Jefferson Addison Hayes was born on October 2, 1884. He was the son of Joel Addison and Margaret Howell Davis Hayes of Memphis, Tennessee. The Hayes family later moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, after Joel Addison Hayes, Jr., became ill during a cholera epidemic in Mississippi in 1888.

Margaret Howell Davis Hayes was one of two daughters of Jefferson and Varina Howell Davis, former president and first lady of the Confederate States of America. All four Davis sons died without issue, so there was no one to carry on the Davis family name. With his parents’ approval, Jefferson Addison Hayes, the eldest grandchild of Jefferson Davis, assumed the name of his grandfather by an act of the Mississippi legislature, becoming Jefferson Hayes-Davis in 1890.

Jefferson Hayes-Davis later became chairman of the board of the First National Bank of Colorado Springs. He donated artifacts and manuscripts of Jefferson Davis and other Davis family members to the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. Hayes-Davis assisted the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Mississippi Division, in the preservation of Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis in Biloxi, Mississippi. He died in Colorado Springs on March 8, 1975.

This collection consists of a manuscript presentation copy of a February 20, 1890, act of the Mississippi legislature authorizing Jefferson Addison Hayes, the eldest grandson of Jefferson Davis, to legally change his name to Jefferson Hayes-Davis. This copy of the act was signed and sealed by Mississippi secretary of state George M. Govan on March 4, 1890.

1. Legislative Act. 1890. 1 item.