Hayes mostly stayed in Ohio through his youth and education, finishing up at Harvard Law School, then returning to Fremont, which was then called Lower Sandusky, to start his legal practice. He led a successful effort to rename the town after the Colonel John C. Fremont, hero of westward expansion. Hayes moved to Cincinnati in 1849 and lived there until he went off to the Civil War, then returned to Ohio, joined Congress, and became Governor of Ohio.