Toombs-Stewart-Meriwether County GaArchives Biographies.....May, John Calvin 1880 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 17, 2004, 10:01 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 755-756

   JOHN CALVIN MAY. A young man of excellent ability and sound judgment, John
Calvin May is identified with one of the leading mercantile enterprises of
Toombs county, as part owner, and the manager, of the Vidalia Furniture Company,
of Vidalia, carrying on an extensive and highly remunerative business. A son of
John May, he was born September 18, 1880, in Russell county, Alabama, near the
state line, and not far from Columbus, Georgia.

   John May was born in Sumter county, Georgia, October 5, 1844, and was there
reared to agricultural pursuits. In 1876 he moved to Alabama, and is still a
resident of that state. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company F, Sixth
Georgia Volunteer Infantry, which became a part of Colquitt's Brigade, and with
his command participated in many engagements of importance. On September 30,
1864, at Fort Harrison, Virginia, he received wounds of such serious nature that
he was unfitted for further duty in the army. He was twice married. He married
first, October 23, 1868, Georgia Powell, who passed to the life beyond December
22, 1870. He married second, Fannie Powell, and they are the parents of six
children, as follows: Lilla, wife of E. W. McLendon, a prominent planter of
Omaha, Georgia; John Calvin, the special subject of this brief sketch; Georgia
died at the age of ten years; Charles W. died at the age of twenty years, having
received injuries that proved fatal while playing football at the Auburn,
Alabama, Polytechnic Institute; Marie, a successful teacher in Russell county,
Alabama; and Louise, who married Thomas Kirbo, of Omaha, Georgia, where they
live, he being an extensive farmer and merchant. These children all received
excellent educational advantages, with the exception of John Calvin, who began
to hustle for himself when young, instead of continuing his studies.

   Leaving the home plantation when eighteen years of age, John Calvin May began
life for himself as a clerk in a general store, and subsequently located at
Omaha, Stewart county, where he bought out Lee Kirbo, and was engaged in
mercantile business for eight years. Coming from there to Vidalia in 1910, Mr.
May, in partnership with Charles E. Adams and John L. Sneed, organized the
Vidalia Furniture Company, the only exclusive furniture house in this part of
Toombs county, and has since been manager of the large business built up by this
wide-awake firm. This company occupies a floor space of six thousand, four
hundred feet, which is devoted entirely to the display of its stock, which is
valued at $5,000.00, and includes house furnishings of every description, from
the kitchen to the parlor and the bedrooms.

   Mr. May was postmaster at McLenden, Georgia, for two years, where he had a
branch store, and was there at the same time, from 1903 until 1905, agent for
the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company. He belongs to the Vidalia Chamber of
Commerce, an organization of energetic and progressive business men, and is vice
president of the Vidalia Ice & Coal Company, in which he is the heaviest
stockholder. Fraternally he is a member, and master, of Vidalia Lodge, No. 330,
Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, which consists of one hundred
members, and in which he has passed all the chairs; a member of the Oriental
Order of Pilgrim Knights; and is a member, and master of finance, of the Knights
of Pythias.

   Mr. May married first, February 5, 1902, Maggie W. Lee, a daughter of Mrs.
Sallie J. Lee, of Concord, Pike county, Georgia. Of the five children born of
their union, three died in infancy; John C. May, Jr., and Louis R. survive. Mr.
May married second, June 29, 1908, Martha E. Powell, a young lady of sixteeen
years, a daughter of Henry M. Powell, of Omaha, Georgia. Two children have been
born to Mr. and Mrs. May, namely: Louis Ouida, who lived but one short year; and
Marjorie Deane.


Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913




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