Mays Lick, Kentucky

Mays Lick (a.k.a. Mayslick, originally known as May's Lick) is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Mason County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 252.[3]

Mays Lick, Kentucky
Census-designated place
Mays Lick is located in Kentucky
Mays Lick
Mays Lick
Mays Lick is located in the United States
Mays Lick
Mays Lick
Coordinates: 38°31′01″N 83°50′42″W
CountryUnited States
StateKentucky
CountyMason
Established1788
Area
[1]
 • Total0.64 sq mi (1.66 km2)
 • Land0.64 sq mi (1.65 km2)
 • Water0.00 sq mi (0.01 km2)
Elevation
[2]
869 ft (265 m)
Population
 (2020)[3]
 • Total252
 • Density394.98/sq mi (152.42/km2)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code
41055[4]
Area code606
FIPS code21-51006
GNIS feature ID2629649[2]
Other namesMayslick
Mays Spring
New Jersey Colony
William Mays Settlement[2]

History

May's Lick was founded in 1788 by six families from Scotch Plains, New Jersey:[5]

  1. Abraham Drake (1751–1805)
  2. Cornelius Drake (1754–1833)
  3. Isaac Drake (1756–1832), father of (i) Daniel Drake (1785–1852), American physician and author, and (ii) Benjamin Drake (1795–1841), American historian, editor, and writer; Daniel Drake's son, Charles Daniel Drake (1811–1892), was a United States Senator from Missouri and an anti-slavery politician
  4. David Morris (1746–1798) and wife, Mary née Shotwell (1748–1806)
  5. John Shotwell (1753–1826) and wife, Abigail née Shipman (1754–1835)

Abraham, Cornelius, and Isaac Drake were brothers, and John and Mary Shotwell were siblings.

The group purchased 1,400 acres (570 ha) of land from William May (for whom the community was named) near the salt lick in southern Mason County and began to build a community.[6] The Mays Lick Post Office opened in 1800. Kentucky's first consolidated school and first school transportation – consisting of a horse and wagon – was founded in Mays Lick.[7]

When May's Lick was founded (1788), Kentucky was part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. That same year, the Commonwealth of Virginia established Mason County. May's Lick became the name of the town after first being called May's Spring.[8]

Geography

Mays Lick is in southern Mason County, 12 miles (19 km) southwest of downtown Maysville. U.S. Route 68 runs along the eastern edge of the community, leading north to Maysville and to Ohio, and southwest 54 miles (87 km) to Lexington.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mays Lick CDP has a total area of 0.64 square miles (1.66 km2), of which 0.002 square miles (0.005 km2), or 0.31%, are water.[1] The community is drained by several small streams that flow north to Lees Creek, a north-flowing tributary of the North Fork of the Licking River, which joins the Ohio River at Covington.

Demographics
Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
2020252—
U.S. Decennial Census[9]

Mays Lick Consolidated School

The Mays Lick Consolidated School was constructed in 1909–1910 for $32,500 The building was the first high school in Mason County and until 1960, was the only public high school to serve the Mays Lick District. In 1982, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[10]

Also see: May's Lick Negro School

The May family

The same May family for whom the Mason County Seat (Maysville) is named is also the namesake for May's Lick.

  • Mays Lick is named after John's brother, William May.
  • Maysville is named after John May ( –1790).
The May brothers
  • George May ( –1795), a surveyor
  • William May
  • Charles May
  • John May ( –1790)
  • Gabriel May (1751–1813), married to Sallie Stokes (Susannah May Stokes, 1759–1815), niece of Ethan Allen (1738–1789), the hero of Ticonderoga and Crown Point[11][12]

Notable residents
  • Joseph Desha (1768–1842), a congressman and the ninth governor of Kentucky
  • Benjamin Drake (1795–1841), historian, editor, and writer
  • Daniel Drake (1785–1852), physician, author
  • John McLean (1785–1861), Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1830 to 1861[13]
  • William McLean (1794–1839), Ohio legislator
  • Charles Young (1864–1922), third African-American graduate of West Point, first black U.S. national park superintendent, first black man to achieve the rank of colonel in the US Army

See also

References
  1. "2022 U.S. Gazetteer Files: Kentucky". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  2. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Mays Lick, Kentucky
  3. "P1. Race – Mays Lick CDP, Kentucky: 2020 DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171)". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  4. "Mays Lick KY". ZIP Code Lookup. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
  5. History of the Scotch Plains Baptist Church, From Its Organization on the Fifth of August 1747 To Its One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary, James H. Parks, D.D. (born 1839), and James D. Cleaver, Scotch Plains Baptist Church (publisher (1897), pg. 16; OCLC 12023826
  6. Edith Davis, "Mayslick Once Was Emporium, History Shows", The Daily Independent, (Rotary Club Edition), October 31, 1962
  7. History of Mays Lick Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine, by David Lynn (interviewer), Kentucky Oral History Commission, Collection No. 18–19 (1988); OCLC 85841474
  8. The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky, Paul Allen Tenkotte, PhD (born 1960) (University of Cincinnati) & James C. Claypool, PhD (born 1938) (Professor Emeritus, Northern Kentucky University) (eds.), (excerpt: May's Lick, by John Robert Klee; born 1954, pps. 593–594), University of Kentucky Press (2009)
  9. "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  10. #82002733 National Register of Historic Places
  11. "The May Family," Kentucky Explorer, Vol. 10, No. 5, October 1995, p. 96
  12. "Mason County", The Kentucky Encyclopedia, John E. Kleber, University Press of Kentucky (1992), pg. 614
  13. "May's Lick: Pioneer Town in Kentucky When Lexington was the Western Metropolis," The Daily Evening Bulletin (Maysville, Kentucky), April 17, 1889, pg. 2, col. 2,
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