Illinois sesquicentennial edition of Christian County history Jacksonville, Ill.,: Printed by Production Press, 1149 pgs. THOMAS G MAY This gentleman represents the substantial farmers and prominent stock dealers of Christian County Illinois. His father Stephen U May removed from Kentucky and settled near Whitehall in Greene County Illinois in 1842, he soon removed to near Wilmington where he remained until his death in 1844,he married Elizabeth J Allen who also a native of Kentucky, she died 1849 in Illinois. They were the parents of six children, of whom three are still living. Thomas G May the youngest of the six children, was born in Butler County Kentucky, April 28 1837,His father and mother dying while he was yet in his youth, he was deprived of the advantages of even a common school education. He was thrown upon his own resources and was compelled to provide for his own maintenance at an age when youth needs the kind and caressing hands of parental affection. But if he was disciplined in hard school it taught him habits of self- reliance, which have been of service to him in every subsequent step in life. He remained in Greene County, Illinois until 1856, when he went to McLean County in this state, and worked upon a farm and soon leased land and engaged in farming so continuing until 1862, when he came to Christian County Illinois, and settled in Taylorsville where he resides at present. On the 9th of September 1858, he was united in marriage to Miss Emeline Simmons, she was born in Indiana, but was a resident of McLean County at the time of the marriage. By this union there have been six children, four of whom are living, there names are John Irvin, James T, Levi A and Minnie Ellen. In Politics he was a former democrat casting his first vote of Stephen Douglas in the 1860 election of president, but after the breaking out of war he arrayed himself on the side of the party of the union and since that time he has been consistent and reliable member of the Republican party. In 1876 he was nominated by the republican party of Christian county in convention assembled for the office of Sheriff, and at ensuing election in November was elected by a handsome majority, notwithstanding the county was largely democratic. He remained in office and discharged his duties thereof in a manner that gave complete satisfaction to those who honored him with their sufferages, and when his term expired he returned to his farm in this township commencing in his agricultural pursuits. In 1875 and 1876 before appointment to the sheriff office, he was elected to the Assessor duty of his township; he was also the 1880 census enumerator for Taylorsville Township outside the corporation of the city of Taylorsville. Mr. May is one of those who started in life unaided. Left an orphan at an early age he had to go out and take his place among men and earn a livelihood for himself. What he has now in the way of worldly possessions has been the accumulations of his own toil and patient industry, aided by economical habits and good management. In thus accumulating he has made for himself at the same time a name for strict honesty and integrity in both public and private life. Life is lived forwards,But understood backwards Tamara's Genealogy Bookstore http://www.angelfire.com/in4/genealogybooks/ Tamara's Genealogy Surnames:Kincade/Vincent/Gish http://www.angelfire.com/in/tamaraspage/index.html Clan Kincaid - Read about the DNA project http://www.alphalink.com.au/~kincaid/