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A Sketch of the Life of William Bailey Maxwell, By Charlotte Maxwell Webb
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William Bailey Maxwell was born in Shawneetown, Gallatin County, Illinois, on March 14, 1821. He was the only child of Richard and Ruthey Hodge Maxwell. Richard died when William was six months old. About six years later, his mother married William Barnett, and the family moved to Missouri.
On November 26, 1840, William married Lucretia Bracken and shortly after, moved to Iowa, where he took care of a farm and maple sugar grove belonging to the Church. Maxwell joined the L.D.S. Church soon after his marriage. Lucretia was already a member. They were in Missouri and Illinois during the mobbing of the Saints there and after the destruction of Nauvoo, moved westward with the body of the Church.
Maxwell was one of the 500 young men who volunteered for service in the Mexican War. He left his family, consisting of his wife and two small sons, Lee and Jim, with his wife’s father, Levi Bracken and family. After sharing the hardships of the Mormon Battalion and being mustered out of the Service at San Bernardino in 1847, Maxwell returned to the East by way of Utah, expecting to find his family in the Salt Lake Valley. He had left his family provided with a team, wagon, two cows and provisions for the journey across the plains; but a man, in whom he had had confidence, took advantage of his absence and the serious illness of his father-in-law to dispose of his cows and run away with his team. This loss and other troubles prevented Maxwell from starting to Utah until the summer of 1852.
There were fifty wagons in the train with which he and his family and his wife’s father and mother traveled. The train was divided into groups of ten wagons each. Maxwell was appointed Captain of one of these groups. He early showed his ability as a leader and organizer. He was strong, active and quick of movement, decision and speech, but very generous and kind hearted.
At Loop Fork, on the Platte River, the wagon train was smitten with cholera. In Maxwell’s group, three men with families died of the dreadful disease within three days. They were Levi Bracken, John T. Mathis and Edward M. Webb. The care of the widowed and orphaned families fell heavily upon the Captains. How well he fulfilled his duty to them has been attested many times by the people themselves. One of the widows told a member of the Maxwell family many years afterward that William Maxwell, or “Bill”, as she called him, was without exception the most generous and unselfish man she had ever known. Friendships were formed during the journey that lasted the lifetime of the parents and descended to their children.
After a brief stay in Salt Lake City, Maxwell and others of the party moved south and built a fort where the city of Payson now stands.
Maxwell took an active part in the Indian troubles of those early days. He fought Indians, grasshoppers, crickets and drought with the other pioneers of Northern Utah, and always evinced indomitable courage, cheerfulness and unfailing faith in God. At the coming of Johnson’s Army, Maxwell with other men was summoned to the defense of the Mormon homes. He received from Governor Brigham Young, the commission of Captain in the Utah Militia. (This commission is a much prized souvenir in the possession of the Maxwell family.)
Maxwell was one of the men who made the treaty with the Ute Indians in 1857. He lived in various places in Northern Utah---Stewarts Ranch, Santaguin and others. In 1859 William Maxwell married Jane Mathis in the Salt Lake City Endowment House. (March 4, 1859). In the fall of 1862 he was called to Southern Utah to build up that part of the region.
In the fall of 1862 he was called to Southern Utah to help build up that part of the region. He stayed a while at Rockville, and then moved to Short Creek, where he had a ranch and took care of his own and other men’s cattle. Some of these men lived in St. George. Among them were John Pym, Woodruff Freeman, Joseph Bentley and Dan McArthurs.
He helped build what was called “Windsor Castle” at Pipe Springs, owned Moccasin Springs and took care of a herd of Church cattle there. His sons, Jim and Lee were grown and all of them were fine horsemen and experienced cattlemen. Nathan Tenney and Joseph McFate, who married Olive Tenney, lived at Short Creek. Maxwell and his two sons were in the searching party which found the bodies of Whitmer and the Berry brothers and others killed by the Navajos not far from Short Creek. Maxwell’s ranch was the last stop, and the outfitting station for Hamblin’s exploring parties that crossed the Colorado River and visited the Moqui and Zuni villages. Maxwell himself accompanied the party on two occasions.
