My Genealogy Hound

Dr. David May, practicing physician and farmer, is a large planter, of Breckinridge Township. He was born in Missouri, November 15, 1826. His parents were John and Guyan (Morgan) May, natives of Pennsylvania and Virginia, who moved to what is now Bollinger County, Mo., about 1820. David’s father was born in 1759, in Pennsylvania, and at the age of seventeen ran away from home, and joined the American army, serving four years in the field, and the last three years of that struggle as a hospital nurse. On coming to Missouri he bought 160 acres of land, on which he lived, and died in 1841. He was a Democrat, and both himself and wife were members of the Baptist Church. Our subject is the youngest of a family of eight children: William (deceased), Hamilton (deceased), Andrew (deceased); Alpha, wife of James Boker, farmer, of Missouri; Eliza, of South Missouri; Mary, wife of Anderson Virgin, farmer, of Missouri, and John (deceased). Dr. May was raised on a farm, and received his education in the common schools, and in the academic school near Bloomfield, Mo. When a young man he secured medical works, which he studied for the purpose of attending his own family, but, the demand being great, in 1875, he went to Nashville and attended a course of medical lectures, and has since had a successful general practice, until the present, when he is about retiring. At the age of eighteen years he began his career as a farmer, and in 1850 married Miss Rina W. Naremore. They had one child, George W., born April 5, 1851, who now lives in Jackson County. Mrs. May died in 1876, and in 1877 he married Evaline T. Gwynn, a native of Tennessee, who had one child, but both mother and child died in 1878, and the same year our subject married Sarah E. McMinn, relict of Joseph W. McMinn. They have one child, William Lee, ten years old. In 1848 Dr. May came to Jackson County and settled on what is now the Pickett farm. He bought and entered 160 acres of land, cleared fifty or sixty acres of the same and in 1858 sold it and entered 160 acres of the farm he now works, which was then in the woods. He now owns 600 acres of land, having 200 acres under cultivation, all of which he cleared. During his residence here of forty-one years, Dr. May has seen a great many changes, and has done his share in the development of the country. He served as magistrate sixteen years, during which time but one appeal was taken from his decision, and that appeal was not sustained. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church, and for the last twenty years he has filled the position of local minister of that church. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, is a Wheeler, and votes the Democratic ticket. In addition to his farming and practice, Dr. May is taking some interest in horse and mule breeding, and has as good a stock farm as there is in the county.