The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1914-05-22
AN APPRECIATION
OF JOHN c. c. MAYO.


from two men who knew him intimate
ly. C. w. Watson, United States SEN
ator from West Virginia, and j. II.
Wheelwright, the eminent capitalist.
Both are prominent members OF the
big corporation known as the Consol-
idation Coal Co., and, with business
associates and partners of Mr.. Mayo
in that colossal aggregation of wealth
and financial acumen. The two mas
ters of finance knew Mr.. Mayo Tor
what he really was, and coming from
them what they here say of their dead
associate and friend carries added
weight and interest.
"The untimely death of John G. C.
Mayo, demands more than cursory no.
tice. He passes away in the very
flower of ripe manhood, standing cas-
lily the most eminent figure in the bus
mess of life Of his state and looming
large on the stage Of national industrial
affairs. 1t is this phase in his life
and character that we would hrst
mention. He began his career as
country school teacher in region
marvelously rich in resources, but
utterly remote from all industrial de-
velopments and he closed his life be-
fore he was so years old, with innum-
cradle friends in all parts of his Com
monwealth, rich in worldly goods and
leaving for his children the priceless
| heritage of useful and honorable
| career,
Twenty-Five: years ago Eastern Ken
lucky was distant, detached, unknown.
The feudist guarded every mountain
| pass. Outlawry Knocked at order. A
bloody mist overhung every valley,
| and ignorance rested like pail over
| the mountains. In that section the
years had passed in their splendid
march OF progress, and civilization had
stood still between the Big Sandy and
Cumberland. A hundred years had
been but as watch in the night All
the marvellous wealth of that section
was unknown or unvalued. John Mayo
came into manhood amid Circumstance
es, customs, and surroundings that a
century had not changed. And the
marvel of it Is, that then he dreamed
his dream of future development. His
fancy free and unfettered went out
| into the great world beyond and
brought him visions of railroad and
mine and mill; visions Of highways
thronged with travel, of fields, the
richer grown from reaping of cities,
busy, great, and prosperous, amid his
| mountain wilderness.
"a country school teacher, poor as
| the poorest obscure as the humblest,
gifted only with genius, strong with
| the strength of great purpose, with
| out money, without acquaintanceship
he set about making his dream come
| true.
Twenty five years have passed. He
has done his work as best he could.
The untimely shadows have closed
about him all too soon, But he has
lived to reap much of the great har-
vest which he sowed through the years
of constant struggle with scorn and
skepticism, and of wonderful accom-
plishments in the face of difficulty
that seemed unsourmountable.
His abilities were such that he
| made the skeptic see, as he saw the
| inexhaustible riches sealed in those
remote hills, and he changed the men
who laughed at his faith into enthu
siastic converts to his plan. Through
| all those years he worked, worked and
still worked without rest to develop
Eastern Kentucky along the large and
| lofty lines of his prophetic visions. He
| was an empire builder, as was Give
and Rhodes and Hill and Mckenzie
and what was done by these great men
| for India and South Africa, for our
Great Northwest and for Canada's
| Imperial Domain, John Mayo did for
Eastern Kentucky. He possessed all
the mental attributes of the great en-
pire builder He could see the har
vest ere the grain was sown. and on
the midnight sky of rain could paint
the golden morrow.
Through the struggles to obtain
recognition for the greatest coal field
| in the world, a struggle filed to an
unusual extent with delays. defeats,
doubts and difficulties, his hope ever
held high, his courage never wavered,
and his faith was unfaltering. He was
strong with the faith of the hills; far
sighted from gazing on horizons that
stretched from the mountain tops;
keenwitted, Industrious, forcible
shrewd, practical and magnetic he has
laid broad and deep and strong foun-
dations of an Industrial empire whose
mighty fabric shall be a growing me-
| rnOTlal IOr one Oh heIlluChy greatest
sons.
| 1T is not too much to say, that this
one man has transformed and trans
| figured the whole of Kentucky's noun
| tain section and indeed opened a great
new region for industrial America.
His life was dedicated to fulfilling
the splendid vision of his early man
hood and he lived to see his beloved
mountains unseal their hidden riches
in ampler measure than he had ever
foretold Through his efforts he saw
lawlessness vanish, ignorance change
| into knowledge, poverty turn into
wealth, among his people. He saw
| the railroads stretch their shining
steel following where his feet had
found the way to the coal. He saw
barren hillsdes blossom into busy
cities, and he saw his own genius I'M
fetter Eastern Kentucky, strike from
her feet immemorial shackles and set
her on her course rejoicing.
HE lived TO see the empire Of his
dreams become an empire of reality,
greater and richer in its boundless
possibilities than even he had dared to
hope or to dream. His career is clos
ed. His we'll done work has ended
and he has entered into his rest.
"And now we would speak somewhat
!. -, -. .a HE frianda and hiq