LOUDON COUNTY, TENNESSEE - MISC - Old Mayo Letters File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Gary Granger grangers@gte.net ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************************************************ Contributor's Notes: I am a great-great-grandson on Edmund Wagoner Patterson Mayo who was born in Louden Co. in 1819. The following two letters, written by one of his sons, John C. Mayo, my great-granduncle, describe in pretty good detail Edmunds family and ancestors, and tell a couple of interesting stories about the family. These letters were written in 1942 to my grandmother's sister, John C's niece, and typed up by my grandmother in the early 1950s. I do not have the original handwritten copies, only the typed versions. This is a copy of a letter received by Stella (Mayo) Andrews, daughter of Josiah Ferdinand Mayo, from her uncle, J C Mayo. Transcribed from original handwritten version by Leah Lemoyne (Mayo) Granger in the early 1950's. Oswego, Oregon, 2/15-42. My Dear Niece Your very interesting letter of the 10th received this morning, and just following the receipt of a telegram from Ralph that your father, and my last remaining brother, had passed away on last Saturday at 12:15 PM. It was a great shock to me and I was in hopes that I would be able to make a trip back there to see the old home at Hillsdale and other landmarks that are still dear to me and most of all, see your father while he as still in the land of the living. But fate was against me for the last six years, account of the condition of my wife's health that compelled me to stay pretty close to home. She had a stroke about six years ago from which she never recovered, and remained for a large portion of the time a bedfast invalid. I think I told you in my previous letter that she passed away on last March 28th. She was 82 years old. I presume you have also been advised of your father's death and that his burial will be tomorrow. I am extremely sorry that I cannot attend the last rites, but it would be impossible even though I could go, to reach there before the burial. I have always kept up an intermittent correspondence with your father, but his letters were mostly concerning the crop situation or politics, and hardly ever mentioned his family, where they were, or what they were doing, and if it had not been that Maud mentioned you and your address, I should not have known of or been able to write to you. But I am very glad that at last, though late, we are becoming better acquainted. I will give you a little of my own history. First, a list of names of my father's family. The years of their birth and date of death. And will then follow with a brief outline of my wanderings through the past sixty six years, since I left home. My father's name was Edmund Wagoner Patterson Mayo. Born in Louden, Louden County, Tennessee in 1819. And my mother was born and named Emily Belinda Hunter at Ashville North Carolina in 1826. They were married in 1841 when she was barely 16 years old. With five sons born in Louden, Tennessee, they moved to Kansas in 1856 and bought at the Public Land Sales, 320 acres of prairie land where they made their home until l879. When they moved to Hillsdale, about 3 miles north of the old homestead where they both passed away. My father in 1881 and my mother in 1891. I and my brother Dick ( Edwin L.) were born on the Kansas farm. Offspring of the Mayo family follows: James Pulasky, Born 1843 Died 1929. Josiah Ferdinand, 1845 1942. Alfred Hunter, 1848 1869. Pryor Bradf'ord, 1852 1892. Jacob Tipton, 1855 1939. John C, 1858 Edwin L., 1870 1915. There were no girls in the family. James P. died in New York City. Buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D. C. Alfred Hunter died on the Kansas farm and buried at Hillsdale, Kansas. Pryor Bradford died in St. Louis, Missouri, Buried at Hillsdale, Kansas. Jacob Tipton died in Portland, Oregon. And was cremated. Edwin L. died in Miami, Florida, and is buried at that place. Now for my history. Rather romantic, but not noteworthy for any great accomplishments. I was always very much adverse to farm life. In fact, just downright lazy. So they all say. I presume for this reason they decided to fit me for some other vocation, and sent me to a commercial college in Kansas City, where I took a course in bookkeeping and telegraphy. This was during the early spring of 1874. I graduated from there in the Fall of the same year and immediately secured a temporary job at Hillsdale, as a telegraph operator and railroad agent. From there it would take volumes to describe the various wanderings and occupations until I came to Oregon in 1883. >From my first work at Hillsdale I was transferred to a little corn station of Princeton, near Ottawa, Kansas, where I had more leisure time than work. And for something to do I took a course in shorthand by mail and got very proficient, which was always a great help in obtaining employment, and had a tendency to make me so independent that I wouldn't stay on any job for any length of time. After trying out Texas and Florida, I drifted back to Kansas City. But the call of the wild was so thoroughly set in my system that I couldn't be satisfied