In the April 16, 1881 issue of the New York Times, a large headline proclaimed, “A Base Slander Refuted; The Hayden Story about Sen. Conkling.” The first paragraph of the story reported, “For two years and more there has appeared at various times in newspapers throughout the country a highly sensational story connecting the names of Sen. Conkling in a scandalous way with that of a lady of Port Byron, who has separated from her husband, Mr. John Hayden.“

With a beginning like that, how could a historian not read further?

You may or may not be familiar with the Hayden name, but every time you drive between Auburn and Port Byron, you pass through “Haydenville.” It is two miles south of Port Byron, where South Street and Hayden Road intersect with Route 38.

In “The History of Cayuga County,” Elliot Stroke reported that William Hayden had rented Harry Rice's wool carding and cloth dressing mill located along the Outlet in 1824. Within six years, Hayden had increased the size of the mills and added machinery to produce woolen textiles. William died in 1866, and the business was carried on by his sons. One of these sons was John Hayden, the unfortunate husband mentioned above.

John was described as, “young, handsome, rich, accomplished. ... regarded by the (Port Byron) village maidens as an eligible partner for life.” He was “the leading citizen of the village,” and the owner of the large woolen mill. But, the paper states, the young, rustic girls of the area were not for him, and he went looking for a more civilized woman of the city. One account says that he found this woman in New York City, the daughter of Silas Miller, a wealthy retired merchant living in the Beekman Hill area.

The woman that John Hayden married was not the same woman he fell in love with. Silas Miller had two daughters, Emma and Lizzie. Emma was the younger of the two and was the one that John fell in love with. But upon his proposal of marriage, she refused and John turned his attention to Lizzie.

Lizzie accepted, and the two were married in the early 1860s. Shortly after returning from the honeymoon trip, John learned that his new wife did not return his loving feelings and, in fact, had never had feelings for him. She confessed that she had convinced her sister, who did love John, to refuse his proposal because it was not right that the younger should marry before the older, and Lizzie was concerned for her social appearances.

Perhaps concerned for his social appearances or just to spite her, John decided that the two should live together as man and wife in name only, and in the same house. After 15 years of life in Port Byron, Lizzie fled her husband and area. The next time she was heard from, she was in Washington D.C. as social belle and as one paper called her, “a force in the business of law making.” It is during this time that her name becomes associated with Sen. Roscoe Conkling.

Conkling was a New York state senator from Utica with ties to Auburn. Conkling's father had moved the family from Albany to Auburn in 1839, and he lived there until he left to practice law in Utica in 1850.

Conkling was described as a good looking man with red hair and as being good with the ladies. One account states that he “ruled the Republican Party in New York like a king by divine right#.”

He served in the congress and the senate from 1859 until 1881 when he resigned in a power struggle with President Garfield over political appointments.

He had a wife and daughter who lived in Utica.

Looking through the papers of the late 1870s and early 1880s, you will find that they are filled with stories about Conkling and his political wrangling. They are also filled with stories about Conkling and his personal life. Many revolve around his relationship with Kate Chase Sprague, the daughter of Salmon Chase of Ohio and the belle of Civil War Washington. She had married William Sprague, the one-time governor of Rhode Island. William had either asked Conkling to come to his house, or having found Conkling at his house, had threatened him with a gun. Kate had left the house with her children, and William had filed for divorce. The papers tracked every movement of Kate and Conkling as they apparently became bolder with their relationship.

A few years before the Sprague “scandal,” Lizzie Hayden had captured the attention of the press with her relationship with Conkling. She traveled in the same social circles and may have become his private secretary, although this point is often adamantly denied by all except the press.

One paper goes so far as to treat Lizzie very kindly and make it clear that she was a proper woman and not someone reduced to sleeping with the senator to keep her lifestyle. However, most reports circulate around an episode when a servant handed Mrs. Conkling a bouquet of flowers with a card made out to Mrs. Hayden. The wife told the servant that he had made a mistake, and then left Washington for Utica, not to be seen again in Washington for years.

Many cited these rumors and news accounts concerning Conkling with Lizzie and Conkling with Kate as attempts to discredit the senator. Many rushed to Conkling's defense. One of those was the General John Knapp of Auburn, who published a long rebuttal of the Hayden “affair” in the New York Times, the first paragraph of which was cited in this article.

Knapp includes statements and affidavits from John Hayden and his brothers, and leading citizens of Auburn who knew John and Lizzie Hayden. Basically they say that neither Hayden knew Conkling, nor had they ever met him, but they did allow that certain published items about the Hayden's marriage were true.

They go on to say that Conkling was a fine upstanding man and that the entire episode was a concoction of the press and the “newspaper nihilists.” Other papers from around the country picked up the Times article and reprinted it, supposably clearing Conkling's name.

By this time (1881), the press was more interested in the Conkling/Sprague relationship and Lizzie Hayden dropped from sight. Her husband was willing to get on with his life and let Lizzie get on with hers. A divorce was granted, and she married a wealthy man from New York City and lived happily ever after.

John, who had gone into a depression and lost his interest in the family business, went on to marry Phebe Parsons and begin a fruit drying business near the woolen mill. He died in 1908.

Conkling went on to lose his power struggle with the president and lost his political power. He died in 1888.

So was this entire episode a creation of the media? Probably not. In fact the New York Times reported that General Knapp was in New York City at the same time Conkling was visiting the city, just days before the press began running accounts of the “affair.”

If I was the type to see a conspiracy around every corner, this fact would raise my eyebrows.

It also seems strange that the press or Conkling's enemies would simply come up with the name of a pretty lady from Port Byron, who happened to be estranged from her husband and the belle of Washington society; unless there was some kernel of truth to the story.

Most accounts allow that Lizzie was in Washington and was a social butterfly. It does seem odd to claim that neither Hayden would ever have met Conkling at any point. But we may never know.

Michael Riley is the Mentz historian