History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties, Indiana From the
Earliest Time to the Present; Together with Interesting Biographical
Sketches, Reminiscences, Notes, Etc.  Chicago, Goodspeed Bros., & Co.,
Publishers, 1884. Weston A. Goodspeed, Leroy C. Goodspeed, Charles L.
Goodspeed. Lincoln County.

PROF. JAMES G. MAY, born at Lincoln County, Ky., April 21, 1805, is the
eldest of nine children, two brothers and two sisters yet living, born to
Jacob and Eleanor (McDonald) May.  The May family history is briefly this:
In the year 1700 a crowd of students of colleges and universities of a
portion of German, heated by the drinking of crambambuli, a German drink,
uttered treasonable sentences against the crowned heads and potentates of
their native country, and threatened to deprive them of their kingly
power.  George May, great-grandfather of James G., the subject of this
sketch, together with his brother, John, and thirteen others, escaped
arrest, and in sailor's disguise took passage to America, landing at
Philadelphia in 1701.  John May's descendants settled in North Carolina,
Maryland and Virginia, afterwards spreading to Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.
George May was the father of seven sons and two daughters, and Jacob,
grandfather of James G., was the oldest.  George died at Philadelphia. 
Jacob settled in Maryland, near Baltimore, and there Jacob, James G.'s
father, was born.  Jacob, the second, settled in Kentucky in 1783, at the
age of ten years, with his parents.  He came to Indiana in 1825, and died
at Martinsburg, in Washington County in 1852.  William McDonald,
grandfather of James G. May, was born in Philadelphia, and his parents
were natives of Scotland.  He served seven years in the Revolutionary war,
married a Miss Bell in North Carolina, she being a near relative of John
Bell, who was a candidate for the Presidency in 1860.  James G. May never
remembered when he learned his letters.  At six years of age he read
sufficiently well to peruse the Bible, unaided.  From the time he was four
years old he has always been a student, and he contracted his fondness for
study at the home of his childhood, where studying was always the order of
the hour.  When fourteen years old he entered Morrison's Academy and there
acquired an extensive knowledge of the sciences.  Not possessing the means
necessary to take a collegiate course, he began teaching at sixteen years
in his father's family, and working on the farm, at the same time pursuing
privately the course his academy classmate was taking at Center College,
at Danville.  In ten years he mastered the courses, without one day's
attendance at college, and in 1823 taught his first term of subscription
school.  In November, 1824, he came to Indiana and that winter taught
school in Brown Township, Washington County.  In 1825, he began reading
law privately.  The greater part of his life has been passed teaching
school, 6,308 days in Washington County, 1,080 days in Decatur County,
Ind., 1,035 days in the Harrison County Seminary, 1,170 days in New Albany
as Superintendent and general instructor, 308 days scattering, making a
total of 10,801 days passed in the school-room.  It is not necessary to
add that Prof. May has made school teaching a success.  In 1838 he was
admitted to practice law at Rushville, Ind., and for five years, with but
little else, he was located at Salem, successfully engaged in lgal
pursuits.  From December, 1832, to November, 1834, he was editor of the
"Western Annotator," at Salem.  He was a Jacksonian in politics up to 1833
when his views changed on the question of banking, and in 1834, he wrote
the first article recommending William Henry Harrison for the Presidency. 
In 1856 he became a Republican which he has remained to the present time,
and during the bitter struggle between the North and the South he was ever
found a warm supporter of the Union, of Lincoln's administration, and
often was threatened all manner of violence for his outspoken and radical
stand in favor of the Union.  March 5, 1829, he married Nancy, daughter of
Benoni and Elizabeth (McCoskey) Armstrong, and seven children were born to
their union: William W., Sarah E. (deceased), Maria L. (deceased), Mary D.
W., Ben A., Gertrude and James D. (deceased).  Those living are all
married.  Prof. May and wife are members of long standing in the
Presbyterian Church.   

May McDonald Bell Morrison Jackson Harrison Lincoln McCoskey Armstrong
=
Germany PA NC MD VA OH Martinsburg-Washington-IN Scotland
Danville-Boyle-KY Decatur-IN Harrison-IN

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/lincoln/may.jg.txt