On one of these trips, four Zunis were induced to return with the party. Maxwell accompanied the party that took these youth to Salt Lake City. The fourth boy remained at the Short Creek Ranch for a year. His name was Li. In 1878, Li visited the Maxwell family at Orderville, Long Valley, Utah.
During these troublesome times, Maxwell moved his family into Long Valley, where a small settlement had been made. In the spring of 1866, President Young called Maxwell to Iron County to help establish settlements along the western border of Utah at that time. He lived for a short time in Eagle Valley, then moved on five miles farther north to what was called Spring Valley; a most beautiful valley covered with meadows and dotted with springs. A lovely little stream ran through the valley from north to south, the hills were covered with dense growth of pine and here and there a beautiful grove of aspen. Low hills skirted the valley on the east and northeast, and it extended north about ten miles to what was known as Black Rock, a high pine clad mountain with cliffs of black rocks jutting out into the valley. A village was built in the south end of Spring Valley with protection against the Indians if they should prove unfriendly.
Among the early settlers of Eagle Valley and Spring Valley were Ira Hatch, a noted Scout and Interpreter in Indian languages, Maltiah Hatch, Hyrum and Zaduc Judd, Sam Western, Israel Bennion, William Moody, Frank Hammond, Fred Hamblin, Neberker, Rice, Ramsay, Hampton, Buchanan, Meeks and the Millett brothers, Alma, Artemus and Joseph.
After living in the village for a year, Maxwell moved a mile to the north and built a good home, extensive out buildings, and large fenced pastures. It may safely be said that William Maxwell was the leading citizen of the community established at Spring Valley. He was the largest stock owner and farmer, had a dairy and blacksmith shop, in which he worked for the pleasure of working, as he was in comfortable circumstances by this time and did not need work by the day.
In the fall of 1867 he married Maryette Hamblin. She was a young widow with two small daughters named Martha and Nettie Young.
Maxwell was noted for his hospitality. The Maxwell homes in Spring Valley were open and had a welcome for everyone and none were ever charged for meals and lodgings.
About ‘69 or ‘70, a new survey threw the western part of Iron County into Nevada. The mining town of Pioche, 18 miles southwest of Spring Valley was built. It furnished a market for fruit, vegetables, grain, butter and eggs for the towns in Southern Utah, as far away as Beaver and Cedar. Maxwell’s Ranch was a handy place to stop coming and going and all were welcomed, people and horses fed. Erastus Snow, Southern Utah’s beloved Apostle, made yearly trips to the small out lying districts, and in Spring Valley the party from St. George always stayed at Maxwell’s Ranch. Apostle Snow said, “Brother Maxwell, as long as you keep this spirit of generosity, you shall not want for means.”
William Maxwell, though he had never enjoyed the blessing of an education, was a widely read and intelligent man who fostered education wherever he lived. He was at great pains to obtain teachers in
Spring Valley and made trips to St. George and elsewhere to find suitable persons for this position. He always furnished a place for the teacher to board and saw to it that his own and neighbors children had the best educational facilities the country afforded.
About 1872 Prime T. Coleman moved to a ranch fifteen miles north of Spring Valley. A friendship was formed that lasted during the lifetime of these men and their wives and has continued to many of their children. For the first few years that Mr. Coleman lived in Camp Valley, in order to have his two daughters in school, they were placed in the Maxwell home, where they and the Maxwell children grew to be like the children of one family.
In 1877 nearly all the Mormon families had moved away from Spring Valley, so in order that their families might enjoy better social and religious advantages, Maxwell and Coleman concluded to move into Utah. Maxwell moved first to Panguitch and in the same year, to Orderville in Long Valley. Coleman moved to Upper Kanab. Maxwell was appointed foreman of the Orderville Cattle Ranches, with headquarters at the famous House Rock where he built a house and corrals and out buildings. But he was not content long in Orderville and soon resolved to move to Arizona.
In February, 1879, he moved part of his family to what is now Springerville, Apache County, Arizona. From there he went on to Bush Valley. This beautiful valley was then owned by a squatter named Bush. Maxwell bough Bush’s right and opened the valley for Mormon settlers. They next year, Coleman and his son-in-law, J. H. Heywood, moved to Bush Valley.
