Monroe-Knox County TN Archives Biographies.....May, James 1863 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com October 26, 2005, 3:01 pm

Author: Will T. Hale

   JAMES MAY. A prominent business man, an honored and influential citizen of

the thriving little city of Sweetwater, Monroe county. Mr. May has been a

resourceful factor in connection with public affairs in his native state and is

now serving as a valued member of the Tennessee State Board of Prison

Commissioners. He was for a number of years mayor of his home city and is known

as one of its most progressive and liberal citizens, and he has also represented

his district in the state senate. A man of sterling character and broad views,

he well merits, the popular confidence and esteem that are uniformly accorded to

him and is specially entitled to recognition in this publication, which has to

do with the history of Tennessee and its representative citizens.



   Mr. May was born on a farm near Ball Camp, Knox county, Tennessee, on the

10th of October, 1863, and is a son of George W. and Abbie (Temple) May, both of

whom were born and reared in Tennessee, where the respective families were

founded in the pioneer days,. the original representatives of the May family in

this state having come from North Carolina and having become early settlers in

the eastern part of the state. George W. May devoted his active career to the

great basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing, was one of the stanch

and highly esteemed citizens of Knox county and there both he and his wife

continued to reside until the close of their lives.



   He whose name initiates this review was reared to the sturdy discipline of

the homestead farm and was afforded the advantages of the public schools of the

locality. In 1888, when twenty years of age, he assumed a position as .clerk in

a hardware establishment in the city of Knoxville, and three years later he

initiated his independent business career by establishing himself in the same

line of enterprise at Sweetwater, where he has since maintained his home. There

he continued in the retail, hardware and implement trade for a period of four

years and there he now owns and conducts a finely equipped men's furnishing

store, with a substantial and representative patronage. He was for some sixteen

years engaged in the hardware business prior to going into the men's furnishing

business. He also has other local business interests and has at all times shown

himself ready to lend active cooperation in the furtherance of measures and

enterprises projected for the general good of the community. He is the owner of

excellent farming property in Monroe county and finds satisfaction in thus

continuing his allegiance to the line of industry under the influences of which

he was reared.



   Mr. May served eight years as mayor of Sweetwater, and his progressive and

careful administration did much to advance the civic and material welfare of the

city. In 1905 there came further recognition of his ability and personal

popularity, in that he was then elected to represent his district in the state

senate, said district comprising Knox, Loudon, Monroe and Polk counties. He

proved a circumspect, faithful and zealous member of the upper house of the

state legislature, in which he served on various important committees,

introduced and championed various bills in the interests of his constituency and

the state at large, and was influential in the general deliberations of the

senate. In April, 1912, as an independent Democrat, he was appointed to his

present important office, that of member of the state board of prison

commissioners, and he is giving in this capacity service of characteristic

ability and zeal. Mr. May is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and the

Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he is an earnest member of the Baptist

church in his home city. Mrs. May is a member of the Presbyterian church.



   The year 1887 marked the solemnization of the marriage of Mr. May to Miss

Prudy C. Howard, who was born and reared in Monroe county, this state, and who

is a daughter of the late J. W. Howard, a sterling citizen of that county. Mr.

and Mrs. May have three children, Ethel L., Beulah, Margaret, and James Earl,

and the family is one of prominence in connection with the leading social

activities of the home community.



Additional Comments:
From:



A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in

commerce, industry and modern activities

by Will T. Hale

Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913



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