John C.C. Mayo
First Citizen of Paintsville

On August 20, 1913, John C. C. Mayo returned to Paintsville after a three month tour of Europe that took him to London and many other foreign capitals in a combined trip of business and pleasure. In one way or another, nearly every citizen of Paintsville welcomed the return of Johnson County's most prominent resident. One such event was a reception given by Mayo's close friend and associate John E. Buckingham.

By 1913, John C. C. Mayo was the unquestioned leading citizen of eastern Kentucky. Newspapers from Baltimore to Chicago and points in between carried stories about him on various topics. He was a member of the Democratic National Committee ... a position held by no other Johnson Countian before or since. He was a very wealthy man who had given generously of his fortune to his community and state. And almost single-handedly he had worked tirelessly to open the Big Sandy coal field to northern industries.

It was not surprising, therefore, that Mayo should be the object of attention upon his return from Europe.

As the evening of August 27 arrived, the large Buckingham home at the comer of Third and Church Streets was ready for its distinguished guests. 42 places had been set at the dinner table and the guest list read like a who's who of the region. Charles A. Kirk, C. M. Cooper, W. H. Vaughan, Robert A. Patrick, James W. Auxier, Fred Howes, H. B. Rice, Fred Atkinson, Henry LaViers, George W. Preston, Dan Davis, Dr. 1. R. Turner, A. Dw. Smith and numerous other representatives of law, government, banking, politics, business, coal and transportation were included.

Buckingham's home was elaborately decorated. The color scheme of green and pink was carried throughout the dining room to the reception hall, There, hidden behind a bank of ferns, was LeRoy's Orchestra of Huntington. From there the same color scheme was extended to the broad front porch of the house where lights were softened by being scattered among the small fir trees.

Tables and easy chairs had been placed along the length of the porch. The dining room table was covered by damask crossed with broadbands of pink satin ribbon and in its center was a five foot replica of a ship filled with pink Killarney roses and lilies. Streamers were hung from the lighting fixtures in both the dining room and the library where a second table had been placed.

After the dinner, which consisted of ten courses, John Buckingham gave a brief welcoming address to Mayo and his other guests and then introduced the toastmaster of the evening James W. Turner.

There followed toasts and speeches by Judge Finley Fogg, attorney Fred Howes, Circuit Judge A. J. Kirk, local college president Dr. J. C. Granberry and coal entrepreneur A. Dw. Smith. Mayo concluded the festive occasion with a brief statement, limiting himself to expressing his pleasure at being back in the mountains of eastern Kentucky among the friends he had grown up with.

It is doubtful if Paintsville has ever seen a reception similar to this one in 1913.

It was Judge Kirk who made the comment that he preferred throwing bouquets to the living, as he praised Mayo's contributions to the region. Kirk's remarks were in the nature of being profoundly prophetic!

Although none of the guests at Buckingham's reception that night knew it, John C. C. Mayo was suffering from Bright's Disease.

Five months later he would be in a Cincinnati hospital and a few weeks after that Paintsville First Citizen would be dead before the age of 50.

Mention has been made of John C. C. Mayo's return from his European tour in 1913 and the community-wide welcome he received. Later, his fellow Johnson Countians were concerned, but not overly so, when they learned that the coal magnate was ill.

Soon after his return from abroad John C. C. Mayo was active once again in his business affairs, community affairs and state and national politics.

Kentucky Governor McCreary had been elected, thanks to Mayo, and McCreary was one of Mayo's most vocal enthusiasts. From his position on the Democratic National Committee Mayo was in a position to influence politics at a national level. He had been an avid and generous financial supporter of President Woodrow Wilson in 1912. By 1913, the Federal Reserve System had been enacted by Congress and sites for regional Federal Reserve Banks were being chosen by the Wilson Administration.

Mayo and the Louisville Courier-Journal soon were in a controversy over one such location.

The Courier-Journal wanted one of the regional banks located in Louisville. They charged Mayo and his associate, John E. Buckingham, with favoring either Baltimore or Cincinnati ... which in fact they did. Their reasons were simple and easy to understand. Mayo had received support and encouragement for his early coal development efforts from banking and business interests in both Cincinnati and Baltimore ... but none from Louisville. The CourierJournal editorialized that Mayo would not be permitted to influence this decision. The editorial was wrong!

