434Boone Hays was the son of William Hays, who was killed by JAMES DAVIS on Femme Osage creek, in 1804. He married LYDIA SCHOLL, his cousin, and settled in Darst's Bottom in 1801. In 1818 he removed to Callaway Co., and built the first horse-mill in his part of the county. His children were Hardin, Jesse, Alfred, Wesley, Terilda, Eleanor, Amazon, Cinderella, Samuel, Mason and Mary B. Mr. Hays was married the 2nd time to a MRS. FRAZIER, of Memphis, Tenn., and in 1849 he went to California, where he died soon after. When Mr. Hays raised his first cabin in Callaway Co. he lacked a few logs of having enough to finish it, and went into the woods to cut some more. One of the trees, in falling, slipped and broke his leg, and the severe pain caused him to faint. As he was reeling and about to fall, JOHN P. MARTIN, who was standing near, caught him in his arms, and he too fainted, and they both fell to the ground together. A man standing near them, but who knew nothing of Hays' leg being broken, called out, "Hello there! Are you two drunk again?" Hays had his broken leg splinted and bound up, and then sat on a stump and gave directions about the completion of his cabin, as if nothing had occurred. He was a man of iron nerve and robust constitution.
ref: "Pioneer Families of Missouri"

First wife, Lydia Ann Scholl, was his cousin.

Boone Hays was a lad of sixteen when in 1799 he came to Upper Louisiana with his parents, Susannah and Williams Hays, and his grandfather, Daniel Boone. His parents settled in the rich Missouri River Bottom, not far from the homes of his uncles, Daniel Morgan Boone and Nathan Boone.
In 1804, Boone Hays, his brother William Jr. and his cousin, James Callaway made a trip to Kentucky with furs. When Dodge's expedition went up the Missouri River with a number of prisoners, Boone Hays was a member of the party, having the rank of Captain.
In 1807 he returned to Kentucky where he married his cousin, Lydia Ann Scholl, daughter of Peter Scholl and Mary Boone, who was a daughter of Edward Boone, brother of Daniel. After his marriage he settled in Darst Bottom, St. Charles Co., Missouri where he lived until 1818 when his restless blood sent him to Cote Sans Dessein in Callaway County where he built the first Horse-mill in that part of the country.
ref: "The Boone Family", by Mrs. James R. Spraker, pp. 137, 180, 255-257, 361-364, 437-440, 468

Later he moved to Howard Co., MO. where for a while he engaged in the commercial manufacture of salt at the Boone's Lick. In 1837 he was lured to the wilderness of the Kaw by reports from his uncle Daniel Morgan Boone that the hunting and trapping were good there.
On the high ground south of Sixty-third Street near Prospect Avenue, he soon established a home, accumulated much land, and reared a family...His plantation was the prosperous and leading one of the neighborhood, the goal for travelers seeking guidance and information, the visiting place in the county for Benton, Fremont, Doniphan, Price, Bridger, and Kit Carson. The Hays wagon trains were among the first and largest to cross the plains.
To each of his four sons - Samuel, Amazon, Linville and Upton - Boone Hays gave a quarter of a section in Westport Township, land adjoining his own and unsurpassed for agriculture; here each established his home and reared large families.
The roving disposition of Boone Hays took him and his sons across the plains to Old and New Mexico and to the mountains freighting and trading for profit, and to Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia where they bought the finest stock available. He maintained a large racing stable and his horses met all visitors. Finally Boone Hays and his boys were lured to California with the gold seekers. After a trip with oxen lasting over four months and filled with untold hardships and suffering from thirst and hunger, and while still enroute, Boone Hays died and was buried by his sons on the slope of the Great Divide.
The remarkable physical development, lung and voice poser of Daniel Boone, Boone Hays and his four sons, were distinguishing features of these men who could speak and be heard at the distance of a mile. . And when Boone Hays called to his lagging jockey and horse in the heat of a race, what terror and spur did his voice not carry! His profanity was fluent, proficient, and picturesque, combining all that was forceful in the invective used by Spanish, French and English freebooters that swarmed the early West. Yet perhaps in less than a minute he might be blinking and whimpering over some poor person's suffering or misfortune, or the ill that befell some favorite hound or slave.
The Boone-Hays Cemetery is the resting place of members of the Boone, Hays and Berry families - sturdy scions of those forbears of distant Devonshire, England, the highlands of Scotland and ancient Aquitania of France. Around the names of these hardy men who followed Daniel Boone into Upper Louisiana cluster the earliest legends of the county. But Boone Hays, one of the most striking figures in the early history of Jackson County, does not lie in the little family cemetery which he dedicated as sacred forever to his kind. His final resting place is far out on the Great Divide.
ref: "The Boone, Hays, and Berry Families of Jackson County", by Virginia Hays Asbury and Albert Doerschuk, "Missouri Historical Review", July 1929