with the monotony of civilization and decided to try my luck in the west. This was 1880. After two years in Colorado and New Mexico I went to Arizona. Completing the construction of a railroad connection with old Mexico, I went to Guaymas and Guadlajara, old Mexico, and from there to Honolulu. Back to San Francisco and from there to Oregon, landing at Portland in 1883. And in 1884 I was married at LaGrand. Settled down a little and for two years on various jobs, and finally winding up as a traffic manager for the Hammond Railroad for ten years. Then to Spokane as terminal agent of the Union Pacific Railroad. for ten years. From there I went to Stayton, Oregon, where Walter, my son, was in the banking business, and lived there for 23 years, until the death of my wife. I came here to live with him, at Oswego, where I expect to remain to the end. Well, Stella I am afraid I have become tiresome with this long episode of my travels and will close for this time. Hoping that I may hear more from you as time will permit. Very sincerely yours, J. C. Mayo P.S. I also received a letter today from Maud. Her husband is not doing well. It seems he has a bad heart and high blood pressure. Second Edition. I closed my letter too late to get it into the mail today so will try your patience with a little more of Mayo History. Jim MayoÆs family consisted of three girls and two boys. Ola, the oldest, now Mrs. Frank Edwards of Los Angeles. Roy, now lives in Des Moines, Iowa. Eva died in Florida many years ago. Harry and Lutie are in St. Louis. But I know but little about them. Alfred Mayo never married. He died when he was twenty one years old. Pryor Mayo had one son, ôFredö. The last I heard of him, several years ago, he was with the Telephone Company, Baker Oregon, and I believe later at Twin Falls Idaho. Jacob Tipton Mayo had one son and one daughter. Vinnie, the girl, was married in 1905 but her husband died about five years ago. She now lives with her mother in Portland Ore. Earl, the boy, is Chief Engineer for Southern Pacific Railway and lives in San Francisco. He has one daughter about 18 years old. Vinnie had no children of her own but adopted a daughter who is now married and lives in San Francisco. Dick (Edwin) Mayo had three girls, but I have lost track of them since his death. Think they left Florida for Kansas City, her home, soon after his death. I have three grandchildren:- Stewart, the oldest, served thruout the Pearl Harbor attack without a scratch, is now at Annapolis Naval Academy. Will become an Ensign in July. Patsy is in Roseburg, Oregon. Her husband is in Washington, D.C. Jean's husband is a lieutenant in the infantry at Camp Roberts California. He expects to be transferred soon to some other point, then Jean will come home for awhile. JCM ____________________________________________________________ This is a copy of a letter received by Stella (Mayo) Andrews, daughter of Josiah Ferdinand Mayo, from her uncle, J C Mayo. Transcribed from original handwritten version by Leah Lemoyne (Mayo) Granger in the early 1950's. Oswego, Oregon. March 17th 1942. My Dear Niece, I was so glad to get your letter this morning that I am going to answer it while in a writing mood. Like yourself I have been nursing a very bad cold for the last week and am confined to the inside of the house until I can find something to kill the bug. With me it is not like my younger days when I could almost wish a cold away. Now they seem to have a habit of staying with me until the season changes, and sometimes continue on thru the next. I am awfully glad that your father's mysterious trip to California has done one good turn for me, and that is thru my inquiry to Maud. It paved the way of getting better acquainted with some of my close relatives, including yourself. Coincidentally, I received a letter in the same mail as yours today from Ola, Jim's daughter, living in Los Angeles. In her letter she said that she had met Leah about two years ago, but that Leah has since married and she did not know the name of Leah's husband, or where they were living. She liked Leah very much and she hoped that she would be able to see her again. I thought you might be able to get them together again. Ola's address is: Mrs. Frank Edwards, 519 North Vermont Street, Los Angeles, California. Your father gave Leah's address as Los Angeles. If you know her street address I would be glad to get it, as I intend to keep up the good work of getting better acquainted with my relatives until I have contacted all of them. Well, Stella, I am going to give you a little history of the Mayo tribe, dating back as far as I have any information regarding their genealogy. According to my information, early in the sixteen hundreds, two brothers (Mayo) landed in Virginia. One of the brothers decided he would go north and soon shipped for the New England states. The other decided he would remain, and settled in the country close to what is now Richmond Virginia. And it is this one that I will deal with now. All efforts made so far to trace the nativity of these two brothers have failed to uncover even a clue to their nativity, and they left no record. So we don't know whether we are Irish, as the name would imply, or