T HE ISLAND’S OLDEST INHABITANT– JACOB HAYES George Huntington , in his presentation to the Fire Lands Historical Society on October 30, 1862, offered this about the man. “Jacob Hay, then as now a bachelor, and one of our oldest residents, was boarding with Mrs. Knowlton at the afore-said boarding house in front of where the Island House now stands. If, as political economists assert, that man is to be considered a public benefactor who causes two spires of grass to grow where but one grew before, then Mr. Hay is certainly deserving great credit, since he has performed a much greater amount of physical labor than any man now living on the island, almost the whole of which was tended directly or indirectly towards the general improvement. For 15 years his time was devoted almost exclusively to clearing land, building fences, putting up small tenements, &c. and since that date he has been employed in making and repairing agricultural implements, &c., ...