After a few years in Bush Valley, Coleman and Maxwell, hearing of the wonderful fertility of a little valley on the Frisco River south of the Moggollon Range, went there and farmed for a season. Maxwell, liking the place, purchased Calvin William’s claims. Williams, called “Parson Williams” moved to Luna Valley and finally to Mexico.
In 1884, Maxwell, with many other Mormon families moved to Mexico to avoid the anti-Mormon persecutions of that period. He went to La Ascencion first, where he acted as Interpreter in the Customs House, later to Colonia Diaz, and still later, to Oaxaca, in the State of Sonora. He drove the first wagon team that was ever driven down a very steep mountain into the Qaxaco Valley the day he was seventy years old. Qaxaco was a lovely fertile valley on the Bavispe River. Here William and Lucretia Maxwell lived until 1893 when Lucretia died of pneumonia. Maxwell then returned to Nutrioso, Arizona where member of his family lived. After a brief sojourn there, he went to Mesa where he died August 24, 1895, at the home of his daughter, Lillias Millet. He was buried in the lot of an old Battalion comrade, Henry Brizee, in Evergreen Cemetery.
William B. Maxwell was a natural pioneer, trail breaker and road maker. He loved a new country and the hard work of settling it. He was entranced with the glimpse he had of Mexico during the Mexican War and always longed to move there. He had a wonderful sense of location and recognized many of the camping places of the Battalion, though forty years had elapsed since he had seen them.
Maxwell spoke the Sioux, Ute, Pahvan, Paiute, Shoshone, Moqui, and Navajo Indian languages, and also very good Spanish, learned during his stay in California and perfected by study. His Spanish was an asset to him on his removal to Mexico and obtained for him the position of Interpreter in the Customs House at Ascension. He was, as might be expected of a man of his temperament, an ardent politician and a noted political leader in his community.
Although he had always lived on the frontiers of civilization and had very meager opportunities for education, he had the bearing and manner of a Southern gentleman. He possessed a fine baritone voice and often led the village choir. He also played the violin. Like all men of strong will and dominating character, Maxwell had enemies. He also had a great many loyal and loving friends, bound to him by kindness, generosity, and charming personality. Maxwell was an eloquent and convincing speaker, always ready to explain the gospel to any seeker. He converted and baptized three Baptist Ministers, one the well-known “Parson Williams”, before mentioned.
William was the father of twenty-seven children. He had a Mexican War medal made from the guns captured from General Santa Ana, at the battle of Buena Vista. The medal is in possession of members of the Maxwell family.
In his dealings with the Indians, Maxwell was always honorable, just and kind. The local Indians considered him a sort of father or guardian, an arbiter of their disputes. Uncle Sam had no Indian agents or reservations in those days, so when the winters were hard and the Indians were on the verge of starvation, Maxwell gave them flour from his own bins, killed his own beef to assuage their hunger. His wives gave them outgrown clothing, bedding, and often, whole bolts of homespun cloth from the loom. They taught the Indian women how to sew, cook and wash their clothes. Mr. Maxwell and his wife, Lucretia, took a three month old Indian baby girl, whose mother had died, and who was going to be abandoned when the Indians moved camp, as they always do after a death. She grew to be a charming little girl. They named her Imogene, and all the family mourned when “Jennie” died at the age of eight years old of whooping cough.
Later, Maxwell bought for a pony, an Indian boy from his mother. His father had been killed in a duel between Indians and the victor took the woman. She was afraid the new father would kill her son, so begged Maxwell to take him. He was named John, called Jack, and grew up just like a brother with the Maxwell children. He died at the age of thirty-six at the home of Jan Maxwell, at Nutrioso, Arizona, years after the death of his foster mother, Cretia, whom he had always considered his mother and treated with the love and thoughtfulness of a son.
The Maxwell’s also raised a Mexican boy, one of the survivors of a wagon train massacre by the Indians on its way to California. Maxwell had still another protégé, Coal Creek John, chief of the branch of Coal Creek Indians. One of the boys had been able to do him a favor in his boyhood, and Mrs. Maxwell had nursed him while he was down with a broken leg. After the Maxwell’s moved to Spring Valley, Coal Creek John paid them an annual visit, made them presents of nicely tanned deerskins, and Navajo blankets. He called Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell, Father and Mother, and claimed all the youngsters as brothers and sisters.
