George Leonard Maxwell, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of George Leonard Maxwell
GEORGE LEONARD MAXWELL is a representative of the younger generation of energetic, enterprising and wide-awake business men and agriculturists of Porter county, and is ably sustaining the business prestige which his father, William L. Maxwell, established during a long and successful career as a grain merchant within the county.
Mr. Maxwell, who was born in Porter county, Indiana, on August 8, 1878, to William L. and Carolina Maxwell, comes of English and German descent and the hereditary influences of family and nationality have contributed to make of him at the age of thirty-three a successful business man and presage for him a career of the most honorable and useful activity. He was reared to farm pursuits and received a good, practical education, first in the common schools, then by two years' study in the city schools of Valparaiso, and by two years spent as a student in the University of Valparaiso. At the end of school day's he took up business life as an associate of his father in the grain business and continued to be thus identified ten years, the firm style being W. L. Maxwell and Company. In the spring of 1910 he severed this connection and has since given his attention to farming and to the sale of acetylene-light plants. Up to the present time he has placed thirty-eight of these plants in Porter and La Porte counties, mostly in rural homes. They embrace all of the most recent improvements in this system of lighting and are a pronounced success, adding to the rural home a beautiful find adequate lighting power, another convenience long reserved to the city residence. He is a practical farmer and progressive in his methods. It is to him a business, the details of which should receive the same careful supervision that a successful merchant would give to his mercantile interests. He keeps a strict account of the cost per acre of all that is produced upon the farm and of the profits derived from its sale or disposal. In his home is installed a gasoline engine which provides the power to wash and wring the clothes, churn, pump the water and for other uses, and thereby his wife is largely relieved of that heavy drudgery so long the bane of the farmer's wife. This fine farm of one hundred and thirty-six acres, of which he is in charge, is known as "The Maples," and lies along the Nickel Plate and Pennsylvania railroads in the southwestern part of Washington township. In the home, where abounds every convenience accessible to the modern rural residence, happiness and contentment prevail and its doors are often thrown open in generous hospitality to the many friends of the family.
On February 21, 1900, Mr. Maxwell was united in marriage to Miss Grace Whitcomb, who is also a native of Porter county. She was born October 3, 1876, the fourth in a family of two sons and five daughters born to Eli and Emily (Beach) Whitcomb, six of whom are living and are mentioned as follows: Clara is the wife of Walter Stoner, a farmer resident of La Porte county; Fred married Miss Nettie Anderson and is a farmer in Porter county; Mamie is the wife of Clarence Field, who is in the employ of the Grand Trunk Railway Company and resides in Valparaiso; Mrs. Maxwell; Jessie, who resides with her mother in Valparaiso; and Cammie, the youngest of the family, who is now the wife of Henry Chael, a farmer in Washington township. Eli Whitcomb was born in Iowa, in April, 1837, and died in February, 1889. He remained in his native state until twenty-one years of age, when he came to Indiana and first located in Morgan township, Porter county, but later removed to Washington township. He was formerly an old line Whig in politics, but became a Republican upon the organization of the latter party. His religious faith was expressed by membership in the Christian church. His wife, Emily Beach, was born in Washington township, Porter county, Indiana, on November 18, 1847, and is still living, being now a resident of Valparaiso. Mrs. Maxwell was reared in Washington township and received a good education. She graduated from the Valparaiso high school in 1894 and for five years was a successful teacher in Washington township, receiving her normal training in the Valparaiso Normal University. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
To Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell have been born six children, five of whom are living, namely: Clair De Forest, Kathryn and Wilma Louise, all pupils in the public schools, and Loring Lee and Wayne Dixon, who are yet at home. That Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell believe in development and advancement has already been seen, and they are especially interested in the progress of the public schools, where they believe in employing the best of professional ability in order to make their educational mission one of the greatest efficiency.
In politics Mr. Maxwell is a Republican but is aligned with that branch of his party known as the progressives or insurgents. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order as a member of Lodge No. 137, Free and Accepted Masons, and Chapter No. 79, Royal Arch Masons, at Valparaiso. Mrs. Maxwell is a member of Lodge No. 164, Order of the Eastern Star at Valparaiso. Both are young people who are held in the highest esteem.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 546-547
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook