Charles Melville Hays (May 16, 1856 – April 15, 1912) was the president of the Grand Trunk Railway. He began working in the railroad business as a clerk at the age of 17 and quickly rose through the ranks of management to become the General Manager of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway. He became vice-president of that company in 1889 and remained as such until 1896 when he became General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) of Canada.
Hays left GTR for a short time to serve as the President of the Southern Pacific Railway Company but returned to GTR after one year. As Vice-president and General Manager of GTR he is credited with keeping the company from bankruptcy. In 1909, he became the president of GTR and all its consolidated lines, subsidiary railroads, and steamship companies. He was known for his philanthropy and received the Order of the Rising Sun, third class, from the Emperor of Japan in 1907.
Hays is credited with the formation of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP), a plan he had to create a second transcontinental railroad within the borders of Canada. He is also blamed for the insolvency of both the GTR and the GTP. He died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic before his plan was complete. His body was recovered, and he was buried in Montreal. He had a wife and four daughters.
Early life
Charles Melville Hays was born in Rock Island, Illinois, on May 16, 1856. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, when he was a child.
Career
In 1873, at the age of 17, he began his career in the railroad business working for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in St. Louis. From 1877 to 1884, Hays was Secretary to the General Manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Beginning in 1884, he held the same position with the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway until 1886, when he became that company's General Manager. In 1889, he became vice-president of the Wabash Railroad and remained as such until 1896, when he became General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) of Canada. These included the Central Vermont Railway, the Grand Trunk Western Railway, the Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway, the Detroit and Toledo Shoreline Railroad, the Toledo, Saginaw and Muskegon Railway, the Southern New England Railway Company, the Canadian Express Company, and several others. In addition, he was sought after to help manage several philanthropies. He was Governor of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Montreal General Hospital and McGill University. He received the Order of the Rising Sun, third class, from the Emperor of Japan in 1907 for assistance he gave the Imperial Government Railways.
Transcontinental Railway
right|thumb|300px|Charles Melville Hays.
At the time, the western prairies were being rapidly settled. Hays wanted to capitalize on the trend by constructing a transcontinental railroad, within the borders of Canada, to run 3,600 miles from Moncton, New Brunswick, to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
At 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, Titanic struck an iceberg. Hays helped the women in his party into one of the ship's 20 lifeboats, but he, his son-in-law, and his secretary remained and perished when the ship sank,
Death
Hays was a victim of the Titanic. Hays's body was recovered from the waters of the North Atlantic by the CS Minia, and he was buried at Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. Two funerals were held for him on May 8, one at the American Presbyterian Church in Montreal, the other in London at the Church of St Edmund, King and Martyr.
thumb|C.M. Hays's tombstone in Montreal
Legacy
Hays died before he could see the GTP completed. He was eulogized as one of the greatest railwaymen in Canada, and work on the GTR was stopped for five minutes, on April 25, 1912, in his memory. The period in which Hays led the GTR was its most prosperous era.
However, his policies led to the GTP's collapse in 1919. The company was placed in receivership, and the government seized GTR's stock. It was later alleged that Hays had deceived the company's London directors in 1903 by committing them to conditions in the railway's agreements with the Canadian government for the building of the GTP to which they did not agree. That scheme was blamed for the company's collapse. as is the village of Haysport, British Columbia.
Mount Hays, south of Prince Rupert, British Columbia is named for him.
Charles Hays Secondary School in Prince Rupert is also named in his honour.
Personal life
His wife was Clara Jennings Hays (née Gregg), whom he married in St. Louis, Missouri on October 13, 1881. They had four daughters: Orian (who married Thornton Davidson, and later Robert Newmarch Hickson), Clara (who married Hope Castle Scott), Marjorie (who married George Duffield Hall), and Louise (who married a Mr. Arthur Harold Grier).