William Bland & Katheryn Maxfield

MAXFIELD NICHOLS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/21/2010 at 20:01:56

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

William Bland and Katheryn May (Nichols) Maxfield
By Robert L Frakes

William Bland Maxfield, born March 20, 1865, Neola, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, brought his wife, Katheryn May, and their three boys and one girl to Sioux City, Woodbury County, Iowa, in the very early 1900’s. Their home until the late 1930’s was at 5205 Morningside Avenue and still stands today. William worked for the railroad until shortly before his death in 1947.

Katheryn May was born June 15, 1868, Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, of parents Lloyd Philander Nichols and Mary Monroe Stuart. William and Katheryn were married June 15, 1887, in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

William Bland’s ancestry is a classic in Western migration, seeking religious freedom and new opportunity in the new world and later in its great West. The name Maxfield is spread on wagon trails from SE Canada to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they became leaders in the founding of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints – The Morman Church.

Such courageous people were these direct ancestors of the Maxfields. The Maxfield name came form ‘Macclesfield’, a town, a forest, and an ancient Castle, located to this day in Cheshire County, Great Britain.

In 1818 Australia was, with few exceptions, inhabited only by wild natives tribes. Yet, it was from this land that John and Hannah (Appleton) Maxfield set sail with their children. John Maxfield was the son of Richard and Ann Maxfield, of Full Sutton, Yorkshire, England. The interesting thing is that John and Hannah were Methodists, belonging to the Wesleyan Methodist Church on Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Fate took a hand in the affairs of these sea voyagers, and they were shipwrecked at sea. A passing freighter bound for P.E.I., Canada, picked them up and carried them to P.E.I., Canada, far from their destination in Australia.

The family grew. John and Hannah had eleven children. Number eleven, William Maxfield, 1809, was born in England, and in 1830, married in P.E.I., Sarah Ann Picketts, born 1818, in P.E.I., Canada. Sarah’s people came fro Prussia. William and family were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints about 1844. William, his family, and his brothers, Richard and john Ellison, and their families, all converted, sought religious fulfillment, together, in Salt Lake City, Utah. First by boat, as they were prosperous shipbuilders and lumberman by this time, in P.E.I., and then by wagon train to Council Bluffs, Iowa. William died within a month of arriving in Council Bluffs, leaving his wife, Sarah, with five small children.

Of the three brothers leaving P.E.I, only John Ellison arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, becoming one of the founders of the Morman Church.

William and Sarah’s secnd son was William Henry, 1841, P.E.I., who married Emma Sarah Rishton in 1862, also being of English birth. William and Sarah had fourteen children of whom William Bland, our subject, was the first son.

William Bland and Katheryn produced six children, tow dying as infants, three boys, and one girl. The children were: Lloyd William, 1889-1978, Bert Monroe, 1895-1981, Roscoe Harold, 1896-1982, and Gladys Marguarite, 1898-1971. Surviving are eight grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. All of their children are buried in Sioux City cemeteries and most of the grandchildren remain in Sioux City to this day.