John Hays (1770 – after 1822) is the only Jew known to have come to Illinois prior to its admission in the Union (August 26, 1818). He was the son of Baruch Hays, a lieutenant in the American Revolution and scion of one of the oldest American Jewish families. John Hays settled in Illinois as early as 1793 and served for twenty years as sheriff of St. Clair County, in the southwestern part of Illinois, which was the most populous section of the state in its early days.