get as near to him as I can and kindly talk with him in private and bring his mind into personal contact with the gospel story of Jesus and His divine mission. But if a man is bold and defiant, like Goliath, and is leading people astray, then I will floor him if I can." And he could and often did, for he was quick in action and always had his cause and argument well in hand. He was especially strong in the internal evidences, and in miracles and prophecy. He went to a village on the Western Reserve to preach on a Lord's Day, and was entertained at night at the home of a good sister, whose husband was an infidel, but very hospitable. In the early evening he introduced the subject of the claims of the Bible upon the rational confidence of men, and drew from his kind host a statement of his objections to Christianity. As he presented them one at a time, Hayden, with utmost frankness and fairness, discussed them and refuted them so clearly that the objector surrendered them one after another, regardless of the fleeting hours of the night. As the morning dawn appeared in the east, he said: "Have you any further objections to urge?" "Only one more," was the reply. It was stated and completely answered, and his candid opponent surrendered. Quickly he asked: "What, then, will you do?" As promptly the response came: "I will confess Christ and follow Him." And he did, and was a faithful Christian all the rest of his long life and blessed the world with an excellent family. On another occasion, in a community where skepticism was prevalent and boastful, Wm. Hayden preached a sermon on the miracles of Jesus—publicly performed, of great number, variety and beneficence, and wrought immediately, instantaneously and without failure in a single instance: so evidencing the divine power and prerogative of our Lord. It flashed upon him that skeptics claimed that miracles of a similar character were wrought by mesmerism and other powers. He turned suddenly toward the objectors and said: "What do men say to all of this? What do they do? They say, `Put a man to sleep and take his leg off and he doesn't know it.' Humph! Take a man's leg off! That's nothing. Put a man's leg on once. Try that." His hearers caught the point and the scoffers were put to silence by the forceful reply. William Hayden once said that his brother Sutton, with his sweet voice, sang people into heaven, but he had kept many infidels from going to hell.
He was born in Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio when four years old. In 1828 he was set apart to preach the gospel. During his ministry of thirty-five years he traveled ninety thousand miles, sixty thousand of which were on horseback, a distance of over three times round the world. He baptized 1,207, and preached over nine thousand sermons—that is, 287 sermons a year—and once he preached fifty sermons in the month of November. His industry was proverbial. He was incessant in preaching, teaching and in conversation—in public and private. He created openings, occupied them, and when others could be found to hold the position, he broke new ground. He was the first man and the chief operator in raising up the churches in Ravenna, Aurora, Shalersville, Akron, Russell and several other places. He did all this work largely at his own expense. To perpetuate and carry on the work, he promoted the founding of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute and the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. His converts were thorough and decided like himself. It is said that he could, from memory, almost reproduce the New Testament. —Alanson Wilcox, History Of The Disciples Of Christ In Ohio, The Standard Publishing Co., c.1918, Chapter 9, “Great Leaders” pages 67-69, 83
Death Of Elder
William Hayden.
Collamer, Ohio,
April, 1863. BRO. CAMPBELL:—It becomes my duty, painful duty indeed, to announce the demise of another of your earliest associates in the gospel. My dear brother, WILLIAM HAYDEN, is sleeping his last sleep. He died Tuesday morning, the 7th inst., and was buried, amid universal lamentation, on Friday, the 10th. His age was 63 yrs. 9 mos. For about two years he has suffered by a rare disease, a gradual loss of power in the motor nerves of the system, causing debility and decay of all the muscles. The organs of speech sympathized with this condition of the system to such an extent, that when he was near the close of his life he could scarce give utterance to an intelligible word. He continued to preach long after his tongue had become paralytic, and it was remarked by many that his discourse and conversation gained rather than lost the melody and ripe maturity of a soul drawing nigh the gales of the eternal world. The pain of his sickness was not acutely severe. He suffered mostly for the want of breath. It is a pleasure to know that he manifested great patience throughout the whole time; and this is the more remarkable, as he possessed a constitutional activity and energy rarely excelled. He foresaw the result of the fatal malady that was dealing with him quite as clearly as any other person; and he witnessed the gradual and threatening approaches Of the “King of terrors” with a valorous firmness which nothing but an unfaltering trust in Jesus our Savior can supply. At last, when the fatal hour came, three prayers which I have known him to utter for more than twenty years, were all granted him:—one, that he might possess his reason; and he did have it perfectly: one, that he might be favored with speech; this was given him in measure; the other, that he might pass quietly away; for most tranquilly