Crawford County IL Archives Biographies.....Maxwell, James A. 1837 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 5, 2007, 4:48 pm

Author: William Henry Perrin (1883)

  JAMES A. MAXWELL, Pincipal of Schools in Palestine, Ill., was born November 8,
1837, in Blount County, Tenn. His father, James N. Maxwell, was born in the same
State and county, August 15, 1809. The father was a farmer, and supported
himself and family by constant daily toil in the cultivation of the soil. Being
too poor to purchase a farm for himself in the old and well improved state of
his birth, where land was worth from $50 to $75 per acre, he concluded to
emigrate Westward, where he, with a few hundred dollars, accumulated by industry
and frugality, could buy land for himself and boys. Crawford County, Ill., was
finally selected as his place of destination and future home, to which he, with
his family, in the fall of 1849, in two two-horse wagons, journeyed. He entered
a tract of land containing about three hundred acres, at Congress prices, lying
two miles west of the village of Flat Rock, in Honey Creek Township, which,
after many years' hard toil, he cleared and improved as it now is, and where he
finally died in the year 1865, January 28, at the age of fifty-six. The maiden
name of his wife was Dickson. She was born February 18, 1808, in the same State
and county as her husband, and died June 25, 1863, at her home in Honey Creek
Township. The parents lived to raise nine children, five sons and four
daughters, all of whom are dead at this writing except the second son, John G.,
and the third, James A., the subject of this biography. James A. Maxwell is, for
the most part, a self-educated man. When fifteen years of age, he was very
desirous of a good education. The opportunities for educating at that time in
the West were few. A few log schoolhouses, surrounded with hazel brush for
shade, were scattered over the county. Subscription schools were maintained for
only two or three months during the year. The schools were what we call loud,
and could be heard a mile or two reading and singing their spelling lessons,
which were the principal branches taught then. Text-books were very scarce,
inferior, and obtained from a distance only. But in the face of all these
unfavorable opportunities, young Maxwell, without money and teacher, having
nothing bat his time, will, family fireside and a few books, commenced a course
of study in the common branches of an English education. This he continued for
three consecutive years, during which time he acquired a general knowledge of
English grammar, geography, arithmetic, history, philosophy and the rudiments of
Latin, with but very little assistance, which he obtained occasionally from a
clergyman living six miles distant. When scarcely seventeen, he taught his first
school, on the subscription plan, and according to the old flint-lock system,
during the winter of which term the law was passed by the Illinois Legislature
establishing our free system of public schools. By its provisions, it became
necessary for teachers to pass an examination in seven branches, and thus secure
a teacher's certificate, which young Maxwell did, having been examined by Dr.
(now Judge) Robb, of Robinson. When, in 1857, an academy of learning was
instituted at Palestine, young Maxwell entered that school at its commencement,
and completed an academical course there. Owing to bad health, he was unable to
resume his studies at college. He then employed his time in teaching, and has,
for the most part, been following that profession for twenty-three years in
Crawford County, principally at Robinson, Hutsonville and Palestine; at the
latter of which places he now resides, being Principal of the public schools
there. Our subject was married, April 12, 1860 at Palestine, to Mary V. Harper,
born August 5, 1842, at the place of her marriage, and is the daughter of John
B. and Abigail Harper. Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell have three children-two daughters,
Alice C, aged twenty years, and Edna B., aged ten years, and one boy, Frank N.,
aged two years. He was in politics a Republican until the close of our civil
war, since which time he has been neutral, but seldom exercising his right of
suffrage. He is now identified with the temperance cause, and is a worker for
the cause of prohibition. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and an
active Sabbath school worker, seeking the moral, social and intellectual
advancement of all with whom he comes in contact. Is a member of the Knights of
Honor, and in good standing in that order.

Additional Comments:

Extracted From:

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD AND CLARK COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
EDITED BY WILLIAM HENRY PERRIN.

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO: O. L. BASKIN & CO., HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS,
LAKESIDE BUILDING.
1883.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/crawford/bios/maxwell1244gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/

File size: 5.2 Kb