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William B. Mayes, Jefferson
Excerpt from The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men; Iowa Volume. American Biographical Publishing Company. Chicago and New York. 1878.
The subject of this brief sketch, one of the most successful business men of Jefferson, is of Scotch descent, his ancestors on both sides being from the old country. His parents were Joseph and Rebecca (Work) Mayes, residing near Cadiz, Harrison county, Ohio, when the son was born on the 11th of August 1837. His father was in the war of 18121. His paternal grandfather, on coming from Scotland, settled in Pennsylvania. The Works settled in Washington county, in the same state, where many of them still reside.
William B. lived in Harrison county until after he came of age, farming, attending a common school and teaching.
In April, 1860, he came to De Witt, Clinton county, Iowa, still farming in harvest time, teaching in the winters, and studying the rest of the time, finishing his high school education with a full year in in Lenox Collegiate Institute, Hopkinton, Delaware county, where he had previously attended one or two terms.
On finishing his academic course of studies he read law with Captain D. S. Lee of Independence, Iowa; was admitted to the bar at DeWitt, in September 1867, and settled in Jefferson on the 16th of the same month. Here, to legal practice he has added real estate, making the latter a specialty, and managing it with eminent success.
When Mr. Mayes located in Jefferson, he had spent his funds in securing an education, and was not worth a dollar; was, in fact, owing something less than one hundred dollars of borrowed money. Since going into business here, he has been economical, has been prudent and careful in his investments and speculations, and what is remarkable, has in no instance been a loser. He now owns the Revere House, in Jefferson, a farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres at the depot, four hundred acres of wild land in various parts of Greene county, a cozy home in the city, and perhaps other property of which the writer has no knowledge. In company with Mr. G. G. Lawrence, county auditor, he is in the abstract business, and they have probably the most perfect thing of the kind in the state.
In the month of August, 1862, Mr. Mayes enlisted as a private in company K, 11th Iowa Infantry, and served nearly three years. He was with his regiment in every battle except one, and was hit twice, but not seriously wounded. During the latter part of this period he was a clerk in the provost-marshal's office, seventeenth army corps.
Mr. Mayes is a republican in politics, but has held no office outside the municipality of his adopted home. He has passed all the chair in Odd-Fellowship, and is a Master Mason.
He inherited from his parents a warm regard for the Presbyterian tenets and order of church government, and is an elder in the Jefferson body. For probity and consistency of christian character, no man in the city has a better standing. He is a zealous worker in the cause of divine truth.
His wife, becoming such on the 14th of May, 1868, was Miss Sarah J Cowan, of Mount Vernon, Linn county, Iowa, and was educated there in Cornell College; she is a very active and influential christian.
Circumstances rendered it a necessity that Mr. Mayes should make a slow start in his academic course; and consequently in his legal and independent career; but he seems to have been determined not to enter on a profession without a fair degree of mental culture; so far as we can learn, he struggled on, full of hope, with an elastic spirit, and a safe amount of energy and perseverance. While in the army he studied the German language, and acquired a knowledge of it sufficient to enable him to teach it when reading law at Independence. At that place he also taught a select school to aid in defraying his expenses while pursuing his legal studies. His plan seems to have been to convert his money, early earned, into mental resources, so that if successful in later years he might have the means to which he could the better enjoy his financial success. He is now devoting one hundred dollars a year to the enlargement of his private library. From the career of such men, who can doubt that the aspirations for knowledge, culture and refinement which led them to struggle upward are to be infinitely preferred to inherited wealth, which not infrequently proves itself to be other than a blessing?
The above biographical sketch appears on page 714. Based on the book's forward, the source for most, if not all of the above, information was the subject of the bio, William B. Mayes.
1. There is no record to confirm that his father, Joseph Work, served during the war of 1812. There are 3 possibilities, one of which arises from pronoun confusion. "His father" could refer to Joseph's father, Thomas, not William's father Joseph. Thomas served as a private in the War of 1812 under Capt Aaron Allen per Fold3 and Harrison County history. It could also refer to William's maternal grandfather, Alexander Work who served as a private in the army under Capt John McElroy from 20 Oct 1812 to 11 Jan 1813 per Fold3. Or there could be name confusion and the James Mays recorded as serving in the War of 1812 refers to Joseph, possibly due to name abbreviation of Jos (for Joseph) misread as Jas (for James).
| Owner/Source | The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men; Iowa Volume. |
| Linked to | Joseph Mayes; William Brown Mayes; Rebecca Work |
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