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Note: CHARLES J. MAY.—Conspicuous among the earlier settlers of Pine Grove township, Van Buren county, was Charles J. May, who still owns and occupies the farm which he hewed from the wilderness, and which hasbeen his home for a half century or more. A native of Germany, he was born in the village of Laudenbach, Baden, in 1831. His father, William May,was born and reared in Germany, and with his wife spent his entire life inGermany. He was a traveling salesman, but owned a home in the village of Laudenbach, where he was noted as a most successful bee raiser and keeper, generally having as many as one hundred and fifty hives of bees in his apiary. Two of his sons, Charles J., the subject of this sketch, and William came to America, the latter named settl ing in Pennsylvania. Educated in the Fatherland, Charles J. May attended school regularly until fourteen years old, acquiring a practical knowledge of books. Five years later he immigrated to America, being thirty- two days in crossing the ocean on a sailing vessel, and landing at the end of the voyage in New York city. Going from there to Ohio, he began the struggle of life among strangers, without capital other than he earned. For two years he was employed as a farm laborer in the vicinity of Cleveland. Being convinced that he could find more favorable opportunities for advancing his financial condition in a newer country, Mr. May made his way to Van Buren county, Michigan. The county, especially its northern portion, was then sparsely settled, the people hereabout having but limited means at their command. He found employment in clearing the land and in farming. Industrious and thrifty, he saved his wages, and when he had accumulated a sufficient sum to warrant him in so doing bought eighty acres of the land now included in his present farm, in section eleven, Pine Grove township. The entire tract was covered with timber when he bought it, and for a few years he rented land near by, and during the time that he worked that cleared a few acres of his own estate. When ready toset up an establishment of his own he settled with his bride on his own farm, which he has since placedunder a high state of cultivation. Mr. May has made other improvements of great value, erecting a substantial set of farm buildings, and installing all the machinery and equipments necessary for carrying on his agricultural work after the most approved modern methods. Mr. May married Margaret Waber, who was born in 1843, in Bavaria, Germany, her birth occurring on the sixth day of April. Her father, John Waber, was born and bred in Bavaria, and there learned the trade of a carpenter. In 1848, accompanied by his wife and eight children, he came to America in a sailing vessel, being six weeks on ship board before land ing in New York. Locating in Rochester, New York, he lived there for sixyears, after which he spent a year in Kalamazoo, Michigan. From there he came to Van Buren county, which was then in its pristine wildness. with no railroad nearer than Lawton. He settled in Pine Grove township, and a year or so after coining here purchased eighty acres of woodland in section two. Clearing a small space in the forest, he erected a log house, and having placed a part of his land under cultivation began farming in earnest, for several years taking his surplus productions to Kalamazoo with ox teams, and selling it, or exchanging it for needed household supplies. Late in life he sold his farm and moved to Otsego, where he lived with his son Fred, dying at his home at the advanced age of eighty-one years. His wife died on the home farm in Pine Grove township, at the age of sixty-seven years. She reared seven children, as follows: George, Henry, Frederick, Anna, Thomas. Margaret and James. Mr. and Mrs. May have had nine children, namely: Frederick, Philip, Anna, Barbara, Frances, Charlie, Nellie, Alice and Elmer. Frederick married Caroline Stiloh. Philip married Mabel Cowan, and they have one son, Philip H. Cowan. Anna, wife of Peter Stevens, has six children, May, Royal, Dale, Adelbert, Isabelle and Jsadore. Barbara, who married George Wymaii, died in 1909, leaving two children, Margaret and Charlie. Frances is the wife of Clyde Scramlin. Nellie, wife of Florence Harbolt, has three children, Flossie, Anna and Elmer. Alice is the wife of Elmer Simmons. Elmer, the youngest member of the parental househould, married Gertrude Squires, and they have two children, Lyle and Claudie. Charlie is unmarried and manages the home farm.
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