Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Fifth Generation

ISAAC⁵ MAXFIELD (Benjamin⁴, Joseph^3-2, John¹) was born at New York, on 18 November 1918^[1] a son of Benjamin Maxfield and his wife Polly Sargent. He died at Monterey, Allegan County, Michigan, on 7 April 1880.^[2] He married probably before the birth of their first child in 1844 MELINDA A. ________. She was born at New York about 1826/7,^[3] and died at Michigan on 21 August 1882.^[4]

The eighth of possibly nine children, Isaac was born after his family had moved to Onondaga County, New York. Sometime in his youth his family moved west to Wayne County, New York. This was not far enough for Isaac. He and his wife Melinda moved to Hartford, Washington County, Wisconsin, where they farmed and where their children were born. The 1850 census reported Isaac Maxfield, 30, farmer, at Hartford, with Melinda, 23, Phebe M., 4, and Harriet A., 3.^[5]

By 1855 Isaac was joined at Hartland by the family of his brother, Joseph. The 1860 census reported both families there. The report of Isaac's family follows:^[6]

This is the only reference I have to a son named Ernest.

Next, the family of Isaac and Melinda moved east, across Lake Michigan, to Allegan County, Michigan. The 1870 census reported them there; they probably moved before the marriage of their daughter Marie Phebe at Allegan County in 1867. The 1870 census placed Isaac's family at Monterey Township, Allegan County. It listed Isaac, 51, farmer, Malinda, 43, keeping house, Hattie, 23, and Eugene, 14, attending school. A farm laborer, Sylvester Eggleston, 40, was also in the household. That census record also stated that Malinda's father was foreign born.^[7]

Death cast a dark shadow over this family around 1880. Marie Phebe, married in 1867, died on 23 February 1872. Harriet, who had married in 1872, died on 17 May 1879. Isaac died on 7 April 1880. Franklin Maxfield, the first child of Eugene Maxfield and his wife, died on 29 August 1880. Melinda, a widow with only one surviving child, died on 21 August 1882.

The 1880 census reported Malinda Maxfield, 53, housekeeping, at Monterey, heading a household that included her son Eugene, 24, farmer, Eugene's wife Emma, 17, and Malinda's granddaughter Jessie Kenyon, 2, daughter of her late daughter Harriet.^[8]

Isaac and Malinda Maxfield had the following children:

1. MARIE PHEBE⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Hartford on 16 May 1844;^[9] d. at Monterey on 23 February 1872;^[10] m. at Wayland, Allegan Co., on 3 November 1867 JOHN H. SWEEZEY, b. at Monterey abt. 1844/5.^[11]
2. HARRIET A.⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Washington Co. abt. December 1847;^[12] d. at Monterey on 17 May 1879;^[13] m. at Allegan, Allegan Co., on 5 December 1972 JAMES E. KENYON,^[14] b. at Cuyahoga Co., OH, on February 1845, d. at Osceola Co., MI, on 18 January 1914;^[15] he m. (2) at Allegan Co. on 8 September 1880 ELIDA WALL,^[16] b. on 18 August 1859, d. on 28 October 1944.^[17]
3. ERNEST⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Wisconsin abt. 1850/1.^[18]
4. EUGENE⁶ MAXFIELD b. at Wisconsin on March 1856.

¹Poplar Hill Cemetery, Monterey Center, Allegan Co., MI, Find a Grave, digital images (findagrave.com : accessed 2011).
²Michigan Department of Vital Records, Lansing, MI, "Michigan Deaths, 1867-1897," digital images of index, Family Search (familysearch.org : accessed 2013); Poplar Hill Cemetery, Monterey Center, Allegan Co., MI, Find a Grave.
³1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census records.
⁴Poplar Hill Cemetery, Monterey Center, Allegan Co., MI, Find a Grave.
⁵Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population, Hartford, Washington Co., WI, 1008:176A, 570; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
⁶Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population, Hartford, Washington Co., WI, 1438:244, 104; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
⁷Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population, Monterey, Allegan Co., MI, 660:264A, 79; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013).
⁸Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population (roll 569), Monterey, Allegan Co., MI, enumeration district (ED) 10, 185D, 43/44; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013).
⁹Poplar Hill Cemetery, Monterey Center, Allegan Co., MI, Find a Grave.
¹⁰"Michigan Deaths, 1867-1897," digital images of index, Family Search.
¹¹Michigan "Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925," index and images, Family Search (familysearch.otg : accessed 2013).
¹²Michigan, "Michigan Deaths, 1867-1897," digital images of index, Family Search.
¹³Ibid.; Poplar Hill Cemetery, Monterey Center, Allegan Co., MI, Find a Grave.
¹⁴Michigan, "Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925," Family Search.
¹⁵Poplar Hill Cemetery, Monterey Center, Allegan Co., MI, Find a Grave.
¹⁶Michigan, "Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925," Family Search.
¹⁷Poplar Hill Cemetery, Monterey Center, Allegan Co., MI, Find a Grave.
¹⁸1860 Census, Hartford, Washington Co., WI, 1438:244, 104.

Michigan. Department of Vital Records, Lansing, MI. "Michigan Deaths, 1867-1897." Digital images of index. Family Search. familysearch.org : 2013.

________. "Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925." Index and images. Family Search. familysearch.otg : 2013.

Poplar Hill Cemetery, Monterey Center, Allegan Co., MI. Find a Grave. Digital images. findagrave.com : 2011.

United States Department of the Census. 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.