he bid the earth adieu, and was at rest in Abraham’s bosom. No cloud, nor even shadow, passed over his mind. Even his fine memory was as quick and powerful as in the full tide of animate health. His chief and almost exclusive thoughts related to the gospel and its prosperity in the earth. Within a few days of his death, two of his neighbors, one of them an unbeliever, came to see him on business. The business transacted, knowing the views of his neighbor, he made a few general remarks on the power and excellency of the Christian religion, with such force and pathos that his visitor left him weeping like a child. His life and labors came in review, and the affectionate remembrances of his co-laborers in this religious reformation to which he had consecrated himself, afforded him great joy, in hope of the re-union that awaits all the children of God. Clearness of views, boldness, enterprise, a surplus of energy, and a marked force of will, constituted in him a peculiar power, through which he impressed his character firmly and ineffaceably on this living age. No censures will be passed on me, especially by those within the circle of his labors, for supplementing a few statements in regard to his character, labors and history. He was born in Rastrover township, Westmoreland co., Penna., June 30th, 1799. About four years afterwards, his father, Samuel Hayden, moved to Youngstown, in the new and almost wilderness State of Ohio. Here William, the oldest child in a family of eight children, suffered the usual hardships and privations of life in a new forest home. He became a deist, and then an atheist, before he was twelve years of age. He was rescued from the vortex of atheism by the reflection that if nothing had eternally or rather primarily existed, nothing could have arisen, or been originated hence a cause uncaused is self-evident. From deism he was driven by reasoning that if God made us, we are not too insignificant for him to govern and judge us. — Having little else to read in those days be perused the New Testament. He was charmed by the character of Christ as it is exhibited in the gospels. Alarmed by the growing wickedness, he resolved to turn his course and reform. He attended meetings, sought opportunity to hear religious conversations, and was especially interested in hearing Christians sing the hymns that celebrate the love, compassion, mediation and intercession of the Redeemer. At length the following passage of Scripture thoroughly aroused him: “I say unto you, that for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment; for by thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned.” (Matt. 12:36, 37.) “Fleeing from the wrath to come,” he found “refuge in the hope set before us in the gospel.” And ever afterward Jesus Christ was to him “all and in all” — the joy, the refuge, and the delight of his soul. He was baptized by Elder Joshua Woodworth, May 19th, 1816, in his seventeenth year, and entered the Baptist church, of which his parents were already members. He was one of the first to embrace and to enlist for the defense of original Bible Christianity. A close reader of the “Christian Baptist” from its first issue in 1823, he was fully prepared for the work of religious reformation plead with such distinguished ability in that periodical. He was a member and delegate in the Mahoning Baptist Association which met in New Lisbon in August, 1827, when Elder Walter Scott was appointed by that body to the work of an Evangelist.  In one year the whole country in Northeastern Ohio was awakened by the fervent eloquence of that accomplished orator and preacher.— The following year, Aug., 1828, the Association met in Warren, Trumbull co. At the special request of Bro. Scott, William Hayden was chosen and appointed his fellow-laborer. Thus he was the second man called forth into the evangelical field, and he aided much to swell the tide of religious power which swept over the whole country. While the members of the Association were discussing bounds and limits for Scott’s field of labor, the gifted preacher cried out, “Give me my Bible, my head, and Bro. William Hayden, and we will go forth to convert the world to Jesus Christ.” A brother arose immediately and said, “I move that we give Bro. Scott his Bible, his head, and Bro. William Hayden”; which motion was promptly seconded and unanimously passed. He was ordained to the work of the ministry that same fall, in October, by Elders Walter Scott and Adamson Bentley. Elder Scott remarked in the hearing of the writer of this sketch, that he chose Bro. Hayden, not only for eminent preaching ability, but also for his musical powers. “There is not a man,” he said, “in the whole Association that can sing like him.” Scott, himself possessor of admirable and delicate musical feelings, rightly appreciated the value of such a power, and correctly discerned the depth and almost unlimited compass and melody of Hayden’s voice. Few ever equaled him in power and sweetness of tone. It was soft as a flute, and often swelled in majesty like a tempest. Hundreds came to his meetings to hear him sing; and he always had a store at hand, animated and plaintive, with which he could arouse, alarm, or melt the sinner’s heart. From the time of his selection and ordination, preaching the gospel was his chief business of life. During his ministry of near thirty-five years, he traveled nearly ninety thousand miles, full sixty thousand of which he made on horseback!