My Genealogy Hound

JOHN S. MAYES is the owner of a beautiful farm comprising some four hundred and ten acres, situated a mile and a-half south of the thriving little city of Knobnoster, Johnson County. The proprietor makes a specialty of stock-raising, and has become wealthy through the exercise of excellent business ability and good management.

Mr. Mayes was born in this township, and here his entire life has been spent. His birth occurred August 3, 1851, and he is the third in the family of children born to John B. and Martha A. (Gillum) Mayes. The latter were both natives of the Blue Grass State, but came to Missouri when mere children. At that time, about 1833, this county had not yet been organized and few people had settled within its limits. For a period covering some twelve years, Mr. Mayes was County Judge, and during his prime he was very prominent in everything pertaining to the county’s advancement. He and his esteemed wife are passing their declining years on a farm near Montserrat, this county, and are aged, respectively, seventy-one and sixty-eight years.

The primary education of J. S. Mayes was received in the schools of his native district, and on arriving at a suitable age he decided to enter the medical profession. With that end in view, he took one term of lectures at the Missouri Medical College, when he found that, on account of failing health, he must give up his cherished purpose. For a short time after this he worked at telegraphy but he had been reared as a farmer, and it is not strange that his thoughts often turned in that direction, or that he eventually concluded to become an agriculturist himself. In his chosen field of labor he has met with gratifying success, and this he well deserves.

In the fall of 1874, Mr. Mayes married Miss A. M. Lea, daughter of J. L. Lea, a well known physician of Montserrat, who has been in practice there for half a century. To the marriage of our subject and wife three children have been born, Bertha, Hattie and Vera, who live with their parents. Mrs. Mayes was born in this county, whither her parents had removed from their native state, Kentucky, at an early day.

Both our subject and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and the former holds the office of Elder in the congregation. Socially he is a member of Knobnoster Lodge No. 245, A. F. & A. M. In his political affiliations he is a Democrat of the stanchest kind.