Bastrop, Bastrop County
Thomas H. Mays was born in 1802 in Virginia and emigrated to Texas from Tennessee in 1830. In 1834, he became Bastrop's first municipal surveyor and platted the city's new streets. Two years later, he was wounded in the leg at the Battle of San Jacinto while serving in the Texian Army with the "Mina Volunteers" led by Col. Edward Burleson. Upon his return to Bastrop, he became deputy surveyor for Bastrop County. He also held political office in Bastrop as city alderman (1838) and associate justice (1839). He wed Arie C. Ellis, and the couple reared their children in Bastrop, establishing a large homestead, including this site, in the mid-1800s. Mays died on April 18, 1862, but his burial location is unknown. (2005)