Compiled by
Lee Alton Absher, M.D.
Knoxville, Tennessee
© Copyright 1966
Reprinted with permission
We have very little available information on the Mayes family. The first member of this family, of which we have record, is William Mayes. He left a probated will in Sumner County, Tennessee, dated November 3, 1853. His birthday is unknown. The Sumner County, Tennessee, census of 1860 list him as being 83 years old and as having been born in Virginia. He was a maternal great-great-grandfather of the author.
William Mayes was married twice, but the name of his first wife is unknown. His children, by his first wife, were: Pleasant, Joel O., William Smith, and Mahala. His second wife, named Nancy, was 46 years old at the time of the 1860 census. They had two children, namely Frances and Texanna.
William Smith Mayes, the son of William, Sr., was born in 1820. He married Mary L. Hobdy, daughter of William Hobdy. They married about 1841 in Sumner County, Tennessee. The date of his death is unknown.
They had the following children: Pleasant, Missouri Ann, Elizabeth, Harriet, Eliza, Martha, William F., Madora, Margaret, Delila, Napoleon, Georgia Ann, and Joel.
Pleasant V. Mayes was born August 23, 1842, in Sumner County, Tennessee. He lived in Franklin, Kentucky. (No other information.)
Missouri Ann Mayes was born January 8, 1844, and died May 11, 1917. She married John Daniel Perdue, January 5, 1864.