James M. Hays. Prominent among the enterprising business men of the younger generation, one who has come rapidly to the forefront in recent years is James M. Hays, proprietor of a flourishing cigar business at Piqua. Mr. Hays was born at this place, July 3, 1895, a son of Joseph A, and H. Myrtle (Myers) Hays, and a grandson of James T. Hays, of Kentucky, who fought as a Union soldier during the war between the North and South. Joseph A. Hays was born at Newport, Ky., and as a youth learned the trade of stove moulding, a vocation to which he devoted the major portion of his life. When the Favorite Stove Company elected to locate its plant at Piqua, Mr. Hays came with the forces of that concern to this city, and here rounded out a useful and honorable career, his death occurring November 17, 1919. James M. Hays was educated in the public schools of Piqua and on leaving school engaged in the cigar business, first at Wood and Wayne streets, in 1908, and later in the Bijou Theater building. He moved to his present up-to-date store at the northeast corner of Wayne and Water streets, October 15, 1916, having one of the best-appointed stores of its kind to be found at Piqua and comparing favorably with the establishments of any of the larger cities. Mr. Hays is also local distributor of the Cincinnati Post, Columbus Citizen and the Dayton News and is a young business man of marked intelligence and vigor and one who has established a sound place for himself in the confidence and respect of the general public and his associates in business circles. He was active in all war movements of local character, and is fraternally affiliated with the Elks, Eagles and Theatrical Mechanics Association. Mr. Hays married Nina, daughter of A. Fry, of Piqua, and to this union there have been born two children: Anita Jane and Dorothy May.