William Bratton Hays (January 12, 1844 – September 16, 1912) served as

Mayor of Pittsburgh The mayor of Pittsburgh is the chief executive of the government of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Pittsburgh. This article is a listing of past (and present) mayors of Pittsburgh. ...

from March 15, 1903 to 1906.

Early life

Hays was born into a meat packing family in 1844. He made his fortune in the coal industry in nearby

Indiana County, Pennsylvania Indiana County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the west central part of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,246. Its county seat is Indiana. Indiana County comprises the Indiana, PA Mic ...

; he was also involved in the lumber business in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Pittsburgh politics

Hays first served in government as city assesso

He was appointed the mayor of Pittsburgh by the Pennsylvania Governor after Mayor Diehl's corruption scandal. During his service, the governor re-installed elections in the city, and he was subsequently voted in as mayor. Hays presided over some of Pittsburgh's greatest feats and also one of its greatest disasters. The

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

went to the first ever

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

in 1903, and the film industry's first

Nickelodeon movie theater The Nickelodeon was the first type of indoor exhibition space dedicated to showing projected motion pictures in the United States and Canada. Usually set up in converted storefronts, these small, simple theaters charged five cents for admissi ...

was opened on Smithfield Street in 1905. Hays though also had to contend with the devastating city hall fire making the government home a total loss and destroying many records and documents in the process.

Later life

Hays died in 1912 and was buried in

Allegheny Cemetery Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a historic rural cemetery. The non-sectarian, wooded hillside park is located at 4734 Butler Street in the Lawrenceville neighborhood, and boun ...

. The Hays neighborhood of Pittsburgh was named in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hays, William B. 1844 births 1912 deaths Mayors of Pittsburgh People from Indiana County, Pennsylvania Burials at Allegheny Cemetery 19th-century American politicians