—that is, by this latter mode of travel, more than twice round the world! These travels extended from Syracuse, N.Y., on the East, to the Mississippi River on the West; and from the Provinces of Canada to Virginia. Yet his labors were mostly performed on the Western Reserve and its borders in N.E. Ohio, where he planted many churches. The baptisms by his own hands were twelve hundred and seven, about seven hundred of whom were females. He preached over nine thousand sermons; which is two hundred and sixty-one discourses per annum for every year of his public life. He once preached fifty sermons in the month of November alone. Besides all these pulpit services, his private labors were abundant and incessant. The people gathered about him for the instruction and edification of his conversation. Few excelled him in this kind of power. He had a peculiar turn for winning attention and imparting instruction in the social circle, mingling the humor that charms with the experience that imparts information. Few could relate or relish an anecdote better, or apply one more appropriately for the purposes of illustration. Yet he never indulged in recitals of any in which the adorable Name, or any of the titles of the Most High, were even playfully, much less irreverently introduced;—a practice against which he bore frequent and forcible testimony. Few persons, perhaps, have done so much as he to start forth others into the gospel field. Though occasionally severe on an ignorant, arrogant preacher, he was prompt and sagacious to discern and encourage real merit. A number of our most useful and popular preachers, whose names personal delicacy forbids me to mention, will attest his seasonable words in a critical juncture of overwhelming discouragement, by which they were aroused to another and successful effort to stand forth for the gospel. He has done much more to explore resources of power and to originate means for the execution of benevolent schemes than the world will ever know. There is no test of real bravery of the spirit like that which is often presented in the work of preaching the gospel. To labor year in, year out, in season, out of season,” pioneering a new cause, over all roads in all seasons, few to encourage, many to censure, with meager compensation, often none at all, ah! this is courage, this is bravery, this transcends all earthly heroism! and what is the inducement,— what the “pay?” To rescue here and there a conscience-laden sinner, to help a fainting pilgrim, to deliver a needy soul from the meshes of ignorance, temptation and sin; to bless the world with the joys of salvation; to give unto them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Isa. 61: 3. His mental powers were most rapid and energetic in action. His method of reasoning tended to generalization, embracing great variety in subject and method. Though not favored in early life with an extensive education, his taste, discernment and industry very fully supplied this lack of opportunity, and stored his mind with much general information and critical historic learning. The master quality of his mind was his almost matchless memory, —memory of history, incident, event and chronology. In all his temporal business, of which he transacted considerable all life long, he kept no book account. He made no memorandum of his sermons; and he could report at any time, promptly and accurately, the number of his sermons, baptisms, miles of travel, and multitudes of incidents connected with all these matters, —and all without pen or pencil to aid him! It were vanity, perhaps, to assign him in this behalf a place with Macaulay, or Johnson; but all who knew him wondered at its power, a power which was all his command with undiminished force up to the hour of his death. In his character were chiefly discernible firmness, inflexibility, affection, and qualities eminently social, and hospitable. His religion was conscience and reverence: his humanity, a tender and systematic benevolence. He gave many hundreds for humane, religious and educational purposes.
During the course of his public ministry in the gospel he had as
fellow laborers Elder Thomas Campbell, Brothers
Walter Scott, John
Henry, Cyrus Bosworth and Marcus Bosworth, Benjamin Alton, Harvey
Brockett, Calvin Smith, and William Collins, all of whom are at rest
with him from their labors; besides the following brethren with many
others who still remain to fill up their days in public
usefulness, viz.: Adamson
Bentley, M. S. Clapp, A. B. Green, J. J. Moss, Jonas Hartzel, J. H.
Jones, J. P. Robison, Dr. S. E. Shepard, J. M. Bartlett, Edwin
Wakefield, Isaac Errett, J. W. Lanphear, E. H. Hawley, L. Cooley,
and W. A. Belding.
— A. S. H. —Report by A.S. Hayden, Millennial
Harbinger, May, 1863, Pages 232-236
Directions To The Grave Of William Hayden William and Mary Hayden are buried in Chagrin Falls, just southeast of Cleveland, Ohio. Head southeast out of Cleveland on Hwy 422. After crossing I-271 take the exit at Hwy. 91 and turn right (south). Take a left on Solon Rd, heading back north. Go through Bentleyville and head into Chagrin Falls. As you come into town Solon Rd. will take a sharp turn to the right and become Maple St. You will be in the downtown area. Turn right(south) on S. Franklin St. and the Evergreen Hill Cemetery will be on your right. Many of the Haydens are buried in this cemetery. According to the records Elder William Hayden is buried in Lot 1 Section 2, very near the street. Enter the cemetery as pictured below and turn right. Go one block and turn left. Begin looking to your left for Section 2. In the same cemetery, very near Hayden's grave is very near the grave of Adamson Bentley.
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