U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Maxwell, Cyrus H. (1863-1943) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Tucker County, West Virginia From the Earliest Explorations and Settlements to the Present Time. by Hu Maxwell Kingwood, W. Va.; Preston Publishing Company, 1884. Pages 459-462 Cyrus H. Maxwell, son of Rufus Maxwell, was born in 1863. At the age of thirteen he went to Philadelphia to get his first rudiments of education regarding the world at large. After his return, the same year, he attended the country school at Low Gap, where he manifested a predisposition to take exceptions to every species of instruction that the teacher could devise or offer. His progress, however, was well enough, and in 1879, at sixteen, he entered the Weston Academy, and commenced the studies of the higher mathematics and Latin. In these his progress was only tolerably rapid. He found Caesar and the Calculus much harder than Geography and Spelling; and, after a hard winter of study, and not many pages gone over to show for it, he left Weston and returned home to work on the farm. In the fall of 1880 he returned to Weston and again set toward his studies. But, the next fall, some little unpleasantness, for which, no doubt, he was mostly responsible, having arisen in the school, and also partly influenced by other considerations, he quit the Academy forever. He taught school four months on Smith's Run, in Lewis County, and in the spring of 1882 went to the normal school at Valparaiso, Indiana. Everything seemed to go against him there. He got the diptheria and was laid up awhile with that. Then he got the mumps, and lost more time. Scarcely was he able to be about when he was taken with the measles, and had another hard time. To add to his calamities, some scamp stole his money, and he was left short in that respect. He began to grow tired of the place; and, collecting together what plunder he had left, he took the train for Chicago, in search of a better land. He was now nineteen years of age. His stay in Chicago was short, only a few hours, and when next heard of he was harvesting in the wheat fields of California. This work was too hard to suit him, and he hunted a vacant school and taught eight months, at $60 per month. In the spring of 1883 he was joined in California by his brother Hu, and a series of trampings and wanderings was the result. They spent the summer visiting and exploring noted places on the Pacific coast, and places of wildness and romance among the deserts and mountains. They spent a month among the glades and snows of the Sierras, and explored the mysterious abyss of Nihilvideo, a report of which was published in The WJieellng Intelligencer, In July they crossed the deserts about Lake Tulare, and passed through the Avernal by night, having gone fifty-six miles over the burning sand without water, and reached the head of the Cholame River, in San Luis Obispo. After several days the Pacific Ocean was reached at San Luis Bay. They followed down the coast one hundred and ten miles to Santa Barbara, visiting, in the meantime, the wonderful Gaviota Pass, and Los Critas River, that flows sulphur water. The groves and gardens about Santa Barbara were the beautifulest they had seen in California, except about Los Angeles. But a spirit of adventure came near spoiling it all. Having hired a fishing-boat, "The Ocean King of San Diego," they resolved to have a sail, and in company with Bob Shelton, a young Kentuckian, two run-away boys from Iowa, one Spaniard, Chromo, and an Italian, Larco, they set sail from the Harbor of Santa Barbara, on the morning of August 4, 1883. It was a beautiful morning, and a gentle breeze was blowing, as they stood from the harbor. They passed the light-house some miles west of the city, and struck boldly off across the ocean toward Japan. About noon a storm came on and the boat was driven before it for six hours. The ocean was very rough, and the boat was almost helpless, and lay on its side. About six o'clock in the evening it was driven on the Santa Barbara Islands, one hundred and fifty miles from San Diego. The party reached the shore in a skiff that had been tied on the deck of the fishing boat. Only a limited quantity of provisions had been gotten ashore, and the wild foxes ran down from the mountains and eat part of that, so the supply only lasted about one meal. Two fish were caught and eaten and some cactus-apples were picked along the cliffs. On the third day the Spaniard caught a wild sheep among the mountains, and the whole party feasted, except Hu Maxwell, who was too contrary to eat mutton, and went without anything to eat until a boat picked them up and carried them back to the California coast, on the third night. After this the three boys went up the coast three hundred miles to Monterey, and from thence passed up the Pajaro Rio and crossed the Coast Mountains to San Luis Rancho and were again in the San Joaquin Valley, one hundred miles from Fresno, the starting point. The way was mostly across a lifeless desert, without water, trees or grass. Soon the horses gave out, and they were left in the care of the Kentuckian and the two Maxwell boys set forward on foot for Fresno. They had as provision, two biscuits, three potatoes and a quart of water in a canteen. They guided their course at night by the north star, and at day by the sun. The way was across a sandy desert, level as a floor, on which at day the mirage hid every object from view, and the scorching sun made the desert like a furnace. After two nights and a day they reached their destination. The hot sand had burnt their feet into blisters, and it was weeks before they recovered from the effects of the thirst, hunger and hardships of the desert. It was many days before the Kentuckian got out, but he saved the carriage and horses. The journey all in all, from leaving Fresno till returning to it was over 1,000 miles, and more than 300 miles of it through deserts. Not long after this, Hu left California, and C. H. Maxwell was again alone there. But he did not stay long. He taught a school at $75 a month, and upon its close returned, at the age of 21, to West Virginia, where he and his brother Hu bought the Tucker County Pioneer, and went into a partnership to publish the History of Tucker County. The remaining five boys of Rufus Maxwell's family are young, the oldest, T. E. Maxwell being nineteen, and a school teacher; the next younger, John F., is a student at Weston, and is a landscape painter. L. H. and C. J. are school boys and printers, and R. R., the youngest, digs weeds out of the garden. ------------------------------------------------------------------- From Death Certificate, Monongalia County, WV #8875 FULL-NAME: Dr. Cyrus Haymond Maxwell BIRTH-DATE: March 22, 1863 BIRTH-PLACE: Tucker Co., W.Va. DEATH-DATE: July 25, 1943 (at age 80y-5d) DEATH-PLACE: Grandview Ave., Morgantown, Monongalia County, WV USUAL-RESIDENCE: Grandview Ave., Morgantown, Monongalia County, WV MARITAL-STATUS: Married (Melvina J. Adams) OCCUPATION: Physician FATHER: Rufus Maxwell (born in W.Va.) MOTHER: Sarah Jane Bonnifield (born in W.Va.) CAUSE-OF-DEATH: Senile degeneration of organs & tissues of body INFORMANT: G. R. Maxwell (of Morgantown) BURIAL: East Oak Grove Cemetery, Morgantown ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Tucker County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/tucker/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------