GARRETT MAYS has been identified with the Red river country on the north side of the river in Indian Territory since 1887. He is accounted one of the successful stockmen and business leaders of Jefferson county. Born in Hickman county, Tennessee, August 11, 1858, he accompanied the family to Texas at the close of the Civil war and got his education for the most part while in the saddle and riding the range. Only a brief time was spent in attendance at the pioneer school in his neighborhood. He has been in the open, in the free life of the plains and pitting his strength against the problems of a cattleman's career ever since he was a boy. He abandoned the home farm as his headquarters in 1887, and on November 17 of that year arrived in Indian Territory with 620 head of cattle which he placed on the range in the Chickasaw country. In a few years when the range became more crowded, he leased and marked with fences some two thousand acres. For a score of years he has been engaged in the cattle business, and his average annual run of stock would be from four hundred to a thousand head. As a shipper he is well known in the markets at Kansas City and Fort Worth, and some of his surplus earnings are invested in Jefferson county land. With Ryan as his home he has made himself valuable as a factor in citizenship as well as in business. He is a Democrat in politics and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. He is a stockholder in the Ryan Cotton Oil Mill. As a noteworthy event in his personal history, and one that also gave much concern to his community, he had an experience on October 24, 1907, that proves that the usually quiet occupation of stock farming is not without its dangers. While loading some cattle at Duncan, and while standing in a passage-way to count the animals, one of the steers suddenly became enraged and rushing upon him threw him into the air in a second's time before he had any chance to defend himself. The horn passed under the left jaw and up through the skull just behind the left eye, and almost tore the whole side of the head away. It was necessary to remove a large section of the jaw bone as also a portion of the parietal bone of the upper fore part of the cranium. In spite of the apparently fatal nature of the injury, Mr. Mays recovered sufficiently in four months to resume the management of his affairs.
    Mr. Mays is a member of an old southern family. His grandfather, John Mays, a native of Virginia, brought up his family in Hickman county, Tennessee, where as a horse and mule raiser he was known as a moneymaker and a man of influence. He was well educated, and during early life had been an active Whig. He died in 1891 when past ninety years of age. His wife's maiden name was Kersey, and their children were:William, of Hickman county, Tennessee; John, Miles, Thaddeus, Gentry, Ann, wife of George Biffle;Angeline, who married Edward Crouch and moved to Idaho. Of this family, John (father of Garrett) was born in Hickman county, Tennessee, October 5, 1828. He entered the Confederate service from that state as captain of a company, but resigned before the close of the war and started west with his family. After brief sojourns in West Tennessee and southeast Missouri, he reached Texas with a few teams and little money. He bought all the black land in Hill county that his money could cover at a dollar or two an acre, and establishing a permanent home, became in time one of the prosperous men of the county. At one time he owned two thousand acres and had extensive stock interests. As a Democrat he took much interest in public affairs and was frequently a delegate to the conventions. He died in November, 1893. He marriedJane Biffle, daughter of Jacob Biffle, a southerner by birth and antecedents, and in business a successful horse and mule raiser in Hickman county. Mrs. James Mays died in Hill county, Texas, March 1, 1883. Her children were: Sarah, who died in Missouri while on the way to Texas; Mollie, deceased, wife of J. C. Roberts; Bamma, deceased, wife of Matt Scruggs; Garrett, mentioned above; William B., who died in Hill county; John A., deceased; and Mattie, wife of W. C. Faubian, of Waurika, Oklahoma.
Garrett Mays married, October 30, 1895, in Clay county, Texas, Nora Glenny, daughter of Robert and Olive (Matt) Glenny. Her father, who came from Iroquois county, Illinois, to a farm near Benvanue, Texas, in 1886, was born in Scotland in 1818, came to the United States in 1840, first settling at Chicago, died in Texas in August, 1900. There were the following children in the Glenny family: Sarah, wife ofH. K. Marler, of Los Angeles, California; Eliza, wife of Frank Richardson, of Hebron, Indiana; Robert, of Lawton, Oklahoma; Henry, deceased in infancy; William, of Lawton; Mrs. Mays, born January 6, 1870;Malinda, wife of J. A. Zachary, of Ryan; Lucinda, wife of D. L. Harris, of Sibley, Missouri; George, deceased; Charles, of Byers, Texas; and Ernest, of Byers. Mr. and Mrs. Mays have one son, Vernie Biffle, born December 1, 1897.