Biography of John R May, St Francis County, AR

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Submitted by: Paul V Isbell
        Date: 19 Nov 2008
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DESCENDANTS OF PIONEER FAMILIES IN PICTURE 1954-John R. May, well-known farmer
north of Forrest City on Crowley's Ridge, is the proud descendant of one of the
earliest pioneer families in St. Francis County, his hardy and prominent
ancestors settling in what is know as the Hughes community in the early 1800's.
His great-great grandfather, Benjamin May, was born in North Carolina in 1779,
and came to Arkansas and finally to the fertile farming land on the sloping west
side of Crowley's Ridge east of Colt shortly after the turn of the nineteenth
century. The farm Benjamin May developed and improved has passed through two
generations of the May family and is now owned and operated by the great-great
grandson of this early St. Francis County settler. John R., the great-great
grandson, was born on Feb. 5, 1906. His parents were the late A. S. and Mollie
(Taylor) May of the Hughes community. His grandfather was Reading A. May. On May
30, 1931 he married Mary Elven Voss, daughter of George and Lily (Poe) Voss of
Forrest City. To this union were born five children. It is through the public-
spirit of such early ancestry of that of John R. May that St. Francis Countians
of this fast moving twentieth century are better able to maintain a gradually
disappearing connection with the substantial contributions of those courageous
and determined pioneers. Among the precious written evidence of the May family's
once extensive land holdings in the possession of the present day May family is
an old wrinkled and fade abstract dated 1821, which states that Edward and Lida
May (great-uncle and aunt of John May) were legal "homestead" owner of the land
they farmed in St. Francis County.


SOURCE:
HISTORY of ST. FRANCIS COUNTY, ARKANSAS, 1954 - Robert W. Chowning

Copyright, with Permission: Weston McCollum Lewey, Publisher
-Times Herald Publishing-Forrest City, Arkansas