How Dr.Tom May came to be buried at Greenville

Greenville, southeast of Russell in Washington Township, is one of Lucas County's designated pioneer cemeteries and a challenge to get to sometimes, depending upon the weather. There is no road to it, surrounded as it is by fields and pasture; only a track.

One of the minor mysteries of Greenville is how Dr. Thomas R. May, who spent most of his career in Chillicothe, Missouri, and died at St. Joseph on Sept. 2, 1878, came to be there.

While looking for something else the other day, I happened upon a brief news item in The Chariton Patriot of Oct. 30, 1878, that provides the answer:

"The Allerton Republican says: The body of Dr. Thomas R. May, who died in the insane asylum at St. Joseph, Mo., passed through here on Saturday morning. Mr. May was the brother of H.G. May, of this county (Wayne), and Mrs. Greenwood Wright. He was a graduate of Asbury (Indiana) University and in medicine at Cincinnati, Ohio. He practiced medicine at Chillicothe, Mo., for nearly twenty years, acquiring considerable property, but lost his mind about two years ago, since which time he has been in the insane hospital at St. Joseph. He was buried at the Greenville Cemetery, Lucas county. He was aged 53 and unmarried." 

Thomas had never lived in Lucas County himself, but his parents --- Nancy and John May --- were pioneer settlers in the Greenville neighborhood, arriving there in 1852 along with sons William T. and John, among others. John, a first lieutenant in Company E, 36th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, was killed during the battle of Marks Mill, Arkansas, during April of 1864. Nancy died in 1857; John, during 1873. They're buried at Greenville, too, and a cenotaph for John is located there as well.

Thomas seems to have opened his practice in Chillicothe soon after 1860 and had considerable assets there when he died, assets shared by his surviving siblings since he had never married. To their credit, they decided to bring his remains to Greenville after his death for burial near his parents and erected a substantial tombstone in his memory.

They were able to transport his remains to Greenville in a timely manner thanks to the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad branch completed from Chariton to Leon during 1872. It was a short trip then from Chariton to Russell on the main line of the B. & M.R. Today's Cinder Path follows the old B. & M.R. railbed from Chariton to Humeston.