The Maxwell’s also raised a Negro girl, given them by a friend of Cheney, who had brought the child and her mother from the South. The mother died. The girl’s name was Jule. She married a George Waters and had one daughter, Lizzie Ann Waters.
William B. Maxwell was a splendid rifleman and the Indians loved to come to the ranch and have shooting matches with him. Their name for him was Nouqu I. Neab (Fighting Captain). They shortened this for general use to “Nouqquitch”. By this name he was known through Utah and Nevada.
Although Maxwell suffered severe property losses in the Victori raid in Arizona, he never felt hard or revengeful toward the Indians, but considered it the fault of the U.S. Offices who dealt unwisely and often unjustly by them. Maxwell had seven thousand dollars worth of well attested claims for horses and cattle stolen or killed by Victor’s braves, but neither he nor his family have ever had one cent of indemnity for them.
As an instance of his love for his fellowman, he, in connection with two other men, owned a butcher shop in Pioche. Walsh and McCullough ran the shop and Maxwell furnished the beef, mutton and veal. On one of his trips to the mining town, his attention was drawn to an old man shaking with delirium tremors, and appearing to be on his last legs. Maxwell asked him to go out to the ranch for a few days. The old man made no demur, so Maxwell picked him up and put him into his wagon. Some men standing near said he was a fine carpenter, but was drinking himself to death. Maxwell took him home, where he was put to bed and nursed and cared for as if he were a beloved brother. When he recovered he told his story.
“His home was in Akron, Ohio. His wife had died about five years before, his daughters had married and there seemed no place for him in their lives or homes, so he had drifted west, working when it was necessary to keep him in food or clothing. In his sadness and loneliness, he had taken to drinking as a solace until he had sunk to the condition from which Maxwell rescued him. He told Maxwell his name and gave him the address of his daughters.”
Maxwell wrote them that their father was well and had a home as long as he wished to remain in it. He stayed with the Maxwell’s for eight years. The family called him Uncle John and treated him with the kindness they would have shown a real relative. He was a good carpenter and a skilled cabinet maker. He helped to build the Maxwell house known as the “Big House”, built cupboards, wardrobes, and many other useful things. No doubt he was paid well for all this material aid he received, but money could not buy the love and consideration that surrounded him. When he became feeble and longed for his own people, and when they wrote expressing their contrition for neglect and indifference and asked him to come home, Maxwell sent him home, not empty handed, but, “bearing his sheaves.”
One winter, Lee Maxwell had been out to Belmont on business, and on his return, brought a young man for the duck hunting season. He as a Princeton graduate and a fine appearing fellow, but since coming to Nevada, he had fallen into evil ways and was a physical wreck from the excessive use of tobacco and alcohol. His hands shook like an old man’s and he could not shoot a duck without bracing himself with a drink of whiskey. When his visit was over, Mr. Maxwell invited him to remain for the rest of the winter, which he did. The Maxwell boys took as kindly interest in him as if he had been their brother. When spring came, Maxwell hired him to help with the cattle. He stayed, learned to rope and ride wild horses, brand and round up cattle, ride night herd, and all the hard and manly things that pertain to a cowboy’s life. In the fall, Maxwell obtained the school for him. He taught two winters, working in the summer with the cattle. Then he went home to Michigan, a made-over man. For years, every Christmas, he brought gifts and remembrances to the ranch. They were expressions of love and gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell, who, he said had, “dragged him out of hell.”
These were only two of many instances that might be related, showing the big hearted love and keen understanding that Maxwell had for his fellowman, especially those who had fallen by the wayside. It also shows the cooperation he had from his family in his efforts to lift up his unfortunate fellow creatures. Maxwell used to say, jokingly of his wife, “If there is a stray dog or cat, or hungry men in fifty miles of Crishy, it always finds her.”
There never was a time, in the years Maxwell owned a home, that it did not shelter some man, woman or child who had no claims on him, except the claims of humanity. Maxwell has gone to his reward. Let us remember who it was that said, “in as much as ye do it unto one of these, My little ones, ye do it unto Me.”
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