Omer Thomas Hays and Lenna Jessie Watson were married in Amity on September 17, 1914. He was 22, she was 19.
Omer was the son of William Curtis Hays and Texanna Thompson. Some family researchers list his name as Thomas Omer, but on his World War I Registration Card, he signed his own name as Omer Thomas Hays.
Lennie Jessie Watson was the daughter of William Walker Watson and Mary Louise Fincher. (W.W. Watson has been previously featured on this site.)
Omer and Lenna Hays' children: Mary Alice, William C. "Bill", Evelyn J., George T., Ralph M., Elizabeth W., Ann and Sue.
Evelyn Hays married Jack Kirksey, and is remembered by many in Amity for being a long-time teacher and principal at the Amity Elementary School.
William Curtis Hays, (at left), organized The Bank of Amity, which was incorporated on November 30, 1905. Hays also served as the Bank's President. W.C. Hays was born in Arkansas in 1856 and moved to Amity in 1869. He was engaged in the mercantile business for sixty-three years. As a champion of education, Hays founded the old Amity Academy which was organized in 1892. He twice served as delegate to the General World Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was a charter member of Amity Masonic Lodge. Hays was considered a philanthropist and a promoter of civic organizations in the community.
William Walker Watson was born in Talladega County, Alabama, the son of Nicholas Scales Watson and Mary H. Terry Watson.
W.W. Watson married Mary Louise Fincher on October 25, 1891 in Amity. W.W. was 27, and Mary was 18. Mary was the daughter of Eliza and Jonathan Fincher; Eliza has appeared previously on this site.
W.W. was a fruit farmer but also served for many years as a school administrator. He was Secretary of the Amity High School Board in the 1920's, and in 1909, he served on the Arkansas State Agricultural School Board for the Third District of Arkansas.
In 1916, W.W. was the Vice President of Merchants & Planters Bank in Amity.
W.W. and Mary Watson's children: Lois E., Lena J., Lottie S., Clara, Harold, Ruth and Mildred.
Mary Eliza Adeline Allen was born in Georgia to Abraham Stokes Allen and Martha C. Marshall Allen.
Eliza married William Jonathan Fincher on March 12, 1865 in Pike County, Georgia.
Eliza and Jonathan Fincher had four children: Mary, Edwin, Bernard and Lafayette.
In December 1888, the Fincher family moved from Pike County, Georgia to Polk County, Arkansas and later settled in Amity.
Abraham Stokes Allen
1813 - 1893
(father of Eliza Allen Fincher)
