{"id":1583,"date":"2018-08-15T12:32:53","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T19:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/?p=1583"},"modified":"2018-08-15T12:32:53","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T19:32:53","slug":"lay-william-patrick-1853-1940","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/?p=1583","title":{"rendered":"LAY, WILLIAM PATRICK, 1853-1940"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Biography:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Industrialist. Born&#8211; June 11, 1853, Cherokee County. Parents&#8211; Cummins M. and Elizabeth (McGhee) Lay. Married&#8211; Laura J. Hollingsworth, April 26, 1876. Children&#8211; Five. Education&#8211; Public schools. Worked as a riverboat pilot and then in the engine department of a railroad shop for about six years; then as a locomotive engineer; bookkeeper, William P. Hollingsworth, Gadsden, 1874-1879; executor, Hollingsworth estate, 1879; lumber business, Gadsden, 1879-1890; instrumental in building the first blast furnace in Gadsden; built and owned the first electric light plant in Gadsden, 1887; instrumental in building a railroad from Gadsden to Anniston, 1888; president of the hotel company that built the Printup Hotel in Gadsden; instrumental in getting Southern Steel Company to build in Gadsden; built and owned the water power plant on Big Wills Creek near Attala, 1903. Chairman, Coosa River Improvement Association; organized and incorporated the Alabama Power Company, 1906; member, Gadsden City Council, two terms; chairman, Alabama Conservation Commission, 1908; elector, presidential election of 1912. The first hydroelectric plant built by Alabama Power was renamed the Lay Dam in his honor, 1929. Died 1940.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Owen&#8217;s Dictionary of Alabama Biography; Hornady&#8217;s Soldiers of Progress and Industry.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Publication(s):<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Conservation and Improvement of Our Waterways. S.l.; s.n., 1908.<\/p>\n<p>The Great Coosa-Alabama River &amp; Valley. Gadsden; Lay, 1911.<\/p>\n<p>Meddling, Coddling Paternalism; a Treatise and Compilation of the Enormous Gold Production and its Effects. Gadsden; Lay, 1910.<\/p>\n<p>Opening the Coosa River to Through Navigation. Gadsden; Lay, 1901.<\/p>\n<p>The Original Coosa River Memorial. S.l.; s.n., 1899.<\/p>\n<p>River Problems of Alabama. Gadsden; s.n., 1915.<\/p>\n<p>The Southern Superpower Zone. Gadsden; Lay, 1922.<\/p>\n<p>Stabilization of Gold, World Need. Gadsden; Lay, 1932.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biography: Industrialist. Born&#8211; June 11, 1853, Cherokee County. Parents&#8211; Cummins M. and Elizabeth (McGhee) Lay. Married&#8211; Laura J. Hollingsworth, April 26, 1876. Children&#8211; Five. Education&#8211; Public schools. Worked as a riverboat pilot and then in the engine department of a railroad shop for about six years; then as a locomotive engineer; bookkeeper, William P. Hollingsworth, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-j-l"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1583"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8634,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions\/8634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}