George McCann Maxwell (1814-1889)

MAXWELL, BALDWIN

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 1/4/2016 at 18:33:17

From Nevada Representative August 7, 1889

Died.

Hon. George M. Maxwell died Friday evening at his home in Cambridge aged 75 years. His funeral was largely attended at Cambridge Sunday, and he was buried in the Iowa Centre cemetery. More extended notice of the life and public services of the deceased will be given next week.

From Nevada Representative August 14, 1889

Obituary.

Hon. George M. Maxwell, whose death occurred at Cambridge, August 2, 1889, was born at Miamisburg, Ohio, January 4, 1814. From 1842 till 1856 he lived in Lafayette, Indiana, and, as in all his active life, was active in business and politics. In 1856, he came to Story county and located on a farm near Iowa Center, whence he removed in 1867 to Cambridge and engaged in mercantile business and there he resided until his death. The deceased was three times married and left a widow and ten children surviving, the latter being Mrs. F. M. Baldwin, and sons J. W., Sidney, Harry I., and George, and five younger children.

Mr. Maxwell came to Story county when the country was new, and he was a prominent man from the first. he was elected the first superintendent of schools of the county, ws provost marshall during the war and in 1863 and 1867 was elected representative in the General Assembly. In 1871 he was elected to the State Senate over Major A. J. Holmes, the contest being fought mainly on county lives between Story and Boone, and both being Republican nominees. After serving his term in the Senate he withdrew from active political life and spent his declining years peacefully in a well earned retirement. Mr. Maxwell was a man of strong individuality who left his impress deep on the affairs of the county and who will be long remembered by all the older settlers as one of the very first among them. In an early day he was a radical abolitionist and has assisted hundreds of slaves to freedom through the agency of the "under ground road."

His funeral services were conducted Sunday August 4th at Cambridge, by Rev. Samuel Jones of Perry and Rev. Tennant of Cambridge, and were very largely attended by friends and acquaintances from all parts of the county.

Further down in the same column of the paper:

The Atlantic Telegraph, whose editor is Senator Young, remember Geo. M. Maxwell, who recently died at Cambridge. It says: "We remember him as a member of the state senate of 1874. He was an old Iowa pioneer and dressed to suit himself. He wore a large striped shawl instead of an overcoat. He was a heavy man physically, and it made him puff to walk up old capitol hill and the old capitol steps and stairs. He was a plain, blunt, honest man, whose conscience was his guide. By the way, we have a group of pictures of the senate of that year, and it is striking commentary of the shortness of life to note that more than on-third of the entire number are now dead.