Dorchester Illustration 2710 John Joseph May
John Joseph May owned an estate on the west side of Dorchester Avenue in the area of Dorchester Avenue between Pond Street (Crescent Avenue) and Mayfield Street. His father had founded one of the earliest hardware companies in Boston and he became a partner in his father’s business.
May married Caroline Simpkins Danforth in 1837. In 1845, he bought his Dorchester land and moved there to the the estate he called Mayfield. The couple were philanthropists and supported many organizations that promoted good government, promoted education, prevent sickness and preserved historic monuments.
May was a president of the Dorchester Historical Society and a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. He published a genealogy of his family and one for his wife’s family.
John Joseph May was “a firm Abolitionist … When it was rumored that the Southerners would try to prevent the inauguration of President Lincoln in 1861, … he went to Washington to join the president’s bodyguard … He personally equipped the Dorchester company of the Forty-second regiment and contributed largely to other companies.” 1
A letter to the editor of The Boston Evening Transcript, published on Oct. 19, 1903, which was about the earliest use of double-decker street cars, said it was the Dorchester Avenue Railway Company that was the first in Boston. (At that time, streetcars were pulled along the tracks by horses.) The letter stated, “that this company was formed, and the road built and equipped, largely through the enterprise and public spirit of John Joseph May.” Unfortunately, this is not as wonderful an achievement as it may sound. “It is related … that [the Dorchester Avenue Railway Company] was equipped at one period of its brief existence with double-deck cars, and that after passing through a series of discouraging annoyances by its competitors, met its death by an accident to four if its passengers, who purposely tumbled from the top of the car on which they were riding and then sued the company for damages. Judgment was rendered against the corporation, and this, with other unfortunate circumstances, caused its collapse … the property and franchise of the Dorchester Company passed into the hands of the Metropolitan Railroad Company, October 1, 1863.” 2
John Joseph May died in 1903.
1. Source: Arthur Wellington Brayley. Schools and Schoolboys of Old Boston. (Boston, 1894) and a biography of May that appeared in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, April 1904.
2. Source: History of the West End Street Railway. (Boston, 1891), 18.