Madison-DeSoto County Louisiana Archives Biographies.....Maxwell, Friend 1840 - 1914 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Mike Miller http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000912 July 23, 2013, 8:34 pm Source: A History of Louisiana, v.3, p. 12; 1925 Author: Henry E. Chambers FRIEND LEMON MAXWELL. A Louisiana man of great intensity of purpose, foresight and persistent energy unwavering in the pursuit of its objects, was the late Friend Lemon Maxwell of Madison Parish, who at his death in 1914 left a vast estate of plantation lands adjacent to the Mississippi River. In the development of his own property he conceived a policy that was the one essential to the sound welfare of all land owners in the Mississippi Valley, and his personal example and leadership accomplished some wonderful things, making for the solution of Louisiana’s flood problems and the proper reclamation of the lowlands of inexhaustible richness. Mr. Maxwell was born on a farm in Sullivan County, Indiana, in 1840. The Maxwell family Settled in that section of Indiana about the close of the War of 1812 from Kentucky, and no family was more prominent in the early history of the county than the Maxwells. Friend L. Maxwell grew up a farm boy, attended country schools and as a youth entered the Union army. He led his regiment in battle and subsequently received the brevet rank of colonel. He was with Grant’s troops in the siege of Vicksburg and then for the first time became acquainted with the low lying lands across the river in Madison Parish. The impressions made during his army career caused him to return after the war and purchase lands in Tensas Parish. He lost all his property there as a result of floods and then removing to Mounds in Madison Parish made another start. He never lost faith in the possibilities of investment in these lands and eventually acquired about twenty thousand acres in the Mounds community. He was active in politics though never a seeker for public office. Primarily he interested himself in the establishment of a levee board and served twenty- eight years or more without pay, being the first president of that important body. His wisdom in this position and his personal efforts gave definite advancement to the policy of flood control and the consequent improvement of land values and farming conditions generally. Mr. Maxwell’s brothers and other relatives also came to Louisiana and all of them succeeded well here. He possessed marvelous energy and a spirit of doing things, and those characteristics are a better monument than his material accumulations. In recent years the action of Congress and the policy of government engineers are making preparations to bring about the very results he contended for as a permanent solution of the flood control conditions. Mr. Maxwell married Miss Alma Taft, daughter of Judge Rufus Taft, of Barre, Vermont. Judge Rufus Taft was a cousin of President William H. Taft and of Charles and Henry Taft. She died in 1901, the mother of two daughters: Flora, wife of John H. Potts, a Monroe attorney, and Edna, wife of George S. Verger, of Mound. After the death of his first wife Mr. Maxwell married Miss Matilda Bouye, daughter of Captain Allen C. Bouye of Natchez, Mississippi. By this union there were three children: Routh, Dorothy and Alma. Additional Comments: Friend Lemon Maxwell File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/madison/bios/maxwell188gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/lafiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb