Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Sixth Generation

HARRY⁶ MAXFIELD (William⁵, David⁴, Eliphalet³, Nathaniel², John¹) was born at Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, about 1803-4 a child of William Maxfield and his wife Abigail Belcher.^[1] He died at Fairfax on 9 December 1863.^[2] He married first at Fairfax on 29 March 1825 ABIGAIL BISHOP,^[3] who was born at Charlotte, Chittenden County, Vermont, about 1801-2 and died at Fairfax on 1 March 1856.^[4] Harry married second at Fairfax on 23 February 1859 HANNAH J. PRINDLE,^[5] daughter of Ira Prindle, who was born at Fairfield, Franklin County, about 1822-3.^[6] Hannah married second at Fairfax on 21 November 1864 ISAAC T. LIBBY,^[7] who was born about 1821-2.^[8]

While most of Harry's siblings went west, he remained at Fairfax, where he farmed.

The 1830 Census reported the family of Harry Maxfield at Fairfax, consisting of a male and female in their 20s (Harry 26, Abigail 28), a male 15-19 (unidentified), and a male under 5 (Chauncey 4).^[9]

Harry Maxfield owned property at Fairfax, as reported in the land records:

• 29 July 1830 - Harry Maxfield of Fairfax purchased from William Maxfield of Fairfax, land for $100.^[10]
• 10 March 1831 - Harry Maxfield of Franklin County purchased from Lyman Brooks of Saint Armand, Lower Canada, land in Fairfax, part of former farm of Phinehas Page and owned by heirs of William Maxfield, for $100, being the same land Harry Maxfield sold to Lyman Brooks of Fairfax, 28 May 1825.^[11] Perhaps a mortgage.
• 26 June 1832 - Harry Maxfield of Fairfax purchased from Harvey Maxfield of Mount Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, land belonging to William and Abigail Maxfield, both deceased, for $50.^[12]
• 13 November 1833 - Harry Maxfield of Fairfax sold to Joseph Beeman, land in Fairfax for $10.^[13]
• 14 May 1840 - Harry Maxfield purchased from John Maxfield and Joanna his wife, land formerly of William Maxfield, for $30.^[14]
• 28 December 1840 - Harry Maxfield of Fairfax purchased from Nathan A. Wheeler of Fairfax, land for $350; followed by mortgage of $300 Harry Maxfield mortgaged to Ami Wilson of Fairfax.^[15]

Harry and Abigail Maxfield were members of the Fairfax Baptist Church. Although Harry was excluded from membership on 24 June 1832 they both appear on an 1836 membership list.^[16]

The 1840 Census reported the family of Harry Maxfield, agriculturalist, at Fairfax, consisting of a male and a female in their 30s (Harry 36, Abigail 38), a male 10-14 (Chauncey 14), a male and a female 5-9 (Orville 8, Emily 7), and a male under 5 (Hampton 4).^[17]

Son Chauncey married and went west some time before 1849. The 1850 Census reported the Harry Maxfield at Fairfax as follows:^[18]

Son Chauncey Maxfield was reported in the 1850 Census at Salem Township, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, farmer, with wife Rosetta and son George.^[19]

Abigail (Bishop) Maxfield died in 1858. Hampton, 21 and Arthur 16 were still at home. One year later Harry married Hannah Prindle. He was 56, she 38. The family in the 1860 Census included Harry, 52, farmer, Hannah 37, Hampton, 24, farmer, Arthur, 18, farmer, and an infant three months old.^[20]

Arthur Maxfield enlisted in Company K, Vermont 5th infantry regiment on 9 September 1861. He did not survive to Civil War, dying from disease at Washington, D.C. on 12 December 1861.^[21]

Harry Maxfield died in 1863 from typhoid fever,^[22] leaving Hannah with children ages ten months and three years. A year later Hannah married Isaac Libby. Isaac brought into the family children by a previous wife aged about 11 and 15. Hampton Maxfield married in 1866.

The 1870 Census reported the blended family of Hannah and Isaac Libby at Johnson, Lamoille County, Vermont, as follows:^[23]

Chauncy Maxfield was reported in 1860 at Lansing, Mower County, Minnesota with his wife and two children.^[24] Hampton was farming at Cambridge, Lamoille County, with his wife and two children.^[25]

Isaac and Hannah Libby were reported at Johnson in the 1880 Census, with her children by her first marriage, Harry Maxfield, 17, farm hand, and Ella Maxfield, 20.^[26]

Orville Lawrence Maxfield married Harriet Reed in Wisconsin in 1857. He moved to California. Although I have not found him in census records there, he registered to vote at San Francisco, San Francisco County, California (11 July 1866), Stockton, San Joaquin County, California (17 July 1871), at San Francisco again (16 August 1873), at Contra Costa County, California (7 November 1876), at San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County, California (15 September 1882), at Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County (16 August 1887), and at Enterprise, San Benito County, California (14 August 1890, 10 September 1892, 3 June 1898). These registrations called him an engineer through 1887, and a farmer from 1890. He was described in 1892 as 6' light complexion gray eyes gray hair.^[27] The 1900 Census reported him at Holister, San Benito County, a farmer, divorced, born May 1832 at Vermont.^[28] He died in 1909.

