Hillsborough County FlArchives Biographies.....Mays, Samuel Edward, Jr. 1864 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 4, 2008, 2:07 pm Author: B. F. Johnson Samuel Edward Mays, Jr. Samuel Edward Mays, Jr., of Plant City, merchant, banker, farmer and fruit grower, not yet forty-five years of age, has achieved a measure of success which has put him in the front rank of the business men and developers of Hillsboro county. He comes of good stock, and his father, Prof. Samuel Elias Mays, was an accomplished man who was a farmer and professor in Columbia (S. C.) College, and a quartermaster in the Confederate Army. Professor Mays married Miss Katherine Mosley, of a well known Georgia family. Mr. Mays' grandfather, James B. Mays, died in service during the Florida Indian War. His paternal grandmother. Miriam (Earl) Mays, was a member of the prominent Earl family of South Carolina. Ephraim Brevard, who is credited with having been the author of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and after whom a counties are named in North Carolina and Florida, was a near relative of his grandfather. The Hon. D. H. Mays, the present representative in the Federal Congress from Monticello, (Fla.) district, is a cousin of Mr. Mays. It will thus be seen that his people have been active not only in private life, but have been efficient public servants. On the maternal side he is of Irish descent, and his mother's people were related to the famous leaders, John C. Calhoun and Robert Toombs. On the paternal side his people came from England to Virginia about 1706, and his great-grandfather, Maj.-Gen. Samuel Mays, was an officer in the Revolutionary armies. Mr. Mays was born at Greenville, S. C, on December 19, 1864. In 1876 his father's family came to Hillsboro county and settled on the Alafia river. The Earle family of Virginia from which Mr. Mays is descended is worthy of mention in this connection. The founder of the family was John Earle, who came from England to St. Marys, Md., in 1649. St. Mary's was then the capital of Maryland. In 1652 he moved to what was then Northumberland, now Westmoreland county, Va. He had married before leaving England, and his three children, Samuel, John and Mary, were born in England. John Earle, the founder of the family, died in 1661. His son, Samuel the first, died in 1697, leaving, among other children, Samuel the second, who died in 1746. Samuel the second left, among other children, Samuel the third, who, after several moves, finally settled in Frederick county, Va. He died in 1770. Among his children was Samuel the fourth and Bayliss. This son, Bayliss Earle, was very wild in his youth, but in later life became a most exemplary citizen. Between 1760 and 1770 he moved to South Carolina, and settled on the upper branches of the Pacolet river. A brother John followed him, and built what was in those days known as Earle's Fort as a protection against the Indians. Samuel the fifth, son of Bayliss, married Elizabeth Hampton Harrison, and thereby came into connection with the Hampton and Harrison families who were distinguished people of that section. They left eight sons and five daughters. Among these daughters was Damaris Miriam Earle, who married James Butler Mays, father of Samuel Elias Mays. She lived to an extreme old age, and died in 1881. Samuel the fifth, son of Bayliss, was a distinguished solider in the Revolutionary period, and after the foundation of the Union, served as a Member of Congress from South Carolina, and also in the State Senate. In the various wars which have taken place since our Revolution the descendants of Bayliss Earle have rendered conspicuous services, and have shown themselves as valiant soldiers in war as they have been good citizens in peace. It will thus be seen that Mr. Mays' ancestry goes back in direct line to the founders of Virginia and South Carolina and through his great-grandfather, Gen. Samuel Mays, he is entitled to membership in the patriotic societies connected with the Revolutionary War. His education was obtained in the public schools of Hillsboro county, and in 1882, a lad of eighteen, he entered the mercantile establishment of J. M. Boyett, at Peru, Fla., as a clerk. In 1887 he came to Plant City and took charge of C. J. Yates' general store. In 1892 he entered business on his own account as a general merchant at Plant City, and continued until 1908, when he sold out his mercantile establishment to Rolla Green. The sixteen years of business on his own account were years of success, and he built up a very large business. In the meantime, he had engaged in farming and in fruit business in a wholesale way, and these interests he still continues, being also an orange grower on his own account. Mr. Mays is now Vice-President of the Hillsboro State Bank, and Director in the Bank of Plant City, and a Director in the Plant City, Arcadia and Gulf Railway. On June 30, 1892 he married Miss Rowena Lee Evers, a daughter of James and Fannie (Rucker) Evers, of Georgia. They have three living children, as follows, Miriam, Katherine and Samuel Edwin Mays. Mr. Mays is a Baptist and a Democrat. He is also affiliated with the Masonic Order and has received all the degrees up to the thirty-second. Notwithstanding the cares of large business interests, he has given his time freely to the public service, and for the past six years has been a member of the Plant City Council, which is liberal contribution of time by one man. Mr. Mays is also very fond of reading and has accumulated a large library, his preferred reading being along historical lines and current periodicals. He believes the people of Florida should give immediate attention to a change of the convict system, whereby the convicts may work on the country roads, and thus contribute to the building up of a system of roads which is today the greatest need of the State of Florida, as well as to other sections of our country. An active, alert, capable business man and a public spirited citizen of the highest integrity, Mr. Mays has, at a comparatively early age, not only won a competence, but the confidence, the esteem, and the friendship of the people of his section. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. JOHNSON Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/hillsborough/photos/bios/mays46gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/hillsborough/bios/mays46gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 7.1 Kb