Major Benjamin May Marker, Farmville
A massive block of granite is dedicated to the memory of Major Benjamin May, Revolutionary war hero. It is six feet tall at its highest and four feet wide. The
granite is rough-hewn with straight sides and sloped top. The bronze plaque is thirty inches wide
and twenty-four inches wide.
Images:
Bronze plaque
NEAR THIS SPOT IS BURIED / MAJOR BENJAMIN MAY / PATRIOT AND REVOLUTIONARY WAR
HERO / 1737 – 1808 / PROMOTED FOR BRAVERY ON FIELD OF BATTLE. / MEMBER OF SAFETY
COMMITTEE. / MEMBER OF HALIFAX CONVENTION 1776. / MEMBER OF HOUSE OF COMMONS.
THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED BY THE NORTH CAROLINA / HISTORICAL COMMISSION AND HIS
DESCENDENTS UNDER THE / AUSPICES OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
Farmville United Methodist Church
November 19, 1925
35.604680 , -77.599000 View in Geobrowse
Eleventh Annual Report of the North Carolina Historical Commission, (Raleigh, NC: Edwards and Broughton, 1927), (accessed December 3, 2015), 31 Link
Touring North Carolina Revolutionary War Sites, (John F. Blair, Publisher, 1998), (accessed December 3, 2015) Link
Carraway and Oglesby. Ed. Farmville’s 100th Anniversary, (Farmville, NC: MorMac, 1972), (accessed December 3, 2015), 3,102 Link
Foltz, Meredith S. “May, Benjamin,” NCPedia.org, (accessed December 3, 2015) Link
Yes
Granite, bronze
North Carolina Historical Commission, Daughters of the American Revolution and May descendants.
[Additional information from NCpedia editors at the State Library of North Carolina: This person enslaved and owned other people. Many Black and African people, their descendants, and some others were enslaved in the United States until the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in 1865. It was common for wealthy landowners, entrepreneurs, politicians, institutions, and others to enslave people and use enslaved labor during this period. To read more about the enslavement and transportation of African people to North Carolina, visit https://aahc.nc.gov/programs/africa-carolina-0. To read more about slavery and its history in North Carolina, visit https://www.ncpedia.org/slavery. - Government and Heritage Library, 2023.]
The maker is located at the corner of West Church and West Wilson Streets in Farmville, NC.
The granite slab sits at a street corner with farmland across West Church Street and scattered housing across West Wilson Street. Farmville United Methodist Church is across the same lot, 100 yards away.