My Genealogy Hound

T. C. Mays, editor and proprietor of the Benton Courier, is too well known to need a formal introduction to the people of this section, but certainly this volume would be incomplete without giving his name prominent mention. He is a native of the “Buckeye” State, and was born in Waynesburg, in February, 1840, being the seventh son and child of a family of nine children born to Andrew and Rebecca (Ryan) Mays. The former, of old Virginia stock, was born in 1799, while his wife was a native of Ohio. He was a builder and contractor by trade, and in politics was a Whig, but very conservative. Himself and wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His death occurred in Los Angeles, Cal., in 1885, at the advanced age of eighty-five. He had lived in the latter State one year prior to his death, but had been a resident of the same town in Ohio for sixty years. Of the family of nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Mays four are now living: Madison (a man of family, and a wealthy farmer, lives at Waynesburg, Ohio), W. O. (has a family and lives at Mossman, Iowa, where he has a fine farm), Arretta (is the wife of Amos Fell, a business man of Los Angeles, Cal.), and T. C. (is the subject of this sketch.) The last named was educated in the common schools of Ohio, and at the age of sixteen years was sent to Meadville, Penn., to attend college. After a short time he grew tired of college life, and entered the office of the Crawford County Democrat, serving three years, at the end of which time he was foreman of the office. The war being declared he returned to his native State, and in answer to his country’s call offered himself and was accepted as a volunteer in Senator Sherman’s Sixty-fifth Ohio Volunteers. He entered as a corporal, but was promoted to second sergeant after the battle of Stone River. This office he was given for meritorious conduct, and he served in that capacity until near the close of the war, retiring as captain. He participated in the battles of Shiloh (under Gen. Buell), was with Rosecrans at the battle of Stone River (where he was wounded in the left shoulder), with Thomas at Chickamauga, and there received a gun-shot wound in the left hand. He was subsequently put in charge of a veteran corps company at Nashville, where he remained until the expiration of his enlistment, being honorably discharged as captain of Company A, Fifth Battalion Veteran Reserve Corps. Then entering the post-quartermaster’s department he remained as chief clerk of the camp and garrison equipage. Upon returning to Ohio Mr. Mays filled a position as local reporter on the Cincinnati Enquirer for one year, afterward conducting the Crawford County Forum, at Bucyrus, Ohio, for two years. Subsequently he served as city editor of the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Sentinel for three years, and then founded the Auburn Courier, which he conducted eight years, during that time being elected and serving two terms as clerk of the House of Representatives, in the State legislature (October, 1874 and 1878). In connection with other parties he established the first paper at Silver Cliff, Colo. In 1880 he went to Hot Springs, where he published the Daily Telegraph, and changed the name to the Evening Star. One year later the paper was consolidated with the Daily Sentinel, being published under the name of Sentinel, of which he was editor until the presidential election in 1884. In December, 1884, Mr. Mays went to Kansas City, and while engaged as reporter for the Times accompanied Gen. Hatch on his expedition to Oklahoma, in driving Capt. Payne out of that territory. Returning to Little Rock, he was connected with the Arkansas Gazette in various capacities until failing health caused him to cease his efforts in this direction, and he came to Benton. October 10, 1888, he purchased the Saline Courier, the name of which was changed to Benton Courier, and since that time he has been engaged in the publication of what has become one of the representative journals of the community. Earnest and sincere in his editorials, and having interests of the people of his adopted home at heart, his paper meets with a warm welcome in the homes into which it enters. In 1867 Mr. Mays was married to Miss Emma Mallory, a native of Bucyrus, Ohio, and to them was born one child, Hardie M., a young man of twenty-one, who holds a responsible position in an office in Fort Wayne. Mr. Mays was separated from his wife in 1886. He is a member of Damon Lodge No. 4, Knights of Pythias, at Little Rock, and is a believer in the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church.