Fred Fenton Bays

    Fred Fenton Bays, of the law firm of Bays & Bays, of Sullivan, is one of the able, eloquent and broad minded young men of this section of Indiana, who in his professional, political and public capacities ahs already achieved much and given promise of a brilliant and substantial future career. he was born in Bloomfield, Indiana, on the 12th day of July, 1882, a son of the late John S. and Hattie (Fenton) Bays. His father was for nearly a quarter of a century one of the leading lawyers of southern Indiana, and had he so desired, might have ascended the bench of the higher courts. But all his abilities were wrapped in the practice of the law, and at his death he was considered one of the leading corporation lawyers of the Ohio valley and had no superior as an authority on the law, relating to coal interests. As a man he was pure, high minded and lovable, and the record of his life is given elsewhere in detail.

    Fred F. Bays received the foundation of his mental training at culver Academy, from which he graduated in 1904, after which eh pursued his professional course in the University of Indianapolis Law School and the University of Indiana Law School at Bloomington, Indiana. Soon after graduating from the latter he entered into practice with his brother Lee, who had been associated with his father. The two brothers, under the style of Bays & Bays, having continued the large business established by their father, and are handling it with energy and fine judgment. Although general practitioners, they make a specialty of corporate law as relates to the coal interest, representing both the Southern Indiana Railroad and the Southern Indiana Coal Company. They are also attorneys for the Standard Oil Company for that section of the state. Their well appointed and busy offices are located on the north side of the public square on Washington Street.

    Fred F. Bays is a strong Democrat, and early commenced to participate in the deliberation of the party. At the age of twenty-two he was elected Chairman of the County Committee, and ably performed its duties for two years. Governor Hanly selected him as a Trustee of the Indiana Southern Hospital for the Insane to fill out his father's unexpired term of one and a half years, and at the expiration of that period he was appointed for a new term of four years, which will not expire until 1912. He is a Thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine at Indianapolis, and is also active in the fraternal work of the Elks, being Exalted Ruler of Lodge No. 911. He maintains his fraternal associations with his alma mater through the Beta Theta Pi of the Indiana University, and has cause to remember his college career with pride as well as fondness. While at Culver he won the first medal for oratory and a medal for debate; was editor-in-chief of the Vidette, and was a member of the football and track teams, as well as being interested in boxing and athletics in general. He was a true university man, and has carried the broad, active and versatile life of his college days into realities of professional and social life. From college halls he has continued his interest in oratory, and takes time from his busy professional life to promote the art, and in giving a gold medal to the winner of the annual oratorical contest in Sullivan High School he pays a beautiful tribute to his late father's memory and at the same time furnished an inspiration to young men and women to cultivate this ancient and time honored art. The annual event is known as the "John S. Bays Gold Medal Oratorical Contest."

Source: A History of Sullivan County, Indiana. Closing of the first century’s history of the county and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth. Thomas J. Wolfe, Editor. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909, page 11-12.