The May Community

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Brown County, there's a little place called May, and the ground it sits on has a story that goes back further than most folks remember. It started as part of a Mexican land grant, handed over to an empresario by the name of John Cameron, back in 1827.

That's the foundation, deep and old, before Texas was Texas as we know it today. Then the 1870s rolled in, and pioneer families started putting down roots right here. Baptists and Methodists, being the kind of people who get organized fast, had their churches up and going in short order.

And the children, well, they had a school. One room. They called it Old Swayback.

Now, I don't know who first looked at that schoolhouse and thought up that name, but I'll tell you this, it stuck. That was the first formal education those kids were going to get, and Old Swayback gave it to them. Then came Nathan L.

May. In 1879, he built a trading post, and by 1881 he was the town's first postmaster. A man who clearly believed in showing up and handling things.

Time moved on, as it does, and by 1907 May had itself a blacksmith shop, a general store, a newspaper, and a bank. From one trading post to a town with a newspaper and a bank. That's a trajectory worth noting.

But here's where the story really lands. The whole early history of May, everything that came before, all of it was building toward one moment. 1911. The railroad came.

That, according to the marker, is where the early chapter of May reached its peak. And out here in Texas, when the railroad finally rolls into town, that's not just an arrival. That's a whole era coming to a close, and a new one pulling in right behind it.

What the marker says

Originally part of a Mexican land grant given to empresario John Cameron in 1827, May developed in the 1870s when several pioneer families settled here. Baptists and Methodists quickly organized churches. A one-room school known as Old Swayback provided the first formal education for the children. Nathan L. May built a trading post in 1879 and became the town's first postmaster in 1881. By 1907 the village had a blacksmith shop, general store, newspaper and bank. The early history of May climaxed in 1911 with the coming of the railroad. (1981)