MACON COUNTY, GA - BIOS May, Pleasant L.J. (1818 - ?) ***************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm *********************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Don Pleasant L.J. May was born 1818 in Georgia. His parents were James May and Gatsey Hutchens who married 1811 in Jefferson County, Georgia. It was James May's second marriage. P.L.J. had two brothers William R. (b. 1812) and James T. (1816). By 1830 the James May family was living in Monroe County, Georgia. In 1838 P.L.J. marries Mary F.W. Davis, daughter of the Rev. Dolphin Davis, in Crawford County. The 1840 census finds P.L.J. and Mary in Upson County with their first child Susan. In 1850 the family was living in Macon County with children Susan, Josephine, James, Mary Ann, and Emily . P.L.J. had become a Methodist Episcopal circuit rider and a member of the Masonic Southwestern Lodge No. 143. Tragedy struck in February of 1853 when Mary and their newest child of twelve days died of small pox. Emily E. Baker Clark became the second wife of P.L.J. May on 17 June 1856 in Buena Vista, Marion County. Her mother Nancy Darden Baker, the widow of Edwin Baker of Warren County, was a resident of Cut Off District in Marion County, Georgia. The Atlanta, Georgia census counted the May family as having two new children: Eddy and an infant of two months. Before the evacuation of civilians from Atlanta P.L.J.'s family started a journey by steamer to a family homestead in Alabama. His brother James Tull May had already removed his family to Talledega County, Alabama. Before P.L.J.'s family reached their destination tragedy touched his life a second time. At the mouth of Mobile Bay a northern gunboat firing on the civilian river steamer seriously damaged the boat. Some of the passengers lost their lives among them the two youngest sons of the Mays. After the war the Mays returned to Georgia. 1870 census enumerated them Rome, Floyd County. Their young son Pleasant E. was 4 years old. P.L.J. was running a saw mill. In 1872 their second son Holmes Alfred was born in Rome. =========== 1880 Floyd DeSoto Series: T9 Roll: 146 Page: 102B & 103A May, P L.J. w m 63 Emily w f 48 Pleasant w m 14 son Holmes w fm 8 1870 Floyd Co. Rome P.O. Series: M593 Roll: 149 Page: 163 HH758- 746 May, Pleasant L.J. 52 m w Running Saw Mill $1500 $2000 Emily E 39 f w Pleasant E 4 m w 1860 Fulton Co. 2-WD Atlanta Series: M653 Roll: 122 Page: 748 May, P.L.J. 41 M merchant GA Emily 39 f Susan 19 Josephine 17 James 16 Mary 14 Emma 10 Eddy 2 Infant 2/12 pg 125 1850 Census Macon Dist 1002 May, P.L.J. 32 M.M (Methodist Minister) James H 7 Mary F.W. 30 f Susan E 11 Josephine H 9 Mary 4 Emily A 2 1840 Census In the household of Susan May in the 741st District the info reads this way: 1 male age under 5 (child of PLJ and Mary or unknown older female?) 1 male age 20-30 - PLJ was 22 2 females under 5 (children of PLJ and Mary? - Susan was abt 1) 1 female 15-20 - see below 1 female 20-30 - one of these could have been Mary (20) and one a sister to PLJ 1 female 50-60 - Susan, the mother