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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County
Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908

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The Biography of Jacob H. MAXWELL 

Transcribed exactly according to the original complete text by Alice Stipak. 

[Surnames: BEATON, BROWN, BUNDAY, CAMPBELL, CANNON, CONN, HAGER, HECKERD, LITTLE, MAXWELL, MEREDITH, SMITH, WYANT] 

[starting on page 975] 

    
MAXWELL, Jacob H.--While one usually associates the profession of farming with men whose tastes and inclinations are in the main intensely practical, one occasionally meets an exception and is forced to the conclusion that some other occupation has sustained a severe loss in the making of a landsman. This is true of Jacob H. Maxwell, the possessor of unusual mechanical and artistic ability, yet who is an excellent farmer, and in the country finds that peace and absence of turmoil so dear to the studiously and artistically inclined. When Mr. Maxwell came to Fulton County in 1853 and settled on his present farm of 169 acres he was master of two useful trades, blacksmithing and plastering. The former he had learned previous to his twelfth year in Chester County, Pa., where he was born February 17, 1817, and where his father, a blacksmith by trade, died in 1829. At this crisis in the family fortunes young Jacob H. went to Philadelphia and there learned the plasterer's trade, at the same time becoming an expert in the construction of cement walks and well-curbs. During his four years' apprenticeship he received little more than three meals a day for his services, yet the time given never has been regretted, as he laid the foundation of more than average skill in ornamental stucco work, which he subsequently carried on as a contractor in Boston, Washington, New York and many other Eastern cities. In fact he worked on many of the finest buildings in these towns, accomplishing really wonderful results in stucco ornamentation. Mr. Maxwell also learned all there was to know of concrete pavements, a process discovered by Coglid Beaton, whose name was first attached to the work. 
    
When Mr. Maxwell arrived in Fulton County in 1853 it was with the intention of retiring from trade work and applying himself exclusively to farming. His land was very wild and a stranger to all improvements. The prairie grass reached to a man's head, and deer and a variety of large game abounded. His record as a marksman is based upon the shooting of fifteen deer and many dozens of wild turkeys. His skill as a stucco worker, however, was soon discovered, and in the absence of many experts in the line at that time he gradually was drawn into the building vortex, and furnished some of the finest ornamental work for churches and public buildings of Fulton County. He also has constructed many concrete walks in different parts of the county, and many of those laid thirty years ago are today in a perfect state of preservation. His farm has been developed in the growing of produce which flourishes in this part of the Central West, but he has depended upon some specialties, and has made an exhaustive study of bee culture. In this line he has developed a unique method, which consists of building a small house, around the inside walls of which are ranged boxes or bee hives, which have doors opening from both the inside and outside of the house. He has demonstrated that bees housed in this way produce fifty per cent. more honey than in the old way. Mr. Maxwell is artistic to his finger tips, and many evidences of this appear on his own prop- [page 976] erty. His grounds are beautifully laid out, and have all the floral and other aids which delight the heart and soul of lovers of the beautiful. He makes baskets from flowers and alum, and jimson weeds, and is an expert at fruit-grafting, producing some fine specimens of Illinois fruits. 
    
For forty years Mr. Maxwell has been a member of the Masonic fraternity, and during that time has been active in local social undertakings. He is in sympathy with the Republican cause, but always has refused to accept official recognition. Mr. Maxwell has been married seven times. His first wife, whose maiden name was Joan Campbell, died in Ohio, and his second wife, Mrs. Lucinda (Bunday) Maxwell, also born in Ohio, became the mother of four children: Sarah J., the deceased wife of Albert Wyant, of Ipava, Ill., Alexander, a brick-mason, residing in Ipava; Hattie, wife of Abraham Heckerd, of Ipava, and Esther, wife of Richard Smith, and the present Postmistress of Esthe, Okla. The second wife of Mr. Maxwell died about ten days after his arrival in Fulton County, and he later married Lydia Brown, after whose death he married Mrs. Conn, of Ipava. The fifth Mrs. Maxwell was formerly Mrs. Rebecca Hager, and the sixth, who died April 25, 1901, was the widow of Dr. Meredith, of Ipava. The present Mrs. Maxwell was in girlhood Mary Little, and later the wife of Mr. Cannon. She was born in Licking County, Ohio, a daughter of T. P. Little, who was a pioneer of Fulton County. Mrs. Maxwell's girlhood was attended by many hardships, and she well remembers milking from twelve to fifteen cows every night and morning when she was sixteen years old. Notwithstanding his many years and many experiences Mr. Maxwell retains his youthful spirits, and takes a keen interest in the general happenings around him. With his cheerful philosophy, his simple habits and good constitution he should be able to still further discredit the Psalmist's allotment of years.