Miami Union

April 5, 1873 

MAYO, H. S. - The Late H. S. Mayo - At the request of a large number of the friends of our former esteemed townsman, the late H. S. Mayo, we copy the following obituary notice of him from the Lafayette Courier, on March 17th--the next day after Mr. M.'s decease: H. S. Mayo, Esq., President of the Second National Bank, expired suddenly at his residence on Main street yesterday afternoon.  He had been suffering for some weeks with disease of the kidneys, complicated, in the opinion of his physician, by the frequent use of the artesian water.  He was doing well with a fair prospect of complete recovery, when, after a hard fit of coughing, he threw up a hard substance, and throwing his head back immediately expired without a struggle.  It is the opinion of his physician that he died of apoplexy.  Be this as it may, we know that a good and true man has gone hence--one of those high-minded and public-spirited citizens whose energy and liberality our city so much needs in this crisis of her history.  He was in the largest and best sense, a good citizen.  Taking an active interest in all that pertained to the good of the city, and dwelling far above the mean and contemptible wealth, he was a tower of strength to Lafayette.  We mourn his loss with unaffected sorrow.  Born in Boston, January 19, 1811, Mr. Mayo was in his sixty-third year.  He was left an orphan at eight years of age, and found a home with his uncle, Henry Mayo, Esq., of Burlington, Vermont, where he received his education.  At fifteen he came west to Troy, Ohio, and made his home with his uncle, Asa Mayo, Esq., now a resident of Lafayette.  On his twenty-first birthday he was married to Miss Anna M. owned by Wm. Barbee.  He was largely interested in canal boating, and finally took a position as Cashier in the Miami County branch of the Ohio State Bank, which position he retained until 1834, when he founded the private banking house of Henry S. Mayo & Co., in connection with P. Smith, Esq., a brother-in-law, now of Dayton, Ohio.  In 1850 he represented his county in the Legislature, during which time he was instrumental in the election of B. F. Wade to the United States Senate, and assisted in procuring the charter of the Dayton & Michigan railroad, of which he was for several years Treasurer, and at one time Vice-President.  To the building of this road he gave his best energies, and risked his entire fortune.  He was of the firm Gross, Mayo & Co., contractors to build the road, but the building of the road so embarrassed the builders that they were in 1862 obliged to sell their road to the C. H. & D. railroad.  Mr. Mayo took great pride in a militia military company--"Lafayette Blues"--of which he was Captain, which company had a wide reputation as a well-drilled company.  At Louisville, Kentucky, at a military encampment under Humphrey Marshall, in 1841, his company obtained a prized over a large number of companies for being the best drilled company there; of this company Colonels Coleman and Carroll, of Lafayette, and Kyle, Drury, and a large number of others, officers of the United States army, were at one time members.  Although on account of his health, family and business interests, he was unable to enter the army himself; his eldest son enlisted, and he furnished a substitute for himself and son.  Mr. Mayo was one of the framers of the Ohio school Law, worked hard for its passage and establishment, and in connection with Daniel Rice, D. D., he started one of the first schools under the system at Troy, which long had the reputation of being one of the best managed schools in the State.  He was an earnest advocate of liberal education.  He removed from Troy, Ohio, to Lafayette in 1863, and became connected with the late banking firm of Barbee, Brown & Co., as cashier.  When the bank was changed into a National Bank of Lafayette, he became its President.  He was a member of the Masonic Lodge and Chapter; also a member of the Odd Fellows.  He was a Director in the Lafayette, Muncie & Bloomington Railroad, its Treasurer, and from first to last the warm and devoted friend of that enterprise, as he was of manufacturing and everything calculated to maintain for Lafayette a place and a name in the sharp competition among the rival cities of the West.