My Genealogy Hound

FRANCIS MAY. If we were to select an example of what a fixed purpose and determination will accomplish; if we wanted to point out to the youth of Dunkirk one who had begun at the very bottom of the ladder and in fifty-six years had reached pretty well towards the top; if a boy, poor in pocket, desired wealth and would say, “Who shall I emulate?” we would say the man whose name heads this article, Francis May, the son of Francis, Sr., and Sarah (McMunn) May, who was born in County Sligo, Ireland, March 26, 1835. Francis May, Sr., was a son of the Emerald Isle, and was a farmer in the historical county where his son was born. He was a stirring, energetic business man, and a member of the Catholic church. He married Sarah McMunn, who, although born in the same county with her husband, belonged to the Episcopal church. She was a woman of ability, and to his vigorous parents the son is indebted for the traits which secured him his wealth.

Francis May was reared in County Sligo, and was educated at a private school. When seventeen years of age he came to America, first stopping at Piermont, New York, where he got the job of water-boy at a quarry, which he held for six months, and was then promoted, if it may be called such, to blowing the bellows for the blacksmith, which he did for a year longer. He came to Dunkirk, getting work as a laborer on the docks. A year or so later saw him doing the same work in the freight house of the Erie railway, remaining in the employ of that company for eighteen years, and advancing to the position of foreman of the local freight house. After the Erie docks were transferred to Buffalo he left the company and was a clerk in the bank of H. J. Miner & Co. Succeeding this he engaged in the flour and feed business, which is being continued to this day. In 1882, with other moneyed men of Dunkirk, he organized the Merchants National Bank, and is now one of the directors. He is largely interested in the street railway system, being the second largest stockholder in the Dunkirk and Fredonia Electric railway. Politically a democrat, he served eleven years as a member of the school board, and is a member of the Catholic church. Mr. Mav is an active, wide-awake citizen, and takes an enthusiastic interest in everything to enhance the welfare of Dunkirk, in which he owns considerable real estate.