Joel Hayden
Joel Hayden, was an American industrialist and politician who served as the 26th Lieutenant Governor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1863 to 1866.
In 1857, Amherst College accepted a gift from Joel Hayden – a bronze neo-classical sculpture named after Sabrina, Goddess of the Britons.
Hayden owned several business and mills in Haydenville, MA, a borough of Williamsburg, Massachusetts, including a brass factory, gas works, cotton factory, and foundry. He was also a part-owner of the Williamsburg Reservoir Company, which built the shoddy Williamsburg Reservoir, completed in 1866. On May 16, 1874, several months after Hayden's death, the dam failed catastrophically, causing a flood that killed 139 people and destroyed all four of Hayden's factories.
