The future of one of Monroe County's oldest continuous family farms has been called into question as a result of an Order of the Monroe County Circuit Court filed May 23rd.
     Mayo Farms located 13 miles south of Holly Grove has been in the Mayo family since the 1850's when it was first established by William Montgomery Mayo.  He died in 1890 followed by litigation among his children over the management of the farm which has been followed by litigation upon the death of each succeeding managing family patriarch since.
     On December 24, 2004 Robert H. Mayo who had been managing the farm for the last 60 years died when his eldest son John M. Mayo assumed the management operations.  John M. Mayo is a retired doctor from Beaumont, Texas who in January of this year was sued in a shareholder derivative suit filed in Monroe Count alleging misappropriation of corporate funds, fraud and mismanagement.
     Court pleadings allege that John M. Mayo misappropriated some
$ 429,500.00 in farm funds in unauthorized "loans" from which he used among other things to purchase other real estate in his name as well as diverting corporate funds for private use.
     An order signed by Circuit Judge L. T. Simes in Mayo Farms, et al v. Janet Mayo Hardin, John M. Mayo and Robert D. Mayo, et al required the principal defendant, John M. Mayo account for the $ 429,500.00 in unauthorized loans and reconcile farm rents for the 2004, 2005 and 2006 crop years with balances to be determined to be repaid at 6% interest.  By August 15, 2007 he, Janet Mayo Hardin of Enid, Oklahoma and Robert D. Mayo of Sallisaw, Oklahoma are to surrender their stock to Mayo Farms and resign their positions leaving William R. Mayo, Walter P. Mayo and James W. Mayo as the sole remaining shareholders.
    The family farm however has had a life of its own surviving six different litigations in as many generations of this farm family.
    sources (Monroe County Circuit Court Records, Topix News, www.topixnews.com/city/holly-grove-ar