HAYS, DANIEL PEIXOTTO

HAYS, DANIEL PEIXOTTO (1854–1923), U.S. lawyer. Hays who was born in Westchester County, New York, received his LL.B. from Columbia University Law School in 1875. A member of an old and prominent New York Jewish family, he was the grandson of Benjamin Etting Hays (1779–1858) and   a descendant of Jacob Hays (see hays family), who went to the New York Colony in the 1720s. Active in New York City and Westchester County politics for many years, Hays served as president of the Harlem Democratic Club, as delegate to several New York State Democratic conventions, and was appointed head of New York City's Municipal Civil Service Commission by Mayor Gilroy. Hays vigorously supported the presidential candidacy of Grover Cleveland in City and Country, a Nyack, New York, newspaper owned by him. Hays was also extremely active in Jewish communal affairs, serving on the executive committee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, as trustee and secretary of the Jewish Publication Society, and president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association. He was also a founder of the American Hebrew. His Collected Poems appeared in 1905. (Abram Kanof)