• Her [Elizabeth Hay] son, Walter, age 15, is, in 1885, living with his Uncle James O’Brien in Minnesota. Maybe he was just visiting for the summer.2056

• Walter Hay filed for his first patent 11 May 1891, for an electric bell. He was 21, and living in Chicago.  I surely wish I knew what he was doing there in those years. He filed a second in 1892 and a third in 1893.
On the patent application filed from Erie, Pa., by my grandfather, Walter Hay, it is Patent No. 893,240, filed 13 May 1907, and granted 14 July 1908. It is for a "Detachable Chain."
Checking the 1900 census, Walter Hay was living in Grand Rapids, Mi., and is listed as a mechanical engineer. By then, he had patented 9 inventions.  I wrote to the Grand Rapids Historical Society to inquire what sort of industries were there at that time.
Grand Rapids was known as a furniture-making center. I'll let you know if I hear anything.2076

• The history lady in Grand Rapids writes that the 1900 directory lists Walter Hay as a "designer," but does not list an employer, as it does for others. He was living as a boarder with his wife and baby, with the Devore family, widow and young girl. Looking at the dates the three patents were finally issued for his car, 10 April 1900, which were fully assigned to Emerson Morse Hotchkiss, and finding him in Grand Rapids, Michigan in June of 1900, makes me believe he must have had a terrible falling out with Hotchkiss. News articles indicate the Hay and Hotchkiss Company had purchased a manufacturing plant in New Haven for $30,000. The first car seems to have been begun in 1898, and rolled off the assembly line in the summer of 1899. (Fountainhead Antique Car Museum attributes the date to 1898.)2132

• The first letter from Mr. Dix, written when Walter was 20, in Dec of 1890, suggests the cloud Walter lived under--perhaps a reference to his absconded father and grandfather. “I’m not surprised that such is the case for I have always had faith in you from the start--even when nearly every body was prophesying evil for you.”2133

• Walter is now in Allegheny, Pa. where he went to superintend a plant to be built for the great pickle man. I think his name is Heinz or some such name. His factory covers acres of ground. Allegheny is just across the river from Pittsburg.36, p 8, lines 326-328

• The Chain Company originated in 1913 with Walter Hay, president, and John Lowrie, secretary. In 1915 it was reorganized. Abel Bostwick became president, W. G. Brumbaugh, secretary, and Walter Hay, manager. The company manufactured conveyor chains and sprocket wheels. They employed from fifteen to twenty-five men and occupied the site formerly owned by The M. E. Frazier Company. In 1922, the industry was removed to Sandusky, Ohio.2134, p 25

• Walter invented the first 4-cylinder car in the United States, called the "Hay-Hotchkiss Horseless Carriage."  He was an engineering genius.
Alice and Walter Hay lived in New Haven, CT in 1899, where their oldest daughter, Frances, was born on September 22, 1899.
They left New Haven, the story goes, because my grandfather got tired of the Yale University students hitting on my pretty grandmother.2077

• He was an inventor of cars. Founder of the Union Chain Co., Sandusky, Ohio. Died of a cerebral hemorrhage 2/8/1936, after being told by the Board of Directors of his company that he was being “retired.” He went home, lay down on the sofa, and died.2023

• THE HAY AND HOTCHKISS CO.
Walter Hay, a mechanical engineer of Seville, Ohio, inventor of a new hydrocarbon motor called the Hay Frictionless Gasolene Motor has associated with him E. M. Hotchkiss, of Waterbury, Conn., and the Hay & Hotchkiss Co., of New Haven, Conn., has been organized to manufacture the gasolene motor above-mentioned, motor vehicles and motor fire engines.
The new company have purchased the factory formerly occupied by the B. Manville Carriage Co., corner of Wooster and Wallace streets, for the sum of $30,000, and are employing about a dozen hands in the construction of their first vehicle. Next spring it is their intention to largely augment this force and add much machinery.
The motor, of 5 HP., weighs 240 pounds, rather more than is necessary, Mr. Hay thinks, and has a 70 pound fly wheel. It requires no cooling water, runs very smoothly, and no injury will result if it is unoiled for months. There are four cylinders, which are cleansed after each explosion, thus obviating odor, and by the use of a muffler, which has no retarding effect, the exhaust cannot be heard 20 feet away from the motor.
Speed is regulated by means of compressed air, and the sparking device works automatically, no spark being produced unless an impulse is needed.
The carriage of the new company will be similar to other leading makes of gasoline vehicles in its general operation, although it is their intention to improve greatly upon the one here illustrated.2135

• I am sending you a picture of the Hay-Hotchkiss car, in a separate email.  I located one a few years ago--it's owned by J. William Middendorf, in Rhode Island.  I think he was Secretary of the Navy under Tricky Dick.  He's very ancient. I talked to him a few years ago about coming to visit the car, as it is the only one in existence.2080

• My grandfather’s car, the Hay-Hotchkiss Horseless Carriage, has been acquired from Admiral J. William Middendorf, by the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska. It arrived there recently and I have been working with them to host a reception next summer in honor of my grandfather Walter Hay.539

• [Letter] Written to Walter Noble Hay, born August 22, 1870, Freeport, Illinois, by his mother, Elizabeth O’Brien Hay, less than six weeks before the death of Walter’s father, Jonathan Hay, on January 31, 1899. Walter was living in New Haven, CT. while trying to drum up orders for the Hay-Hotchkiss Horseless Carriage. He was newly married on June 5, 1898, in Chicago, Illinois, to Alice Leaton.539, p 2, footnote 3

• The trip is ON to Alaska, with a reception to take place on or about August 22, 2010 (140th birthday of Walter Hay.)2136

• [excerpt] An early day horseless carriage, designed and built by Ohio inventor Walter Hay, prompted a unique reunion for his descendants at the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum.2137

• 1880 Census: Freeport, Stephenson, Illinois. Age 9, b IL. Father b OH; mother b VT. Living in mother’s household.2068
• 1885 Minnesota Census: Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota. Age 14, b IL. Living with James O’Brien household.2042
• 1900 Census: Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan. Age 29, b Aug 1870, IL. Mechanical Engineer. Father b OH; mother b VT.2138
• 1910 Census: Seville, Medina, Ohio. Age 39, b IL. Employment difficult to read. Father b OH; mother b VT.2139
• 1920 Census: Seville, Medina, Ohio. Age 49, b IL. Manager, Union [?] Works. Father b OH; mother b VT.2140
• 1930 Census: Sandusky, Erie, Ohio. Age 59, b IL. Engineer, Metal factory. Father b OH; mother b VT. Age 28 at marriage.2141, p 1