Originally part of a Mexican land grant given to Empresario John Cameron in 1827, May developed in the 1870s when several pioneer families settled there. Baptists and Methodists quickly organized churches, and a one-room school known as Old Swayback provided the first formal education for the children. Nathan L. May built a trading post in 1879 and became the town’s first postmaster in 1881. By 1907 the village had a blacksmith shop, general store, newspaper, and bank. May’s early history climaxed in 1911 with the coming of the railroad.