BIO - PIONEER - John R. May, well-known farmer, north of Forrest City, on Crowley's Ridge, is the proud descendant of one of the earliest pioneer families in St. Francis County, his hardy and prominent ancestors, settling in what is know as the Hughes community, in the early 1800's. His great-great grandfather, Benjamin May, was born in North Carolina in 1779, and came to Arkansas, and finally, to the fertile farming land on the sloping west side of Crowley's Ridge, east of Colt, shortly after the turn of the nineteenth century. The farm Benjamin May developed and improved has passed through two generations of the May family and is now owned and operated by the great-great grandson of this early St. Francis County settler. John R., the great-great grandson, was born on Feb. 5, 1906. His parents were the late A.S. and Mollie (Taylor) May, of the Hughes community. His grandfather was Reading A. May. On May 30, 1931, he married Mary Elven Voss, daughter of George and Lily (Poe) Voss, of Forrest City. To this union were born five children: Charline, now the wife of Arbert L. Rushing; Rayburn, who married Catherine Clark, and has a son, John Rayburn, Jr.; Mitchell May; Marshall May; and Phyliss Diane May. It is through the public-spirit of such early ancestry, of that of John R.May, that St. Francis Countians, of this fast moving twentieth century, are better able to maintain a gradually disappearing connection with the substantial contributions of those courageous and determined pioneers. Among the precious written evidence of the May family's once extensive land holdings in the possession of the present day May family, is an old wrinkled and fade abstract, dated 1821, which states that Edward and Lida May (great-uncle and aunt of John May) were legal "homestead" owner of the land they farmed in St. Francis County.
[1954 History of St. Francis County]
Believe he is buried here with rest of his family and his wife.
Married age 25, to Miss Mary Elven Voss, age 18, both of Forrest City