Descendants of Hezekiah Maxfield
of Maryland
Second Generation
JAMES2 MAXFIELD (Hezekiah1) was born at Maryland on 31 January 1793 (Adams), probably the son of Hezekiah Maxfield and his wife Mary Downing.
I have no proof of James' parentage, but believe it probable on the basis of the following:
- James was born in Maryland 9 months and 25 days after Hezekiah and Mary were married there; a likely date for the first child of a fertile couple.
- James and Hezekiah appear in the 1820 census in Monongalia County, the only Maxfields in the vast area that would become West Virginia.
- James and Hezekiah were called to appear in a court case in Monongalia County in 1820, concerning Thomas Maxfield, who had left the area. This clearly implies that they all had some ties (Monon Crt 2:111).
- James moved to Cambridge Township, Guernsey County, Ohio, not far from where other members of the family moved, Norwich Township, Muskingum County, Ohio.
According to Goodspeed's History of McDonald County, Missouri, James "was captured by the Indians, and remained seven years serving as a waiter for the noted Chief Kosaasco (Goodspeed 122)." This was a family memory told by a great-grandson. I have not found a record of this chief. As James Maxfield was recorded in every census from 1820 to 1870, and his children's birth dates are interspersed from 1814 to 1836, the most likely time for this captivity to have occurred was in his childhood.
James Maxfield married SARAN BRAIN in 1813. Sarah was born at Maryland on 12 November 1793 (Adams).
Census records recorded the James Maxfield family at Monongalia County, Virginia, in 1820 (142:75) and at Cambridge Township, Guernsey County, Ohio, in 1830 (131:475) and 1840 (397:367). The reports of persons by gender and age group can be explained as follows:
| Name
|
1820
|
1830
|
1840
|
| James
|
Male 26-44
|
Male 30-40
|
Male 40-50
|
| Sarah
|
Female 16-25
|
Female 30-40
|
Female 40-50
|
| ? perhaps brother Hezekiah or George
|
|
Male 20-30
|
|
| ?
|
|
Female 15-20
|
|
| Kinse
|
Male 0-9
|
Male 15-20
|
|
| Simeon
|
Male 0-9
|
Male 10-15
|
|
| Jesse
|
Male 0-9
|
Male 10-15
|
|
| Asa Albert
|
|
Male 5-10
|
|
| Amanda
|
|
Female 5-10
|
Female 15-20
|
| Elvin
|
|
Male 0-5
|
Male 10-15
|
| Matilda
|
|
Female 0-5
|
Female 10-15
|
| Andrew John
|
|
|
Male 0-5
|
Sarah's age was underestimated in 1820. Perhaps daughter Emilia died as an infant.
James Maxfield was reported in Sangamon County, Illinois in the 1850 (127:284B), 1860 (226:362) and 1870 (281:1:239A) censuses. The location was reported as Dawson Post Office in 1860 and 1870, and Mechanicsburg Township in 1870. James was a farmer in 1850 and 1860, retired carpenter in 1870. In 1850 the household consisted of James and Sarah and youngest son Andrew. In 1860, the houshold had added Andrew's young bride and infant son, and also George, the 10 year old son of James's son Jesse. The 1870 census reported James, now a widower, with his son Jesse, Jesse's second wife Orlinda, their child Mary, age 8, and James Jr., age 22, Jesse's son by his first wife. Jesse and James Jr. were engaged in farming.
Sarah (Brain) Maxfield died at Mechanicsburg Township, Sangamon County, on April 1870 (1870 Census Mort). James Maxfield died in 1880 (Adams).
James Maxfield and his wife Sarah Brain had the following children:
- KINSE3 MAXFIELD
- SIMEON3 MAXFIELD b. at Ohio [?] on 28 December 1815
- EMILIA3 MAXFIELD
- b. 21 October 1817 (Adams)
- d. probably before 1820 (not indicated in any census records)
- JESSE3 MAXFIELD b. at Virginia on 23 October 1819
- ASA ALBERT3 MAXFIELD b. at Virginia on 23 February 1819
- AMANDA3 MAXFIELD
- ELVIN3 MAXFIELD
- b. at Virginia on 6 December 1828 (Adams)
- d. at Sangamon County, IL, on April 1850 (1850 Census Mort) bilious fever
- MATILDA3 MAXFIELD
- b. 8 October 1829 (Adams)
- ANDREW JOHN3 MAXFIELD b. at Cambridge Township, Guernsey County, OH, on 29 September 1836
REFERENCES
Information on this family is found in:
- Adams, Judith Ann (Maxfield) (Johnson), to Charles A. Maxfield. 16 January 2007. See also www.users.fast.net/~max/other_max.htm (Adams)
- Census records.
Other sources abbreviated above include:
- 1850 Census Mort
- 1850 Census Mortality Schedule. Ancestry.com.
- 1870 Census Mort
- 1870 Census Mortality Schedule. Ancestry.com.
- Goodspeed
- History of McDonald County, Missouri. Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1888. Biographical Appendix. Photocopy of page provided by Judith Ann (Maxfield) (Johnson) (Adams)/
- Monon Crt
- Zinn, Melba Pendler, ed. Monongalia County [West] Virginia, Records of the District, Superior Courts, 2:111. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2000. googlebooks.com.
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