Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Fifth Generation

CURRIER5 MAXFIELD, Jr. (Currier4, Joshua3, Joseph2, John1) was born at Fishersfield, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire on 23 August 1818[1] a son of Currier Maxfield and his wife Mary Carr. He died at Lempster, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, on 10 January 1890.[2] He married before 1840 LYDIA YOUNG5 MAXFIELD[3] (Richard4, Joseph3-2, John1). She was born at Bradford, Hillsborough County, about 27 June 1814, a daughter of Richard Maxfield and his wife Sally Young. She died at Goshen, Sullivan County, on 27 March 1881.[4] They were second cousins, sharing one set of great-grandparents.

Currier grew up on his parents' farm at Goshen; Lydia grew up on her parents' farm at Bradford. They married before 1840, as the census that year reported the Currier Maxfield family at Bradford, consisting of one man and one woman in their 20s.[5] Currier began his career as a farmer, but was reported in 1860 as a laborer, and after that date as a shoemaker.

On 9 October 1845, Currier Maxfield, Jr., of Warner, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, mortgaged to Imri Purrington of Goshen, for $600, a parcel in Goshen, part of 75 acre lot #7, 1st division 1st range, except 25 acres previously sold and burying ground, also 1 ½ acres adjoining. Lydia wife of Maxfield relinquished her right of dower.[6]

At the time of the 1850 census, Currier's young family was scattered. Currier, 32, was living with his father and farming, and son Day, 3, was with him.[7] Daughter Lenora, 9, was living at Goshen with the local physician, Harvey G. McIntire, and his family.[8] Ellen, 8, and Woodbury, 5, were in the farm home of Jonathan and Betsey Whittaker at Wendell, Sullivan County.[9] I have not located in this census Lydia, who would have been about seven months pregnant at the time.

Census takers in 1860, 1870 and 1880 found this family at Goshen with the following compositions:[10]

Name 1860 1870 1880
Currier 42 52 61
Lydia 46 57 66
Lenora 19
Ellen 17
Woodbury 14
Day 13 23
Charles 3 13
Martha

In addition to those listed above, the household contained Sarah Dodge, 85, pauper, in 1860, and Alfred Booth, 84, pauper, in 1870. The Maxfields were probably caring for these persons on behalf of the Town. "Charles" refers to Charles Lynch in 1870, called Charles Maxfield, grandson, in 1880. He was probably a child of daughter Lenora. I cannot explain the absence of Martha, born in 1850 and married about 1864, whose death record clearly places her in this family. The years immediately after 1860 brought great changes to this family: Woodbury died in 1863, Ellen married in 1863, Martha married in 1864, and Lenora married in 1866. In a court case in 1908 an A. Emerson Maxfield of Goshen testified, presenting himself as a brother to Ellen (Maxfield) (Smith) Shaw. I have found no other record of this person. This person testified that their mother "was lockerd in a cage in her room" from 1871 through 1873.[11]

When Lydia died, Currier reported to probate court that she died intestate, "but did leave your petitioner, her husband, and also three children now living, Day E. Maxfield, Ellen M. Shaw and Martha A. Thurber." He requested that son Day be appointed administrator.[12]

Woodbury F. Maxfield fought in the Civil War, in Company F, 9th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment. He enlisted on 17 July 1862. His regiment saw action at South Mountain, Maryland, 14 September, 1862; Antietam, 16-17 September; Waterloo Bridge 9-10 November; Fredericksburg, 12-15 December. Woodbury died of disease at Falmouth, Virginia, on 5 February 1863.[13]

Daughter Ellen Maxfield spent most of her life in Lowell, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and vicinity. She married Charles H. Smith, who died a year and a half later. Ten years later she married Francis E. Shaw. He was a hotel proprietor who owned significant properties. Following his death Ellen's niece, Mrs. Mabelle E. Dutton, petitioned the Middlesex Probate Court to appoint a conservator to handle Ellen's property.[14] Ellen Shaw was active in a religios cult called the Mazdaznans, and had begun selling property, intending to build a temple in Montreal.[15] At court she shared some of her background:[16]

I am 66 years old. I learned to read and write in the district country school, attending school a few months in spring and in fall. I never had any education beside that. At 14 I worked at home and had no assistance from my parents. I know very little about my mother's people. She had three sisters and a brother, Jesse Maxfield.
Her son, injured st birth, and deformed in some way, never made a sound until the age of three months. For five years she had been a follower of the Mazdaznans. This cult, vaguely reflective of Zoroastrian ideas, was founded by Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish, and its High Priestess was Mary Elizabeth Ruth Hilton. At one point in the trial High Priestess Hilton was asked to move further back after being accused of trying to hypnotize a witness. At the conclusion of a six day trial, the judge dismissed the petition and ruled that Mrs. Shaw was competent to handle her own property. When she heard the verdict, she said, "I am all forgiveness; there is no malice, na hatred, no enmity in my heart."[17]

After all the controversy, and the gossip around Lowell, Ellen published a statement in the Lowell Sun:[18]

