Workers labor over raising Hays-Knotts house above flood plain
Steel beams are inserted under building for jacking
Silcott buried in the backyard - 1865
Arnoldsburg's Hays-Knotts house is getting a makeover
Knott's says he will remove paint from cedar shake shingles
By Bob Weaver (2004)
Peregrine Hays and his wife Louisa Sexton Hays arrived in Arnoldsburg in
1840, over 160 years ago. Today the mark of the Hays family can be found up
and down the West Fork, in addition to being one of the significant historical
personages prior to and following the founding of Calhoun County.
This past week, a "modern" house built by Peregrine's grandson George W.
Hays, Jr. received special attention with the rising of the structure out of the
flood plain. The house has been owned by Clyde and Judy Knotts since
1993.
A house moving company from Logan County is doing the job, lifting the house
32 inches, more than adequately placing the house above flooding West Fork
waters.
Workers had already inserted large steal beams under the structure,
yesterday, using lots of wooden ties and jacks. The house was carefully being
raised, including a brick chimney.
"We've been working on restoring it since we bought it," said Knotts, who with
his wife have done extensive renovation to the four-bedroom dwelling. "Our
next step is to restore the cedar shakes, which were unfortunately painted a
number of years ago," he said.
Hays ordered the Sears and Roebuck house in 1919 after his house burned to
the ground. His original home, likely a log cabin owned by his father G. Warren
Hays, was located in a bottom below Arnoldsburg on the original Peregrine
Hays estate.
Louisa Chapel was built on land donated by Hays family in 1889
One of two graves beside Louisa Chapel,
there are at least three more under
church
Clyde Knotts and Esther Laughlin examine abandon hillside graveyard
Frank Haymaker's stone uncovered
William Campbell and wife buried inside fenced area
The Louisa Chapel Church, directly across the road from the Hays-Knotts home, was
built about 1889 and named for George Hays' grandmother, wife of Peregrine.
Clyde Knotts is an active member in the church, and has helped with its
renovation.
George Hays (1881-1936) married Myrtle Reading and not unlike his father and
grandfather was a stalwart citizen of Arnoldsburg, engaging in farming, road
building and owning the first service station, selling Overland and Chevy cars.
He also operated a bus line between Spencer and Glenville.
George represented Calhoun in the state legislature in the 1920s before his
untimely death of a heart attack. He was the father of well-known residents
Bernard, now deceased, and George Roessing Hays is 92, living in Florida.
"Do you know there are three Hay's graveyards real close, plus the folks who
are buried under and beside the Louisa Chapel church?" asked Knotts. We
went to visit them.
At least three graves are under the church, marked with flag stones, and two
graves in the yard. One grave belongs to clergyman and Confederate soldier,
Elim Mitchell, who was killed at Arnoldsburg. Another may be a Union soldier
who died at the Arnoldsburg Skirmish and the others are likely black slaves
owned by the Hays family.
Buried in the backyard of the Hays-Knotts house is the single grave of Amie
Eva Sexton Silcott (1836-1865), wife of the county's first clerk George W.
Silcott, who moved to Grantsville and was buried years later in the Bethlehem
Cemetery.
"It seemed sorta strange to look out the back door and see her monument,"
said Knotts. "But we got use to it."
Clyde, Esther Laughlin and I trekked up the steep hillside across the road from
the old Arnoldsburg motel (US 33-119) to the abandoned Hays Cemetery, which
has grown up with brush, green briers and weeds, with most of the monuments
down. Some graves are marked with flagstones.
G. Warren and Mary Roessing Hays, he the son of Peregrine, are buried there,
along with his son Perry B. and his wife Rosa Stump, who both died young,
among other Hays relatives.
In a designated part of the cemetery, enclosed by a steel posted fence, lies
the bodies of William H. Campell and his wife Nancy, both likely passing before
1900.
The Hays-Haymaker cemetery is just downstream from Arnoldsburg. George
Hays is buried there.
Clyde Knotts said his family enjoys living where the
Calhoun old-timers first came, fought the fights over the establishment of the
county, went to the Civil War and worked hard for their families and
community.
Note: Clyde Knotts is now deceased.
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