Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/333

 MAXWELL

MAXWELL

removed to Montgomery county, Ohio, and died there about 1820, and Nathaniel was apprenticed tto a tailor and about 1828 removed to Centreville. He abandoned his trade in 1842 and with Ellis S. Bradstreet established a general store. In 1846 Bradstreet withdrew and the business was con- tinued by Mr. Maxwell. He also served as treas- urer of his township almost continuously, 184^ 86 ; was a founder of the Centreville Union acad- emy, 1847 ; trustee of Glendale Female college and a leader in the public-school movement. He was a Henry Clay Whig and a founder of the Republican party in Ohio. He supported Salmon P. Chase for the party nomination for governor before the Whig convention of 1855 and the same year was defeated for representative in the state legislature by a small majority. He served as de- legate to numerous county, district and state con- ventions, which latter he reached on horseback riding more than one hundred miles to the state capital. He actively supported Abraham Lincoln for President in 1860 and the government in the ■ civil war. He was married, Nov. 18, 1830, to Eleanor, daughter of Sidney and Anna (Conover) Denise of Huguenot and Dutch stock. She died July 20. 1898. Their eldest son was Sidney Denise Maxwell (q.v.). Mr. Maxwell died in Centre- ville, Ohio, March 8, 1886.

MAXWELL, Sidney Denise, statistician, was born in Centreville, Ohio, Dec. 23, 1831 ; son of Nathaniel Van and Eleanor (Denise) Maxwell. He attended the public schools and academies of his native place ; was thoroughly educated to business ; studied law in the office of Gunckel & Strong, Dayton, Ohio ; was war correspondent for the Cincinnati Commercial, 1862-63 ; enlisted in tlie 131st Oiiio volunteer infantry as a private, serving in the summer of 1864 as sergeant-major of the forces at Fort Federal Hill, Baltimore ; was assistant clerk of the Ohio senate, 1864, and aide- de-camp and judge-advocate-general, with the rank of colonel, on the staffs of war of Gov. John Brough and Gov. Charles Anderson of Ohio, 1864- 65. He was assistant city editor of the Cincin- nati Gazette, 1868-71 ; agent at Cincinnati of the Western Associated Press, 1870-74 ; superintend- ent of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, 1871-91, serving as statistician of that body dur- ing the entire period : secretary to the Pork Packers' association, 1872-91 : expert statistician of the U.S. treasury department for the Cincin- nati district, 1875-85 ; and in 1878 he delivered the initial lecture of a course that resulted in the founding of the Cincinnati Art museum. He was married, June 30, 1875, to Isabella Neflf, eldest daughter of Col. Peter Rudolph and Caroline Margaretta (Burnet) Neflf, of Cincinnati, the latter being the granddaughter of Judge Jacob Burnet •of the Northwest Territory and great-grand-

daughter of Dr. William Burnet, surgeon-general of the eastern division of the Continental army. He is the author of : The Report of the Exposition of Textile Fabrics held under the Auspices of the Woolen Manufacturers' Association of the North- west (1869) ; The Suburbs of Cincinnati (1870) ; The History of the First Cincinnati Industrial Exposition (1870) ; Tfie Manufacturers of Cin- cinnati, a lecture (1878) ; Annual Rej)orts of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce (18 vols., 1871- 91) ; Dedicatory Exercises of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce (1889) ; the hymn sung on the dedication of the new building for the Chamber of Commerce in 1889, and other poems, statistical pamphlets and various adJreeses and papers on commercial organization and kindred subjects.

MAXWELL, William, soldier, was born in county Tyrone, Ireland, in 1733 ; son of John and Ann Maxwell, who settled on a farm in Greenwich township, Morris county, N. J., about 1 747. He had two younger brothers, John, a captain, and Robert, a lieutenant, in the Revolutionary service. Wil- liam enlisted in the Colonial army and was under General Braddock at Fort Duquesne, July 9, 1755 ; with General Amherst at Ticonderoga in July, 1759, and probably with General Wolfe at Quebec in September, 1759. He was promoted colonel and was attached to the commissary department at Mackinaw. Prior to 1773 he resigned from the British service and was chairman of the commit- tee of safety of Sussex county that met at New- ton, Aug. 10-11, 1773. On July 16, 1774, he was appointed a deputy to secure representation for New Jersey in the general congress. He was a representative in the 1st and 2d Provisional con- gresses of New Jei-sey, 1775, and was commis- sioned by the general congress, colonel of the New Jersey battalion for Continental service, Nov. 8, 1775. He reached the army in Canada in March, 1776 ; took part in the battle of Three Rivers, June 8, 1776, and conducted the retreat with merit. He opposed the abandonment of Crown Point, and on Oct. 28, 1776, was commis- sioned brigadier-general and was sent by Wash- ington to take command of the militia at Morris- town and harass the British army quartered there. While thus engaged the battles of Trenton and Princeton were fought, and the success of 3Max- well's brigade at Morristown led to his following and annoying the retiring army through Newark, Elizabethtown and Spanktown (Rah way). He was then attached to General Stephen's division, and during the summer of 1777 marched through Pennsylvania. The Jersey line openetl the battle of Brandywine, and afterward his brigade had a skirmish at White Horse Tavern. His brigade, with some North Carolina troops under Gen. Lord Stirling, formed the left wing and reserve