William Hayward

William Hayward (April 29, 1877 – October 13, 1944) was an American lawyer and U.S. Army officer known for commanding the Harlem Hellfighters during World War I.

Early life and education Hayward was born on April 29, 1877, in Nebraska City, Nebraska, the son of Nebraska Senator Monroe Hayward and Jane Pelton. He graduated from Nebraska City High School in 1893. After high school, Hayward attended the University of Nebraska, where he was prominent in athletics and a member of Phi Delta Theta. He graduated in 1897. He took graduate courses in Munich, Germany, from 1896 to 1897.

Career

Hayward began practicing law in Nebraska City in 1897. When the Spanish–American War began, he became a captain in the Second Nebraska Volunteer Infantry. He was subsequently promoted to major, and then colonel of the regiment. In 1899, he served as his father's private secretary when the latter was Senator. From 1901 to 1902, he was county judge of Otoe County. He was elected chairman of the Nebraska Republican State Committee three times, and in 1908 he was made secretary of the Republican National Committee. President William Howard Taft offered to make him first assistant postmaster general, but he declined the offer and continued his law practice.

In the 1910 United States House of Representatives election, Hayward was the Republican candidate for Nebraska's 1st congressional district. He lost the election to Democratic incumbent John A. Maguire. After the election, he travelled around the world. Upon his return, he settled in New York City and began practicing law there as a member of the firm Wing & Russell on 14 Wall Street from 1911 to 1912.

In 1921, Hayward was appointed United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, an office he held until 1925. He was chairman of the 1920 State Republican Convention, and was a delegate to the 1924 Republican National Convention. In 1926 and 1927, he and his stepson Philip Manwaring Plant hunted big game in Africa and gave a number of trophies to the Museum of Natural History. In 1929, he and Plant went to Franz Josef Land in the Arctic and brought back several live polar bears for the Bronx Zoo and one for the Prospect Park Zoo.

Hayward was a member of Phi Delta Phi, Theta Nu Epsilon, the National Geographic Society, the New York State Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, the United Spanish War Veterans, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Union League Club, the University Club of New York, the Atlantic Yacht Club, the Naval and Military Order of the Spanish War, and the American Legion.

Personal life In 1901, he married Sarah Coe Ireland. In 1919, he married Mae C. Plant, the widow of Mortimer F. Plant. His son from his first marriage was theatrical agent Leland Hayward. His granddaughter, Brooke Hayward, was an actress.

Hayward died in Doctors Hospital on October 13, 1944. At his funeral in St. Bartholomew's Church, seventeen officers from his old regiment (including congressman Hamilton Fish, who was a major in the regiment) served as honorary pallbearers, and 60 black members of the regiment formed a guard of honor around the coffin. He was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in New London, Connecticut.