THE MAYS FAMILY

 The following bio was taken from page 302 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

 Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

 Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of TX

I, Alma Mays, was born November 23, 1887, in the Mays Community, three miles east of New Salem – the daughter of Thomas Livy Mays and Emma Jane Wiggins.  My brother Livy Mays was born in 1885, and my sister Mabel, in 1890.

 We children attended school in a one-room school, known as the Mays School, located about two hundred yards west of the present Mays Cemetery.  We attended a log Methodist Church and Sunday school located across the road and just about one hundred yards from the school.

Livy shot himself accidentally February 11, 1899, and my mother died February 14, 1899.  She was in ill health and went into a coma from which she never recovered.

Mr. and Mrs. Erwin moved into our house with their two children, Tray and Orez.  Mabel and I entered the Henderson Schools in September, 1899.  We lived with our two aunts, Mrs. Roe McNulty and Miss Mattie Mays, at 502 S. Main.  I entered the sixth grade, and Mabel, the third grade.  We attended Sunday school and church at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church just across the street from the First Baptist Church. 

In 1901 my father married Mrs. Emma McDaniel (Woodall) of Henderson.  She proved to be a wonderful stepmother.  Mabel and I spent our summers on the farm and would return to Henderson in September.  My brother, Thomas Milton Mays, was born in 1904.  He died in 1913.

 I graduated from Henderson High School in May, 1905, and entered Trinity University in Waxahachie.  I taught in the Mays one-room school 1906-1907, where I had about fifteen pupils and received $50.00 per month.  I received my Bachelor of Arts degree in 1910 and my master’s degree from Peabody in 1925.

 My own teaching experiences include Laneville (1913-1915), Cushing High School (1915-1916), and Henderson High School (1916-1921), to name just a few.

 My sister Mabel graduated from Trinity University in 1912.  She went to Baird and was teaching English in the high school.  After about three weeks, she developed an infection and died before any of the family could reach her.

 After the deaths of Mabel and Thomas, we left the farm and moved to Laneville.  My stepmother died in 1938.  My cousin, Lula Summers, lived with my father until I came home in 1943.  After my father’s death in 1945, I became a tree farmer on our 407-acre farm.  I planted about 75,000 seedlings.  The farm was designated the Tom Mays Memorial Tree Farm, the first tree farm in Rusk County approved by the Texas Forestry Service.

 Thomas L. Mays was one of the twelve children of John Mandeville Mays and Sarah Fulbright, who came to Texas around 1850.  The others were: Emma, Byrd, Elvira, Milton, William, Fannie, Mattie, Lizzie, Laura, Horace, and Ed.  Tom graduated from Trinity University (then at Tehuacana) and taught at Union, near Glenfawn, before he married.

 Submitted by Miss Alma Mays