Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/336

 MAY

MAYER

Abigail (Williams) May, of Boston. He was com- missioned adjutant with the rank of captain in the Boston regiment of militia, Oct. 11, 1778, and was major, lieutenant-colonel, and reached the rank of colonel, April 2, 1788. He served in Rhode Island under Count de Rocharabeau, and com- manded his regiment during Shays's rebellion, 1786-87. He visited the Ohio country on horse- back in 1788 and 1789, where he purchased land near the present site of Marietta, Ohio, and upon it built the first frame liouse in that region. He was a fire warden of Boston, 1785-1805 ; a select- man of tJiat city, 1804-12, and owned the wharf property called the May's or Union wharf. He died in B«^ton, Mass., July 16, 1812.

MAY, Samuel Joseph, reformer, was born in Boston, Mass., Sept. 12, 1797 ; son of Joseph and Dorothy (Sewall) May ; grandson of Samuel and Abigail (Williams) May, and of Deacon Samuel and Elizabeth (Quincy) Sewall, and a descendant

of John May, Rox- bury, 1640. He was graduated at Har- vard, A.B., 1817, A.M. .andB.D., 1820. He was ordained to the Unitarian min- istry, March 14, 18- 22, at Boston, Mass., and became pastor of the First Eccles- iastical society of Brooklyn, Conn., March 17, 1822. In Januarj', 1823, he es- tablished Tlie Liberal Christian, in whose pages he made explicit statements of Unitarian doctrine. He was married, June 1, 1825, to Lu- cretia Flagge, daughter of Peterand Ann (Martin) Coffin of Boston, Mass. He wrote and preached as an advocate of total abstinence and in opix)- sition to slavery as early as 1826 ; was burned in effigy at Syracuse, N.Y., in 1830, and was mobbed several times at Rutland and Montpelier, Vt., and at Haverhill, Mass. He was a member of the first New England anti-slavery society in 1832, and in 1833 befriended Prudence Crandall (q.v.). He helped to organize a National Anti- slavery society in Philadelphia in 1833 and signed the " Declaration of Sentiments." He was gen- eral agent of the Massachusetts Anti-slavery so- ciety, 1835-53. He was pastor of the Unitarian church at South Scituate, Mass., 1836-42 ; was principal of the Girls' Normal school, Lexington, Mass., 1842-44 ; pastor at Syracuse. N.Y., 1845-67, and did missionary work in central New York, 1867-71. He did much to improve the public- school system of Syracuse, and was president of

(^/^.^^^-^^

the board of education of that city at the time of his death. He is the author of : Education of the Faculties (1846); Revival of Education (1855) ; and Recollections of the Anti-Slavein/ Conflict (1868). G. B. Emei-son, Samuel May, and T. J. Mumford edited : Memoir of Samuel Joseph May (1873). He died in Syracuse, N.Y., July 1, 1871. MAY, Sophie. See Clarke, Rebecca Sophia. MAYBURY, WUliam Cotter, representative, was born in Detroit, Mich., Nov. 20, 1848; son of Thomas and Margaret (Cotter) Maybury and grandson of William and Elizabeth (Webb) Maybury. He was graduated at the University of Michigan, A.B. and A.M., 1870, LL.B., 1871. He began the practice of law in Detroit, Mich., in 1871 ; was city attorney of Detroit, 1876-80 ; lec- turer on medical jurisprudence in Michigan Col- lege of Medicine ; representative from the first district of Michigan in the 48th and 49th con- gresses, 1883-87, and mayor of Detroit, 1897- 1902.

MAYER, Alfred Marshall, physicist, was born in Baltimore, Md., Nov. 13, 1836 : son of Charles Frederick and Eliza Caldwell (Blackwell) Mayer ; grandson of Christian and Anne Katharine (Baum) Mayer, and of Captain Francis Blackwell. He matriculated at St. Mary's college, Baltimore, Md., but left in 1852 before graduating to acquire a practical training in mechanical drawing in the construction of machinery and in the use of tools. He devoted himself to physical studies and labora- tory work, 1854-56 ; was professor of physios, chemistry and astronomy in the University of Maryland, 1856-58, and of the same branches in Westminster college, 1859-61. He studied phy- sics, mathematics and physiology in the Univer- sity of Paris, France, 1863-64 ; was professor of physics and chemistry in Pennsylvania college. Pa., 1865-67 ; of astronomy in Lehigh university, Pa., 1867-70, and while there designed and superintended the erection of the astronomical observatory and made and published a series of observations on the planet Jupiter. He was professor of physics in Stevens Institute of Tech- nology, 1871-97 ; was placed in charge of the expedition sent to Burlington, Iowa, to observe the solar eclipse of Aug. 7, 1869, and made forty- one perfect photographs. He received the degree Ph.D. from Pennsylvania college in 1866 ; was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1872, and was a member of the other principal scientific societies of America. He was married, Dec. 27, 1865, to Catharine Duckett, daughter of Dr. Charles Goldsborough of Fred- erick county, Md. She died in 1868, and he was married, secondly, June 30, 1869. to Maria Louisa, daughter of Rasin Hammond and Margaret (Mc- Fadon) Snowden of Prince Georges county, Md. He was associate editor of the American Journal