ANDREW JAMES6 MAXFIELD (Newell,5 Richard,4 Michael,3 John2-1) was born at Chichester, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, on 21 November 1827 a son of Newell James Maxfield and his wife Matilda Lane. He died at Wolcott, Lamoille County, Vermont, on 31 March 1880.[1] He married first at Concord, Merrimack County, on 11 October 1848 ANNE S. BROWN.[2] She was born at New Hampshire about 1826-7,[3] a daughter of Jonathan and Mary E. Brown. She died at Loudon, Merrimack County, on 10 January 1862.[4] Andrew married second at Loudon on 24 April 1862 ARVILLA FISHER.[5] She was born at Highgate, Franklin County, Vermont, on 3 November 1842, and died at Wolcott on 23 June 1894.[6] Arvilla married second at Wolcott on 23 March 1881 BENJAMIN BEDFORD, who was born at Trivel, England, about December 1840-January 1841.[7] Benjamin had married first at Montpelier, Washington County, Vermont, on 2 March 1870 CARRIE E. HALL.[8] Benjamin married third at Wolcott on 10 December 1894 CAROLINE M. LOWELL,[9] who was born at Quebec on 25 March 1834, and died at Wolcott on 26 June 1905.[10] Benjamin married fourth at Wolcott on 30 April 1906 ANNA SALISBURY.[11]
A. J. Maxfield grew up at Wentworth and Piermont, in Grafton County, New Hampshire, where his father farmed. The oldest of four children, Andrew was 16 years old when his father died. Along with his siblings, Andrew lived with their mother until he married at the age of 20.
The 1850 Census reported Andrew and Ann Maxfield, both age 23, at Hookset, Merrimack County. He was a machinist.[12] Most later records call him a blacksmith, although he evidently did some farming also.
This family moved to Bow, Merrimack County, in 1854. Their first child died in 1856, another child was born nine months later, and a third child was born in 1859. The 1860 Census found the family at Loudon (Loudon Mills Post Office) as follows:[13]
| Line | Name | Age | Sex | Occupation | R.E. | P.E. | Birthplace |
| 31. | Andrew Maxfield | 40 | M | blacksmith | $ 400 | $ 150 | NH |
| 32. | Ann B. Maxfield | 35 | F | NH | |||
| 33. | George F. Maxfield | 4 | M | NH | |||
| 34. | Andrew Maxfield | 6/12 | F | NH | |||
| 35. | Alfred E. Chase | 18 | M | blacksmith apprentice | $ 150 | NH |
This record raises numerous problems. According to this record, Andrew had aged 17 years since the 1850 Census and Ann had aged 12 years. Their daughter, Capitola, who was 10 months old, is listed as "Andrew," female, age 6 months. I will go with vital records as a more reliable source.
Anne (Brown) Maxfield died in 1862 at the age of about 35, leaving Andrew with two children, ages 5 and 2. Three months later he married again. Andrew was 34 and Arvilla 19 when they married. They soon moved to Vermont, where Arvilla was born. When their first child was born, in 1865, they resided in Wolcott, and remained there the rest of their lives. Wolcott is a very rural Town in north-central Vermont, which in 1860 had a population of 1,161.
The 1870 Census reported this family at Wolcott (Cadys Falls Post Office), consisting of Andrew J., 42, farmer, Arvilla, 28, keeping house, the two surviving children from Andrew's first marriage, George, 14, farm laborer, and Captora, 10, attending school. Dan, age 4, child of Andrew and Arvilla, had been added to the family.[14] Although Andrew was called a farmer on this record, the birth record of their next child, born four months later, called him a blacksmith.
A. J. Maxfield was mentioned in newspaper articles. In May of 1871 he rented a boarding house in Pottersville, a village in the town of Wolcott.[15] In October of that year he won a prize at the county fair for the best boar.[16] Two years later it was reported that he had moved his blacksmith shop to Pottersville.[17]
Andrew's daughtere by his first marriage, Capitola, married in 1876; his son, George, married in 1880, seven months after Andrew's death. Andrew died in March of 1880 from scirrhous of the stomach,[18] leaving his widow with children aged 14 and 9. In a little less than a year, Arvilla remarried.