To the Public Through the Sun
I have been a Mazdaznan for the past five years. I am in no way ashamed to make this statement, and I have yet to find any reason for regretting it. I have attended classes and meetings, private and public, and have never heard anything taught but purity and goodness.
My belief has given me health, happiness, and above all, a contented, peaceful mind. It has cost me only what I could well afford, and what I have acquired by my own exertions.
The prejudice existing in many minds is the result of false and misleading reports made through the public press to feed a polluted and demoralized appetite.
The book "Inner Studies" has been inverted and distorted. It is a medical work, and, when compared with other medical works, treating on the same subject, it seems to me is much more delicate and intelligent.
I believe I am better able to judge of Mazdaznanism, as one of its devoted followers for the past five years, than those who are ignorant of the first principles of the work, and too busy, or too prejudiced, to find out the truth; but who are ever ready to make themselves self-elected instruments of criticism and slander. Let them remember the words of the Great Teacher: "Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
I have the pleasure of knowing intimately both Dr. Harnish and Mrs. Hilton, and I know them both to be living examples of all that is true, good and beautiful, and that their teachings and their lives correspond. I hope greatly that their work may continue to grow and prosper until every town and hamlet shall hear the message of health, happiness and purity.
The cause has for its object the welfare of the world, and the salvation of mankind. Let the public examin before they condemn.
And to all my friends in Lowell, those who have known me for many years, let me say publicly that I wish now, more than ever, for their friendship, and their good opinion; that if I find myself deceived in any one thing, I have closed no doors behind me.
And with the love of Christ always in my heart, and, as taught by him and my philosophy, I forgive truly all my traducers.
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Ellen Marie Maxfield Shaw

Day E. Maxfield married in 1872; they had no children. He worked as a blacksmith at Newport, Sullivan County, as reported in the 1880 and 1900 censuses. In 1910 he was farming at Goshen. His wife, Emma, died at Goshen in 1913. The 1920 census found him renting a room at Newport with relatives including his cousin Joel. At age 73 he worked as a ticket taker at a theater. In 1930 he was boarding at Manchester, Hillsborough County.[19]

Currier Maxfield, Jr., and his wife Lydia Young Maxfield had the following children:

  1. LENORA N.6 MAXFIELD b. at Bradford abt 1840/1;[20] m. (1) at Rockingham, Windham Co., VT, on 15 September 1866 WILLIAM R. LYNCH Jr., b. at Bellows Falls, Windham Co., abt. 1843/4;[21] m. (2) ________ GEORGE[22]
  2. ELLEN MARIE6 MAXFIELD b. at Goshen abt. 1842/3;[23] d. at El Dorado Co., CA, on 21 August 1928;[24] m. (1) at Lowell on 19 November 1863 CHARLES H. SMITH,[25] b. at Dracut, Middlesex Co., on 21 August 1840, d. at Lowell on 1 February 1865, child of George U. and Ann Smith;[26] m. (2) at Lowell on 10 February 1875 FRANCIS E. SHAW,[27] b. at Lowell on 16 January 1841, d. at Lowell on 21 January 1907, child of Richard P. and Olive Shaw.[28]
  3. WOODBURY F.6 MAXFIELD b. at Warner on 1844;[29] d. at Falmouth, Stafford Co., VA, on 5 February 1863.[30]
  4. DAY E.6 MAXFIELD b. at Warner on 14 November 1846; d. at Manchester on 12 September 1935;[31] m. at Newport on 26 June 1872 EMMA M. DODGE,[32] b. at Enfield, Grafton Co., NH, on, 30 December 1852; d. at Goshen on 26 October 1913, child of Chester C. and Maria (Heath) Dodge.[33]
  5. MARTHA6 MAXFIELD b. at Goshen on 28 July 1850; d. at Lempster on 13 May 1901;[34] m. abt. 1863/4 HIRAM THURBER,[35] b. at Whitehall, Washington Co., NY, on 1 October 1840, d. at Dublin, Cheshire Co., NH, on 27 December 1928, child of William and Mary Ann (Ferry) Thurber.[36]

