Honorable J. Hays Paxton

HON. J. HAYS PAXTON, former member of the Illinois Legislature, prominent Democratic leader in county and state, is a resident of Adams County. Mr. Paxton is one of the influential representatives of Western Illinois' agricultural interests. He has a beautiful farm near Golden, located on the rolling prairie lands in that section, and when any question affecting agriculture or the rural interests of the state is raised he can speak with authority derived from long and successful experience.

Mr. Paxton was born in the beautiful hills of Smyth County in Virginia, October 30, 1872. The Paxton’s were English, but a branch of the family moved to Holland and thence came to America, first settling in Pennsylvania and later going to Virginia. A member of this branch, Arthur Charles Paxton, served as a soldier in the American Revolutionary war. Mr. Paxton's grandfather, Reuben Paxton, was a planter and farmer in Virginia. The father of Mr. Paxton was Arthur W. Paxton, who was born in Virginia, in 1820, and lived all his life in that state. He died in 1896. During the Civil war he rose to the rank of captain in the Confederate army, and all his service was in his native state. He married Miss Nannie Snavely, who was also born in Smyth County, in 1837. She died in Illinois, in 1912. Arthur W. Paxton was the father of fifteen children, six by his first marriage and nine by his marriage to Miss Snavely.

J. Hays Paxton acquired a good education in Virginia, and then turned to the profession of teaching. He taught in the high school at Marion, Virginia, and in 1895 came to Illinois.  In this state he was also a teacher.

On November 13, 1890, he married Miss Elizabeth Steed. She was born on the farm where she and Mr. Paxton now reside, located five miles northeast of Golden, on the county line road. Her father, Henry L. Steed, was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mrs. Paxton was educated in the schools of Illinois. Throughout his long career as a prosperous farmer Mr. Paxton has been identified with the progressive men in his business. He has been active in farm bureau work. He farms 300 acres of land. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish-Rite Mason, member of the Eastern Star, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Modern Woodmen of America.

Politically Mr. Paxton has been a leader in the Democratic party for many years and is a staunch representative of the dry faction of that party. He served as a precinct committeeman and in 1920 was elected a member of the Legislature and took an active part in the dry legislation coming before that body. In 1930 Mr. Paxton was the Democratic candidate for Congress and in the election was beaten by the strong Republican vote outside his own county.

Mr. and Mrs. Paxton have three children. Orma Gertrude, who attended the Augusta High School and the Quincy College of Music, took p the teaching of music, which she followed until her marriage to Mr. J. Allen Morgan, and they reside at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and have one child, Marilyn. Glenn Gilbert Paxton was educated in the Augusta High School, was in the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Illinois and graduated from the law school of the State University in 1924. He is now practicing law in Chicago. He married Miss Florence Noseck, of Chicago, also a graduate of the University of Illinois, and they have a son, William Glenn. Zelma Paxton, the third child, graduated from the La Prairie High School, attended the Western Illinois State Teachers College at Macomb and is now a teacher in the public schools of her home locality.