The 1880 Census reported Arvilla Maxfield, 37, at Wolcott, with her children, Dan, 14, and Lillian, 10.[19]
Arvilla died at Wolcott at the age of 51 from consumption.[20]
Andrew Maxfield and his first wife Anne Brown had the following children:
Andrew Maxfield and his second wife Arvilla Fisher had the following children:
1Vermont State Archives and Records Administration, Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4504, Death, Andrew J. Maxfield, 31 March 1880; digital images, New England Historical and Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (americanancestors.org : accessed 7 December 2016).
2New Hampshire, State of, Division of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire, New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card 9813, Marriage, Maxfield-Brown, 1848; digital images, New England Historical and Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (americanancestors.org : accessed 24 January 2017).
3Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population, Hooksett, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, roll 435, p. 111B, household 91, Andrew Maxfield family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 9 October 2012); NARA microfilm record group M432, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
4New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card 6133, Death, Anne S. Maxfield, 1862.
5New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card 9815, Marriage, Maxfield-Fisher, 1862.
6Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 7039, Death: Arvilla Bedford, 1894.
7Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4717, Marriage, Bedford-Maxfield, 23 March 1881.
8Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card no. 1112, Marriage: Bedford-Hall, 1870.
9Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card no. 701, Marriage: Bedford-Lowell, 1894.
10Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card no. 710, Death: Carrie Bedford, 1905.
11Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card no. 761, Marriage: Bedford-LSalisbury, 1906.
121850 Census, Hooksett, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, roll 435, p. 111B, household 91, Andrew Maxfield family.
13Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population, Loudon, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, roll 676, p. 73, household 560, Andrew J. Maxfield family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 9 November 2012); NARA microfilm record group M653; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
14Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population, Wolcott, Lamoille County, Vermont, roll 1621, p. 209B, household 125, Andrew J. Maxfield family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 15 February 2013); NARA microfilm record group M593; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
15"Local Matters: Wolcott," Lamoille Newsdealer, 31 May 1871; Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 23 October 2017), Historic American Newspapers.
16"The Fair," Lamoille Newsdealer, 4 October 1871.
17"Wolcott," Lamoille Newsdealer, 17 December 1873.
18Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4504, Death, Andrew J. Maxfield, 31 March 1880.
19Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population, Wolcott, Lamoille County, Vermont, enumeration district (ED) 131, roll 1345, p. 501B, household 70, Arvilla Maxfield family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 23 March 2013); NARA microfilm publication T9, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
20Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 7039, Death: Arvilla Bedford, 1894.
21Blossom Hill Cemetery, Concord, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Find a Grave, digital images (findagrave.com : accessed 23 February 2023), Ann S. Maxfield; Created and photo by: Amy Maker Levesque.
22New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, index card, Birth, (female) Maxfield, 1859.
23Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4308, Death, Capitola F. Chaffee, 1904.
24Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4720, Marriage, Chaffee-Maxfield, 2 March 1876.
25Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card, Birth: Fernando Chaffee, 1851.
26Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card, Death: Fernando Chaffee, 1913.
27Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4400, Birth, Lillian Maxfield, 30 October 1870.
28Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 9856, Death, Lillian Arville Smith, 1907.
29Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4759, Marriage, Hubbard,Maxfield, 5 August 1884.
30Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 10007, Marriage, Smith-Hubbard, 1888.
31Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 130, Birth: Hiram Smith, 1858.
32Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card, Death: Hiram Smith, 1922.
33Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4539, Death, (male) Maxfield, 27 February 1880.
Blossom Hill Cemetery, Concord, Merrimack County, New Hampshire. Find a Grave. Digital images. findagrave.com : 2023.
Lamoille Newsdealer. Hyde Park, Lamoille County, Vermont. 31 May 1871, 4 October 1871, 17 December 1873.
New Hampshire, State of, Division of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire. New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages. Digital images. New England Historical and Genealogical Society. American Ancestors. americanancestors.org : 2017.
United States Department of the Census. Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.
________. Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.
________. Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.
________. Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.
Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008. Digital images. New England Historical and Genealogical Society. American Ancestors. americanancestors.org : 2016.
Return to Maxfield Genealogy
Go to Maxfield Genealogy Outline Index