The final decision placed the regional Federal Reserve Bank in Baltimore and a branch of that bank in Cincinnati.

Early in January 1914, Mayo was in the state news once again when Kentucky State Treasurer Tom Rhea announced that he could not persuade area banks to honor Confederate pension warrants on the state. Mayo placed $100,000 at the state's disposal so Confederate veterans and their widows could have cash rather than a piece of paper bearing interest.

On February 12 the local newspaper gave the people of Paintsville the first news that Mayo was ill.

It was stated that Mayo was suffering about with pneumonia and was resting at home. A week later Mayo was up and moving about but within the next few days everyone knew that this legendary citizen was indeed very ill.

Specialists were called in from Cincinnati and it was reported that Mayo had periods of unconsciousness. His illness was diagnosed as Bright's Disease, an incurable ailment which attacked the vital function of the liver. Still, news reports held out hope for a quick recovery. On March 1, 1914, Mayo was taken by special train to the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, where an entire floor was occupied.

With bulletins being issued almost daily on Mayo's condition, many of them conflicting, the fatally ill 49 year old was finally moved to the Waldorf Astoria in New York in late April where still another group of specialists waited to care for him. Saturday, May 9, Mayo's condition worsened when it was announced that he had developed peritonitis. His struggle was almost over.

John C. C. Mayo died Monday afternoon, May 11 at 2:30 in his rooms at the Waldorf Astoria. Around him were his family and close friend John Buckingham. For John C. C. Mayo's family and friends it was an almost unbelievable tragedy. For Paintsville and eastern Kentucky it was the end of an era.

Even some of John C. C. Mayo's closest friends in Paintsville had little idea of the man's farreaching impact on the state and on the nation. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that the people of Johnson County were astounded at the great mass of people who came to join them in mourning Mayo's death.

Mayo's funeral, had it been held today, would have been the occasion of television coverage. As it was, the little town of Paintsville was hard pressed on May 14, 1914, to accommodate the nearly 5000 people who came to his funeral.

The funeral services were held in what was then called the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, or what we know today as Mayo Memorial United Methodist Church .. the church that Mayo built.

Kentucky Governor McCreary led a delegation of state officials to the funeral while the U. S. Congress was represented by Senator C. W. Watson and Congressman C. B. Slemp of West Virginia.

The people of Johnson County demonstrated their affection for Mayo by standing vigil at the local train station until the special train bearing Mayo's body pulled into the terminal and was transported to the Mayo Mansion to lie in state. All of the town's business houses and banks closed at the announcement of Mayo's death and remained so until after his funeral.

The honorary pallbearers came from as far away as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. Photographs of Third Street taken during the course of the funeral show that the street was filled by hundreds of people who were unable to gain entrance to the crowded church.

It is difficult for us today to imagine the impact that John C. C. Mayo's death had on the people of Paintsville. For nearly 25 years he had been responsible, either directly or indirectly, for most major developments contributing to the growth and expansion of Paintsville. From the town's first bank to the extension of the railroad, to the opening of the east Kentucky coalfields to street paving bonds, to the timbers industry and real estate development, Mayo was not only a pioneer, he was the energetic force that would not be discouraged nor diverted.

Mayo's impact on others was just as impressive. Through association with him in his various business interests, more than a score of local business and professional men got their start toward their own fortunes. Not surprisingly, the question of Mayo's personal wealth remains a matter of interest and controversy even today.

A few years ago in an oral history interview, John C. C. Mayo, Jr., stated that his father's estate had been appraised at a mere $600,000. However, it was estimated at the time of his death that Mayo was worth between $5 and $6 million. His will, written on one sheet of paper in less than 300 words, left his entire estate to his wife with no reference to the size of his holdings.

Whatever the actual net worth of this remarkable man, his worth to the people of Paintsville and Johnson County could not be measured in dollars and cents, which is precisely the kind of legacy that this school teacher turned entrepreneur would have preferred.

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