Seth Millington Hays (April 23, 1811 – February 3, 1873) was the first white settler and a civic leader in Council Grove, Kansas.
Hays was born in Callaway County, Missouri, and moved to Kansas in 1847 to open a trading post on the Santa Fe Trail.
The flood of trail travelers brought by the 1858 Pike's Peak Gold Rush both enriched Hays and spurred settlement in Council Grove, which was incorporated the same year.
[2] Also in 1861, Taylor and Hays began caring for the infant Kittie Parker Robbins, whose mother had died in childbirth while her father was delivering mail on the route through Council Grove.
Hays' 1867 residence in Council Grove is now a county history museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.