Martha's parents are unknown, since many of the records of Tippah County, Mississippi, were destroyed during the Civil War and that's where we first find Martha and her husband Elias B. Hays. Their wedding date of 8 August 1847 was preserved in a pension application document. Other than that bit, the first known record is the 1850 Tippah County census, when she was age 17, Elias was 22 and their first child, Mary, age 1. A Martin Crutcher was earlier in Tippah County, but there is no record that ties them together.

The grave stone pictured here is a newer stone that replaced older broken ones. They originally had separate stones. A book "History in Headstones" printed first in 1970 has the record from the older stones. Her maiden name and the names of the children were not on the earlier stones. Two of their children were omitted from this new stone and one seems to have been listed twice.

Their ten children were
Mary Ellen Hays, b. 1849, d. bef 1895, married George T. Hasket
Ann Eliza Hay, b. 4 Sep 1851, d. soon after 1932, married Henry Clay Allen
Delitha "Dillie" Hays, b. abt 1854, d. unknown, married George Green Winford (named for her paternal grandmother)
John Jefferson Hays, b. 5 Aug 1856,d. 26 Jun 1950, married Philena Josephine "Josie" Allen (sister of Henry Clay Allen)
William Richard Hays, b. 22 Mar 1859, d. 23 Jan 1937, married Oliva "Ollie" Wheeler
Benjamin McClure Hays, b. Sep 1861, d. 13 Jun 1936, married (1) Sarah Stevens and (2) Elizabeth Murphy
Elias E. Hays, b. 1863, d. unknown, married Delia M. Seagraves
A. E. Elizabeth "Lizzy" Hays, b. Jan 1867, d. 6 Mar 1917, married Francis Marion Turner
Silas N. Hays, b. 23 Feb 1872, d. 4 Jan 1942, married Mary E. "Bettie" Winn
George Wallace Hays, b. 9 May 1875, d. 28 Aug 1910, married Minnie Jim Vinsant