HON. CHARLES SEDGWICK MAY. Mr. May was born at Sandisfield, Mass., March 22, 1830. When four years old he removed with his parents to Richland, Kalamazoo County, Mich., and spent his boyhood days on the farm. After completing his academic education at the Kalamazoo branch of the University of Michigan, he studied law at Bennington, Vt., and Battle Creek, Mich. While thus engaged he became thoroughly enlisted in the anti-slavery movement, and contributed various articles upon that subject to the journals of the state. He was admitted to the bar in 1854, and after about a year's practice of his profession became associate political editor of the Detroit Daily Tribune, and the Washington correspondent from November 1855, to October following. He returned to his professional work in I856, practicing both at Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. In November 1860, he was elected prosecuting attorney of Kalamazoo County and held that office till January, 1863. He helped to raise the first volunteer company from Kalamazoo-Company K, Second Michigan Infantry, of which he was commissioned captain. Mr. May lead his company with honor in the battles of Bull Run and Blackburn's Ford, and was the first officer of his regiment to be recommended for promotion by Major General Richardson. Ill health necessitated his leaving the army, and in the summer or fall of 1861he returned to the practice of his profession. In the fall of 1863 he was elected lieutenant governor of the state, and presided over the senate at the sessions of I863-4. In August, I866, he presided at the Republican state convention at Detroit. Mr. May was an active Republican from the organization of that party to the presidential campaign of 1872, when he became an active Democrat, and candidate for presidential elector, and continued to labor with that party so long as he took an active part in politics. In 1877 he was the Democratic candidate for United States senator. He was an effective political speaker and rendered valuable service for the party to which he was allied. Mr. May's chief distinction as a lawyer lay in his ability to present a case to a jury, and in this he ranked high. He had little relish for the drudgery of preparing a case for trial, or determining what law writers or the courts had said on the legal questions involved. In his particular sphere he hardly had a peer at the Kalamazoo bar, unless it was the Hon. Charles E. Stuart. His literary ability and oratorical powers were of a high order. The classical quality of his style, the strength and often pungent quality of his sentences and logic, and purity and effectiveness of his imagery and diction, with pleasing, well-modulated voice and gesture, and often intense earnestness, rendered him a leading public speaker and orator, whether before a jury or on the platform. Quite a number of his addresses were published, popular and widely circulated, but those which gained him his greatest reputation were extemporaneous. Mr. May was of a very sensitive nature, true to his convictions of propriety and right, and led a pure life. He was easily irritated, and therefore not always as happy as he would otherwise have been. His ability entitled him to higher political positions than he attained; and greater success was hindered by himself, his aspirations and disposition to prematurely force promotion. He could not brook disappointment, or the failure of young men, of somewhat his own age and standing, to coincide with his views, both as to position to be sought and time for effort. Too much allegiance and ignoring of their own interests and individuality were demanded. In that way he drove from him those whose support he could ill afford to lose. For several years Mr. May was vice-president of the national Unitarian conference; and in 1870 he was selected by the national committee to fill the vacancy in the office of president of the conference, vacated by the death of Hon. Thomas D. Elliott. In 1888, on account of failing health, Mr. May retired from active practice of his profession and built a country home, "Island View," on a favorite elevation overlooking Gull lake. Here, amid restful and congenial surroundings, he devoted himself to literary work, contributing to leading papers and magazines many valuable articles. His interest in public affairs was keen to the last. Not long before his death Mr. May published a volume entitled, "Speeches of the Stump, the Bar and the Platform," followed by "How We Are Governed in State and Nation." His final illness, heart disease, was of short duration. He passed away on the 25th day of March, 1891, three days after his seventy-first birthday. The wealth of personal tributes and testimonials showed the wide-spread esteem in which he was held.
Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. / David Fisher and Frank Little, editors.
Author: Fisher, David p. 523