F. D. Hayden

REV. F. D. HAYDEN, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church at Seward, is one of the young and hard working priests of the Catholic Church in Kansas, and is a native of the state in which practically all his pastoral experience has been gained.

Father Hayden was born near Greenbush in Crawford County, Kansas, February 16, 1878, the youngest of a large family of children and the only one to make religious work his calling and profession.

As a boy he attended the old Osage Mission at what is now St. Paul, Kansas. He received his academic education in the Redemptorist College at Kirkood, Missouri, and for five years was a student of philosophy and theology in the Kenrick Seminary at St. Louis. He was ordained in 1910 by Bishop Hennessy at St. Aloysius Pro-Cathedral in Wichita. The following year he spent as assistant pastor of St. Patrick's Parish in Parsons, Kansas, one year at Pro-Cathedral Parish, Wichita, Kansas, and then for one year was pastor of the church at Oswego.

Father Hayden came to Seward in October, 1913, as pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church and has been greatly prospered and very happy in this field. He has a parish extending in a radius of ten miles around Seward, with fifty families in the parish. Under his energetic leadership the parish erected a large brick church which was dedicated in 1916. He is a third degree Knight of Columbus.

His father, Felix Hayden, was born near Arthur, Ontario, Canada, in 1830. In 1871 he came to the United States and was one of the pioneers in Crawford County in Southeastern Kansas. He spent the rest of his days as a farmer in that locality and died there in 1880. Both he and his wife were devout Catholics. His wife was Jane Hayes, who was burn in Ireland in 1840 and died at Chanute, Kansas, in 1911. Of their twelve children the following is a brief record: Ellen, wife of William McGowan, of Toronto, Canada; Rose, living in Detroit, Michigan, widow of Joseph Amsinger; Jane, wife of Thomas Devero, a retired farmer at Girard, Kansas; Sarah, wife of John J. Ryan, a real estate broker at St. Paul, Kansas; Mary, who died at Hugoton, Kansas, wife of James Kelley; James, a farmer in California; John, a retired farmer at Walnut, Kansas; Ed, who was a postoffice employe and died at Phoenix, Arizona; William, a locomotive engineer living at Cliffs, Arizona; Felix, also a locomotive engineer in Oregon; Thomas, a farmer who died in Oklahoma; and Father Hayden.

Pages 2419-2420.