Birth: Sep. 30, 1842.
Death: Dec. 7, 1918. Southern Cross of Honor, C. S. A.
Parents: Henry S. Mays (1815 - 1864), Matilda Rosannah Stroud Mays (1821 - 1905).
Wife: Laura Jane Gray Mays (1856 - 1905).
Children: Emma Sam Mays (1889 - 1889), William Addison Mays (1891 - 1891).
Siblings: Robert William Mays (1842 - 1918). Samuel Hardy Mays (1847 - 1923). John M. Mays (1850 - 1871).
Burial: Jackson City Cemetery, Jackson, Butts County, Georgia.
Georgia Thirteenth Infantry, Regimental History.
Robert W. Mays was a private who enlisted when quite a boy. He was born and raised in Butts County, where he has always lived. At the battle of Chickamauga he was severely wounded, the ball entering the lower part of the chest and passing out near the spine, which so disabled him a board of physicians retired him from the service. After regaining his strength he re-entered the service, not with standing his exemption, and was surrendered with Johnston's army in North Carolina in 1865.
He returned home after the war to his widowed mother, his father, Henry S. Mays, having been killed in service. His home being in the path of Sherman's army, he found nothing t^ut debt and poverty. With but a lifriited education, he commenced the battle of life with a spirit of pride, endurance and ambition and has accumulated property which makes him one of the wealthiest men of his county. While he has a diploma of both law and medicine, he does not practice either, farming being his favorite occupation. He is kind and sympathetic to the weak and oppressed.
He was married after the war to Miss Laura Gray, who has since died, leaving him two children, Robert Lee and John Billy. In 1880-1881, represented Butts County in the Legislature. He now lives at Jackson, Ga., where he has a host of warm friends.
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