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Alexander May
Alexander May, who still lives where he originally settled in the township, and, with several others mentioned in the above list, formed what was known as May's Settlement, was born in Henry county, Kentucky, January 5th, 1801, immigrated to Orange county, Indiana, in 1816, to Fountain county, same state, in 1827,and from thence to Montgomery county, same state, in 1831, and from thence to his present place, arriving there June 22, 1843.
In relating his first year's experience in pioneer life here, Mr. May says in a letter to us:
"In the fall, having to lay in our provisions for the winter, John Riddle and I took my ox wagon and four yoke of oxen, and drove to the old purchase. Having to work for our grain, we put in three weeks of steady labor, by which we paid for forty-five bushels of fall wheat, and thirty bushels of old corn, one barrell of salt, one side of sole leather and one of upper. We got our grinding done at Meek's mill, Bonaparte. No roads from Agency till we got home, only as the emigrant had made them. We were thirty-five days from home.
"The first grain we raised was threshed in the old-fashioned way with horses, and fanned with a sheet. Soon as it was ready we took it to Farmington to mill, the trip occupying fifteen days. The first wheat we got ground at Haymaker's, we bolted through book muslin stretched over a hoop. The first meal we borrowed, my wife got at Joseph Tally's on the north side of the Des Moines river. In this trip she went alone, forded the river at what is now Bellfountain, with a team of horses and wagon, the water being flank deep to the team, borrowed three bushels of meal and bought seven chickens, and returned the same day, a distance of eleven miles. These were the nearest neighbors from whom we could obtain such accommodations.'