— Hiram G. Fisher #366, Lapel (also located in Fishersburg at one time)

— Warren Cole #523, Perkinsville (numbered 532 at one time)

The strongest post in Madison County, though not the oldest, was the Major May Post, #244, in Anderson.

The post, formed pursuant to a petition by several ex-Union soldiers in Anderson, was organized on the evening of Sept. 18, 1884, in the old Madison County Courthouse, with 71 charter members.

Over a period of 55 years, the rolls of the post carried nearly 350 names of members, but not all at the same time. The average enrollment in the heyday of the post’s existence was around 140.

Post namesake died in battle

The post was named after Major Isaac M. May, 19th Indiana Infantry, a citizen of Anderson, who was killed in the Battle of Brawner Farm in Virginia on Aug. 28, 1862. His body was buried on the battlefield but was never recovered.

Immediately after its organization, the post had its headquarters in G.A.R. Hall, IOOF Block, on the northwest corner of Meridian and Ninth Streets. They met there until 1894 when they moved to the third floor of the Newsome Block, on the west side of Meridian Street in the 700 block. This is the only building where they met that survives.

In 1895, arrangements were made with Major Charles T. Doxey, also a member of the post, to provide a permanent home in a building at the northwest corner of Ninth Street and Central Avenue. This hall was completed in May 1896, and the post met there through 1904.

Prominently displayed on the building’s face was “GAR 1895” over the windows of the second floor meeting room known as Grand Army Hall.

Doxey’s death in 1898 may have been the reason they had to leave the building and relocate to a room in the basement of the northwest corner of the Madison County Courthouse. A space was provided for them through the generosity of the County Commissioners.

Mayor John L. Forkner delivered the dedication speech to those assembled in the new quarters on Jan. 11, 1905. In his speech Mayor Forkner said, “As long as there is a remnant of Major May Post remaining, this will be your home.”

And so it was, as the members continued to meet once, and sometimes twice weekly, through 1939 when the record of their meetings ends.

Of the approximately 1,500 hundred volunteers from Madison County who served in 32 companies during the Civil War, only two were living in 1939. The last Civil War veteran to die in Madison County was Levi P. Keltner, on December 4, 1942, at the age of 98. He served as a private in Company K, 12th Ohio Calvary.

For many years the post had a dinner on April 6 in memory of the Battle of Shiloh. The affair was always the occasion of an extensive program of patriotic exercises and speeches.