May Farm, located in Perry County, has been designated as a Tennessee Century Farm.  Along Simmons Branch at the East Fork of the Buffalo River, William A. Bone and wife Mary Ellen established a farm of 295 acres in October 1905, where they raised peanuts, hay and had a large herd of cattle on their land.  Similar to other Perry County farmers of the day, they also cut timber from the hardwood forests.

Per the family’s reports, barns were added and two family cemeteries are located on the property. In January 1905, the only child of William and Ellen, an infant daughter, died and was buried in Bone Springs Cemetery. Having no surviving children, the land the Bones lived on for nearly 50 years passed to their relatives, Ivory and Bonnie May in 1950. 

The Mays, with their three children, Joe, Jim and Melanie, raised hay and cattle and also rented land for row crops. In 1997, Joe became the third owner of the farm. Today, Joe and his son, Britt, raise cattle, hay and corn on some of the acreage of the farm whose boundary, as the original deed indicates, “meanders” along the Buffalo River.