"Captain John M. Mays. For more than a quarter of a century Captain John M. Mays has been connected with the commercial interests of Henderson, and during this time he has not alone attained material success and prestige but has also risen to a high place in the esteem and confidence of the people of his community through his constant and sustained public spirited citizenship.

The firm of which he is now the head is one of the oldest in this part of Rusk county, and the straightforward and honorable principles by which it has been conducted have brought it a deservedly high reputation in the marts of trade and commerce. Captain Mays came to Texas in 1866, just after the close of the Civil war, from Abbeville, South Carolina, having been born in that section of the Palmetto commonwealth March 16, 1846, a son of Meade and Mary E. (Porter) Mays, and a member of an old slave-holding family of South Carolina." (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=32277532)

Mays signs the 1902 Date Backs as Vice President.