Dr. May has been established in the town of Cobden, Union county,
Illinois, ever since beginning his practice in 1905, and in that time has
built up a fine practice and enjoys the confidence of the community to whose
ills he has ministered so wisely. He is a constant student of his profession
and is never ceasing in his efforts to keep in touch with the latest
discoveries of the science to which he has elected to devote his life and to
which so many of the greatest men the world has produced are devoting their
powers. Dr. May, who is still to be counted of the younger generation, is a
native son of Illinois, his eyes having first opened to the light of day in
Marion, Williamson county. He is a son of Rev. G. W. May, a minister of the
Cumberland Presbyterian church and well known for his ability and services
in the high cause of his honored calling. The elder gentleman is a native of
Johnson county and a son of William May, a native of Tennessee, who migrated
to Johnson county and had the distinction of being one of the earliest
settlers of Southern Illinois. He was prominent in the simple, friendly,
wholesome and strenuous life of the new section and his good life has been
recorded as a legacy to his descendants. He took as his wife a Miss Simpson,
a member of another pioneer family. Four of the brothers of William May and
four of his wife's brothers were soldiers in the Civil war, their sympathies
being enlisted in the cause of the Union.
The youth of the Rev. G. W. May was passed in both Johnson and Williamson
counties, the family removing to the latter when he was ten years of age. He
married Sarah L. Davis, a native of eastern Tennessee. When she was nine
years of age her parents migrated to Williamson county. The father was born
in the year 1850 and has been a minister for twenty years, being at the
present time located at Owensville, Indiana. He reared a family of six
children, namely: Edna, now Mrs. McLain, of Union county; Ada Pearl, wife of
Dr. Stewart, of Anna, Illinois; Myrtle (Barckniann); Daisy (Cantwell); Cecil
(Wilder); and Leonidas J.
Dr. May, immediate subject of this review, was educated in part in the
Marion schools, finishing nine school grades when fifteen years of age. He
was for one year a student in the Anna high school and one year in that at
Patoka, Indiana. He finished his classical education in Oakland College,
Oakland City, Indiana, in 1898. Meantime, however, he had been working at
various occupations and his studies were frequently interrupted while
earning a livelihood. The family was in modest circumstances, as is
proverbial with the families of ministers. When eleven years of age he was
working on a farm near Cobden and first and last he did a good deal of work
of this kind in the vicinity of Cobden. Later he engaged in sawmill work for
three years in the vicinity of Anna, Illinois. He also worked in a brick
plant in the Hoosier state for a year and in 1897 began teaching. His
pedagogical services extended over a period of six years and included a year
near Princeton, Indiana; two years in the Francisco high school; three years
as principal of the high school at Monroe City, Indiana. In the meantime he
had come to the conclusion to make the medical profession his own and while
teaching pursued his studies in the Indiana State University at Bloomington,
completing the course in two years. In the spring of 1902 he entered the
Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville and studied for four years,
graduating in 1905. While pursuing his studies in the Keystone state he was
interne in the Louisville City Hospital. In October, 1905, he passed the
Illinois state board examinations and immediately located at Cobden, where
he has built up an excellent practice and where he enjoys the regard of the
community. He is affiliated with the Union county, the Illinois State and
the American Medical Associations, and with the Masonic order at Cobden. He
is a Presbyterian in church faith.
Dr. May was happily married February 26, 1908, Miss Stella Stout, of Cobden,
daughter of Henry P. and Susan (Rich) Stout, becoming his wife. They have a
small son, Robert Leon.
Extracted 13 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 3, pages 1094-1095.
| Jackson | Williamson | |
| MO |
 |
Johnson |
| Alexander | Pulaski |
