Descendants of John Maxfield
of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Sixth Generation

On October 6, 1819 Oren Maxfield, still a teenager, purchased a tract of land in Illinois. This tract had been granted to Adam McCaslin for his service in the War of 1812. This information has been gathered and is provided by Janis Redpath-Kennedy (R-K). The deed (Deed Records, Book A, page 78, Stark County Courthouse, Toulon, IL) reads:

DEED ADAM McCASLIN to OREN MAXFIELD
Know by all men by these presents that I Adam McCaslin now of Penobscot in the County of Hancock& Commonwealth of Massachusetts Yeoman late a Corporal in Chadwicks Company thirty fourth Regiment of Infantry in the army of the United States for and in consideration of three hundred dollars current money of the United States to me in hand paid by Oren Maxfield of Appleton Lincoln County State of Massachusetts at or before the sealing and delivery of these presents the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge do by these presents give grant bargain sell convey assign transfer set over and confirm to the said Oren Maxfield his heirs and assigns forever a certain tract of land containing one hundred sixty acres being the South east quarter of Section thirty at Township Thirteen North in Range Six East in the tract appropriated by acts of Congress for Military Bounties in the Territory of Illinois reference being had to the patent issued by the president of the United States in the name of me the said Adam McCaslin dated the tenth day of November in the year or our Lord eighteen hundred and eighteen and recorded in the General Land Office of the United States at the city of Washington Volume 30 page 462 as will more fully and at large appear by the said Patent which I have voluntarily delivered to the said Oren Maxfield.....
State of Massachusetts Town of Castine County of Hancock SS
Be it remembered that on this sixth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen personally appeared before me the subscriber a Notary Public and Justice of the peace.......and he being duly sworn doth depose and say that he is more than twenty one years of age that he has legal right to convey the above described premises and that he is the identical person described in the original Patent founded on warrant No 18672 which patent he has delivered to the above named.

CHLOE WASHBURN DEXTER married Oren Maxfield at Albion, Maine, on 9 March 1826 (VR Me). Ebenezer Shaw, J. P., officiated at the wedding of the two residents of China, Maine. A daughter of Nathaniel and Chloe (Washburn) Dexter, Chloe was born in Maine on 9 May 1808 (NMGR 7:66).

The Oren Maxfield family of China was reported in the 1830 Census (48:13) consisting of the two adults in their 20s and a boy and a girl under 5. The census also listed a male in his 30s, whose identity is unknown.

Elizabeth Wright described her grand-father:

He was a gentleman in all respects, very strict in his integrity and Sabbath observance; a Free-Will Baptist in religious belief, a chapter member of the Toulon, Illinois, Masonic Lodge, Whig or Republican in politics and a farmer by occupation. The Maxfields drove from "Dover Piscataquis, Me. Sept. 17, 1835, to Bangor twenty-eight miles; Sept. 18th drove eighteen miles to Newburg; Sept. 19th twenty-nine miles to China, Me; Sept 22nd twenty-six miles to Augusta bridge" and so on, mile after mile, from Maine to Toulon, Illinois, where they were pioneers in Stark County.--(NMGR 7:66)

The 1850 Census found the Oren Maxfield family in Stark County, Illinois (Stark Co., 195A), as follows:

The 1860 census (229:860) reported Oren Maxfield, 56, farmer, Chloe W., 52, George W., 29, farmer, Oren, Junior, 26, farmer, Charles H., 17, farmer and attending school, Thomas H., 14, Nathaniel D., 12 attending school, Thomas Wright, 4, and three with other surnames, residing at Toulon Township. Thomas Wright was the son of Oren's late daughter Susan.

The 1870 Census reported the Oren Maxfield family in Toulon Township, Toulon Post Office, Stark County, as follows (278:1:441B):

Chloe Maxfield died at Toulon Township on 21 November 1872 (NMGR). Oren Maxfield died at Toulon Township on 21 November 1888 (NMGR).

Oren and Chloe Maxfield had the following children:

1. SUSAN DEMERIT⁷ MAXFIELD
   • b. at Maine on 21 September 1828 (NMGR 7:66)
   • d. at Toulon on 23 September 1856 (NMGR 7:66)
   • m. at Toulon on 12 May 1853 THOMAS JEFFERSON WRIGHT (NMGR 7:66)
     • b. at Clear Creek Twp., Richland Co., Oh, on 26 March 1820 (NMGR 7:66)
     • moved to Illinois in 1847 (NMGR 7:66)
     • occ. merchant at Toulon in 1849 (NMGR 7:66)
     • d. at Toulon on 21 September 1888 (NMGR 7:66)
     • he m (2). ANNE (LOSSEE) MONERIEF (NMGR 7:67)
       • b. on 12 May 1843 (Toulon Cem)
       • d. on 30 September 1905 (Toulon Cem)
2. GEORGE CLARK⁷ MAXFIELD
   • b. at China, Maine on 29 October 1829 (ME B)
   • d. at Maine on 2 October 1830 (NMGR 7:67)
3. GEORGE CLARK⁷ MAXFIELD b. at China, Me, on 22 May 1831
4. OREN⁷ MAXFIELD Jr. b. at Kennebec Co., Me, on 11 August 1834
5. JOHN BENNOCK⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Toulon on 13 June 1837
6. ELIZABETH JANE⁷ MAXFIELD
   • b. at Toulon on 17 March 1841 (NMGR 7:67)
   • d. at Toulon on 19 March 1841 (NMGR 7:67)
7. CHARLES HENRY MINER⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Toulon on 25 April 1843
8. THOMAS HALL⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Toulon on 31 August 1845
9. NATHANIEL DEXTER⁷ MAXFIELD b. at Toulon on 15 August 1847

Information on this family is found in:

• Wright, Elizabeth, ed., "John Maxfield, of Salisbury, Massachusetts, 1652, and Some of His Descendants." Nebraska and Midwest Genealogical Record 7:66-67. (NMGR)
• French, Harry Dana, Descendants of John Maxfield of Salisbury, Mass. abt 1952. Manuscript, New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, NH.
• Census records

ME B

Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900. Family Search (familysearch.org).

R-K

Redpath-Kennedy, Janis, to Charles A Maxfield. Electronic mail. 14 Feb 2010.

Toulon Cem

Toulon Cemetery, Toulon. Stark County, IL. (findagrave.com). Accessed 13 March 2011.

VR Me

State of Maine, State Board of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, Augusta, Me. Index to Vital Records Prior to 1882 of the Following 80 Towns. microfilm, Genealogical Society, Salt Lake Cuty, Ut.