NOTES

1State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH, Index of Births to 1900;Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
2State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH, Index of Deaths to 1900;Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
3Names in Elizabeth Wright, "John Maxfield of Salisbury, Massachusetts, 1652, and Some of His Descendants," The Nebraska and Midwest Genealogical Record. (1928–1930): 7:63; date based on 1840 Census.
4New Hampshire, Index of Deaths to 1900.
5Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population, Bradford, Merrimack Co., NH, 240:103; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
6Deeds, 39:185; digital images, Sullivan County Registry of Deeds (nhdeeds.com/sullivan : accessed 2012).
7Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, population, Goshen, Sullivan Co., NH, 441:68A, 22; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012).
8Ibid., Goshen, Sullivan Co., NH, 441:73A, 111.
9Ibid., Wendell, Sullivan Co., NH, 441:1A, 9.
10Eighth Census of the United States: 1860, population, Goshen, Sullivan Co., NH, 681:864, 554; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2012); Ninth Census of the United States: 1870, population, Goshen, Sullivan Co., NH, 850:506A, 4; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013); Tenth Census of the United States: 1880, population (roll 768), Goshen, Sullivan Co., NH, enumeration district (ED) 269, 317B, 22; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013).
11"Mazdaznan Case," Lowell Sun, 14 October 1908; Newspaper Archive (http://newspaperarchive.com : accessed 2013). p. 9.
12Sullivan County, New Hampshire, Probate Records, 54:324; "New Hampshire, County Probate Records, 1660-1973," digital images, Family Search (familysearch.org: accessed 2014).
13Historical Data Systems, comp., "U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865," database, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013).
14"Suits Are Brought to Restrain Mrs. Shaw from Selling Out," Lowell Sun, 9 September 1908.
15"Will Build Temple," Lowell Sun, 3 September 1908.
16"Mazdaznan Case," Lowell Sun, 15 October 1908.
17"Mrs. Shaw Wins," Lowell Sun, 12 November 1908.
18"Mrs. Shaw Gives Statement to the Public," Lowell Sun, 26 October 1908.
191880 Census (roll 768), Newport, Sullivan Co., NH, ED 273, 344B, 123; Twelth Census of the United States: 1900, population (roll 952), Newport, Sullivan Co., NH, enumeration district (ED) 251, 7A, 165; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013); Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910, population (roll 866), Goshen, Sullivan Co., NH, enumeration district (ED) 313, 6A, 12; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013); Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920, population (roll 1012), Newport, Sullivan Co., NH, enumeration district (ED) 173, 6A, 150; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013); Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, population (roll 1301), Manchester, Hillsborough Co., NH, enumeration district (ED) 27, 1A, 1; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 2013).
201850 Census, Goshen, Sullivan Co., NH, 441:73A, 111.
21Vermont, Vital Records, 1760-1954; digital images of index cards, Family Search (familysearch.org : accessed 2013).
22Wright, "John Maxfield of Salisbury, Massachusetts, 1652," 7:63.
231900 Census (roll 661), Lowell ward 8, Middlesex Co., MA, enumeration district (ED) 819, 5B, 108.
24"Mrs. Ellen Marie Shaw Dies at Spencer Ranch," Mountain Democrat,Placerville, CA, 24 August 1928; Newspaper Archive (newspaperarchive.com : accessed 2013). p. 3.
25Massachusetts Archives, "Vital Records of Massachusetts, 1841-1910," digital images, American Ancestors (americanancestors.org : accessed 2012), 163: 110. Marriage Records
26Ibid., 184:94:47. Death Records
27Ibid., 272:123:406. Marriage records
28Ibid., 58:306. Death Records
29French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass., New Hampshire Historical Society Library, Concord, NH, about 1952.
30Historical Data Systems, comp., "U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865," Ancestry.
31New Hampshire, Bureau of Vital Records, Concord, NH, New Hampshire, Death Records, 1654-1947; digital images, Family Search (familysearch.org : accessed 2012).
32State of New Hampshire. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH, Index to Marriages Up to 1900;Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
33New Hampshire, Death Records, 1654-1947..
34Ibid.
35His surname from Wright, "John Maxfield of Salisbury, Massachusetts, 1652," 7:63; His given name and approximate dates from 1900 Census (roll 952), Lempster, Sullivan Co., NH, ED 250, 2B, 182.
36New Hampshire, Death Records, 1654-1947.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

French, Harry Dana. Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass. New Hampshire Historical Society Library, Concord, NH, about 1952.

Historical Data Systems, comp. "U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865." Database. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

Lowell Sun, Lowell, MA. 3, 9 September. 14, 15, 236 October, 12 November 1908. Newspaper Archive (http://newspaperarchive.com : accessed 2013-14).

Mountain Democrat, Placerville, CA. 24 August 1928. Newspaper Archive (http://newspaperarchive.com : accessed 2013).

New Hampshire, State of. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Concord, NH. Index of Births to 1900. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.

_______. Index of Deaths to 1900. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.

________. New Hampshire, Death Records, 1654-1947. Digital images. Family Search. familysearch.org : 2012.

________. Index to Marriages Up to 1900. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.

Sullivan County, New Hampshire. Probate Records. "New Hampshire, County Probate Records, 1660-1973." Digital images. Family Search. familysearch.org: 2014.

Sullivan County [New Hampshire] Registry of Deeds. "Land Records." Digital images. Sullivan County Registry of Deeds. nhdeeds.com/sullivan : 2012.

United States Department of the Census. Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2012.

________. 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.

________. Twelth Census of the United States: 1900, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

________. Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

________. Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

________. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2013.

Vermont, State of. Vital Records, 1760-1954. Digital images of index cards. Family Search. familysearch.org : 2013.

Wright, Elizabeth. "John Maxfield of Salisbury, Massachusetts, 1652, and Some of His Descendants." The Nebraska and Midwest Genealogical Record (1928–1930): 6:52-56; 7:20-24, 42-47, 61-71, 87-96; 8:15-22.

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