Christian S. Maxon. The business interests of Edgewood have an able and successful representative in the subject of this sketch, who conducts an extensive hardware establishment at this place. He is a native of Indiana, and was born October 18, 1842, on a farm near South Bend. The family is of German descent, but has been represented in the United States for several generations. Grandfather Chester Maxon was born in Virginia and served as a soldier in the War of 1812.

Our subjects father, Ephraim Maxon, was born in the Old Dominion in 1801, and in 1834 settled in Indiana, thence in 1850 removed to Iowa, where he died in Clayton County in 1858. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Smith, was also a native of Virginia, but thence removed with her parents to Ohio in childhood and later went to Indiana. Her death occurred about 1885. In her family there were two sons, our subject and David J., both valiant soldiers during the Rebellion. The latter enlisted in Company B, Twenty-first Iowa Infantry, and in the battle of Black River Bridge received a wound, from the effects of which he died. There were also eight daughters in the family, of whom only two are now living: Prudence, wife of Seymour Chapin, a soldier in the Civil War, and now a resident of Oregon, and Barbara, wife of R.S. Huntington, the Edgewood lumber merchant.

Alternating attendance at school with work on the home farm, our subject grew to manhood. August 6, 1862, before he was twenty years of age, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Twenty-first Iowa Infantry. He served through the entire period of the war, participating in many hard-fought battles among which may be mentioned the engagements at Hartsville, Grand Gulf, Magnolia Hills, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, the siege of Vicksburg, the siege and fall of Spanish Fort, Ft. Blakely and Mobile.

From the hardships and perils of war, Mr. Maxson returned home to resume the quiet pursuits of civil life. Entering upon the active career of an agriculturist, he continued thus engaged until the spring of 1886, when he embarked in the lumber business at Edgewood, and later added a stock of hardware. For two years he conducted the enterprise in partnership with his brother-in-law, R.S. Huntington, but the connection was dissolved in the spring of 1894, our subject taking the hardware business and Mr. Huntington the lumber trade.

Shortly after retiring from the army, in 1865, Mr. Maxon married Miss Clara Fisher, and they became the parents of three children, two of whom died in infancy. Matilda is the wife of Erastus Garetson, and lives in Kansas. The wife and mother passed from earth November 3, 1872. For his second wife Mr. Maxon married Mrs. Laura (Busch) Newman, and they had three children: Clara Belle, Daisy and Lloyd. Mrs. Laura Maxon died in December, 1887, and our subject was afterward united in marriage with Miss Effie Robbins. Her father, William Robbins, was a soldier in the Civil War and held the rank of Lieutenant of the company to which Mr. Maxon belonged. One child has blessed the union of our subject and his estimable wife, Eva May.

Politically our subject is an unswerving defendant of Republican principles. For nine years he has officiated as Trustee of the township, and is now serving his second term as Justice of the Peace. Socially he is identified with the Grand Army of the Republic, and takes a genuine pleasure in recounting the thrilling experiences of war days. He is also connected with the Knights of Pythias. His residence is a conveniently arranged and cozy structure, and is situated in the suburbs of the village. It is surrounded by ten acres of land and is one of the most pleasant homes of the town.

~~source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Dubuque, Jones and Clayton Counties; Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1894; pg 455-456
~transcribed by Sharyl Ferrall