it might equally imply that we are of Spanish or Italian origin. Some of the historians have linked us with the Irish, by reason of the fact that Ireland has a county Mayo. A Captain Mayo US Army, and son of Admiral Mayo, has spent many years of tracing every Mayo in the country, and has written a volume on the genealogy of the Mayos, but none of his investigations throw any light on the nationality of the two brothers. I will skip the time between the arrival of the two and commence with the migration from Virginia to Tennessee. My information shows that sometime in the seventeen hundreds, probably during the period of the Revolution, Valentine Mayo left Richmond Virginia and settled on the Tennessee River, near Louden Tennessee, and it is from this event that all our family of Mayo's come. I regret that I have none of the given names of the grand parents between Valentine and my father. Not even my grandfather's name. So the following list, beginning with my father's brothers and sisters, may be of most interest to you. Edmond Wagoner Patterson Mayo. (My father) Born 1819. Died 1881. Martha Blankenship. Louisa Gay. Emily Gay. Nancy Jane McCroskey. Miriam E. Mayo. She married a Mayo. Probably a cousin. Cynthia Beals. Mary Kyle. Blackmore Mayo I have no information of the date of death of other members of father's family, or the date of their birth. The girls were all married and the names I have given are the names they had at the time of death. While living in Spokane I met Aunt Miriam, who was visiting her son, Perry Mayo. But she soon became homesick for "them thar hills" in eastern Tennessee, and persuaded Perry to return to that country with her. I also met several of the Nancy Jane McCroskey family. Three boys are still living in the northwest, viz: Sam McCroskey, County Clerk, Colfax, Washington. Will McCroskey, Attorney, Seattle, Washington. Ewing McCroskey, Mercantile, Salem, Oregon. As for my mother's family, I have but little information. Mother was born, 1826. Died 1891. Her maiden name was Emily Belinda Hunter. She was born near Ashville, North Carolina, but when very young she became an orphan and went to Greenville Tennessee to live with an aunt, and it was there that she and father were married. She had two brothers:- James and John. Both of whom left with the Tennessee Volunteers for Texas to fight in the Mexican War on 1846. Neither of the brothers returned. And I have been told by my mother that they both married Texas Mexican girls and settled down in Mason and Leano Counties, Texas. While traveling thru Texas I visited Uncle John, but my time was short and I learned but little about them. I remember well their cowgirl daughter, Loretta. She was typical Spanish in looks and about my age. But could she ride a cayuse? You asked about the weather here. It seldom gets below zero here, but we have plenty of rain during the winter months. The average winter temperature being about 35 above. Sincerely yours, J. C. Mayo Second Edition. Since closing the first part of the letter I have thought of an incident in the lives of the Mayo's that might be of interest to you. During the Civil War things on the border of Kansas and Missouri got so hot in gorilla warfare:-raiding parties from one state to the other, that it was not safe for anyone regardless of their sympathies to live in the country on the border counties. So my father and a few other southern sympathizers got together and made up a party of older men members of families and joined a wagon train destined to the mining fields of Montana and what is now Idaho. They started from Westport Kansas, now a part of Kansas City, in mid-summer of 1864. Arriving in Virginia City Montana the same fall, and engaged in placer mining. They were not so successful as they had hoped at Virginia City, so my father and some of the party crossed over the range to new discovered gold diggins on Silver Bow Gulch and while there father filed a location notice of a claim for quartz mining and called his claim "The Gettesburg" lode claim. But that is as far as he ever got with it. The war closed in 1865 and word got to them early in 1866 so they pulled up stakes and started for home. They built a flatboat out of whipsawed lumber and floated down the Missouri River from a point near the location of Great Falls Montana to Council Bluffs Iowa. And of course abandoned his quartz claim without completing the necessary assessments work to obtain title. In later years, when Butte Montana was young, another prospector came along and filed a claim of the same ground described in my father's location notice, under the name "The Blue Bird Lode" and this prospector sold the claim for over a million dollars. I was employed by the Blue Bird Company from 1881 to 1891 as accountant and purchasing agent. When my mother passed away in 1891, in going over some papers I found a receipt for the filing of my father's location notice. And when I got back to Butte I looked up the record of The Blue Bird and found that it covered the identical ground of the Gettesburg Lode. If dad had only stayed with it. Sam Haverstick and old man Powel (Jess Powel's father) were members of the party going to Montana with father. J. C. M.