Named in honor of Benjamin Ignatius Hayes (1815-1877), a Marylander who, after some years in Missouri, arrived in Los Angeles in 1850. Here he became an esteemed attorney and judge – one of precious few Angelenos who strove to uphold the law in an era of vigilantism and lynch mobs. One of Judge Hayes’s most famous cases was in 1856, when he ruled in favor of Biddy Mason (1818-1891), a second woman named Hannah, and their combined twelve offspring, who had all escaped their Texas-based slaveholder while in California. After securing her freedom, Mason worked as a nurse and caregiver (including for Horace and Georgia Bell in 1870) and saved her wages to become one of the first black women to own land in Los Angeles, leaving an estate worth $100,000. She is also credited with founding the First A.M.E. Church of L.A. in 1872, although she and the church had some financial squabbles in the 1880s. Family footnote: Two sisters of Hayes were wed to notable Southlanders: Helena (1827-1858) to Pasadena cofounder Benjamin Eaton and Louisa (1821-1888) to Eastside developer Dr. John S. Griffin.
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