Ella Jane Maxfield went to Saint Albans, Franklin County, to teach in the summer of 1884.^[29] In November 1887 she set out for Clay Center, Clay County, Kansas, and from there to California, to spend the winter with relatives.^[30]

The identity of some of Harry's children, namely those under age and those out of state, is documented in the Franklin County Probate records.^[31]

Harry Maxfield had the following children by his first wife Abigail Bishop:

1. CHAUNCEY L.⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Vermont on 5 April 1826
2. ORVILLE LAWRENCE⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Vermont on 6 May 1832, d. on 2 January 1909;^[32] m. at Darlington, Lafayette County, Wisconsin on 19 December 1857 HARRIET REED, daughter of William and Johanna Reed.^[33]
3. EMILY⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Vermont about 1832-3,^[34] living in the 1850 Census.
4. HAMPTON L.⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Fairfax on 2 September 1836
5. ARTHUR H.⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Vermont about 1841-2,^[35] d. at Washington, D.C., on 12 Dec. 1861.^[36]

¹Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, p. 122A, household 158, Harry Maxfield family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 16 October 2012); NARA microfilm record group M432, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
²Vermont State Archives and Records Administration, Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4395, Death, Harry Maxfield, 9 December 1863; digital images, New England Historical and Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (americanancestors.org : accessed 6 December 2016).
³Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4287, Marriage, Maxfield-Bishop, 1825.
⁴Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4380-1,4383, Death, Abigail Maxfield, 1858.
⁵Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4288, Marriage, Maxfield-Prindle, 1859.
⁶Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, roll 1321, p. 176, household 280, Harry Maxfield family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 16 November 2012); NARA microfilm record group M653; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
⁷Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4286, Marriage, Libby-Maxfield, 21 November 1864.
⁸Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population, Johnson, Lamoille County, Vermont, roll 1621, p. 125B, household 22, I. T. Libby family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 15 February 2013); NARA microfilm record group M593; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
⁹Fifth Census of the United States: 1830, population, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, p. 7, Harry Maxfield; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 22 September 2011); NARA microfilm publication M19, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
¹⁰Fairfax Town, Franklin County, Vermont, Deeds, v. 8, pp. 238-39; Fairfax Town Clerk, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont.
¹¹Ibid., v. 8, p. 259.
¹²Ibid., v. 9, p. 386.
¹³Ibid., v. 9, p. 58.
¹⁴Ibid., v. 10, p. 515.
¹⁵Ibid., v. 10, pp. 301-02.
¹⁶"Membership Records of the Baptist Church, Fairfax, Vermont," Vermont Genealogy, 4: v. 4, pp. 36, 83.
¹⁷Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, p. 222, Harry Maxfield; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 27 September 2012); NARA microfilm publication M704, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
¹⁸1850 Census, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, p. 122A, household 158, Harry Maxfield family.
¹⁹1850 Census, Salem, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, p. 297A, household 18, Chancey Maxfield family.
²⁰1860 Census, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, roll 1321, p. 176, household 280, Harry Maxfield family.
²¹Historical Data Systems, comp., "U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865," database, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 14 July 2013).
²²Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4395, Death, Harry Maxfield, 9 December 1863.
²³1870 Census, Johnson, Lamoille County, Vermont, roll 1621, p. 125B, household 22, I. T. Libby family.
²⁴1870 Census, Lansing, Mower County, Minnesota, p. 13, household 89, Chauncy Maxfield family.
²⁵1870 Census, Cambridge, Lamoille County, Vermont, roll 1621, p. 76B, household 125, H. L. Maxfield family.
²⁶Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population, Johnson, Lamoille County, Vermont, enumeration district (ED) 126, roll 1345, p. 441A, household 175, Isaac Libby family; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 23 March 2013); NARA microfilm publication T9, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
²⁷"California, Voter Registers, 1866-1898," digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 27 August 2011), Orville Lawrence Maxfield; California State Library, Sacramento, California.
²⁸Twelth Census of the United States: 1900, population, Hollister, San Benito County, California, enumeration district (ED) 16, p. 21B, household 379, Orville L. Maxfield; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 29 March 2013); NARA microfilm group T623; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
²⁹"Johnson," News and Citizen, 8 May 1884; Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 24 October 2017), Historic American Newspapers.
³⁰"Johnson," News and Citizen, 24 November 1887.
³¹Franklin County, Vermont, Probate Records, v. 17 p. 257; digital images, Family Search (familysearch.org: accessed 23 August 2013).
³²Oakdale Memorial Park, Glendora, Los Angeles County, California, Find a Grave, digital images (findagrave.com : accessed 3 June 2011), Orvil L. Maxfield; created and photo by Anonymous Graver.
³³Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Marriage Records, 1820-2004, no. 01273, Maxfield-Reed, 1857; digital images, Ancestry (: accessed 6 April 2023); ancestry.com.
³⁴1850 Census, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, p. 122A, household 158, Harry Maxfield family.
³⁵1850 Census, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, p. 122A, household 158, Harry Maxfield family.
³⁶Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card, Death, Arthur Maxfield, 12 December 1861.
³⁷Vermont Births, Marriages and Deaths to 2008, index card 4390, Birth, Ella Jane Maxfield, 1860.

"California, Voter Registers, 1866-1898." Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2011.

Fairfax Town, Franklin County, Vermont. Deeds. Fairfax Town Clerk, Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont.

Franklin County, Vermont. Probate Records. Digital images. Family Search. familysearch.org: 2013.

Historical Data Systems, comp. "U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865." Database. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

"Membership Records of the Baptist Church, Fairfax, Vermont." Vermont Genealogy 4: 32-37, 83, 127.

News and Citizen, Morrisville, Morristown, Lamoille County, Vermont.

Oakdale Memorial Park, Glendora, Los Angeles County, California. Find a Grave. Digital images. findagrave.com : 2011.

United States Department of the Census. Fifth Census of the United States: 1830, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2011.

________. Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

________. 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.

________. Twelth Census of the United States: 1900, 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.

Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin Marriage Records, 1820-2004. Digital images. Ancestry : 2023.