Toombs County, Georgia History and Genealogy Project

Toombs County, Georgia Biographies

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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.

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