Benton Co., AR - Biographies - Rev. Andrew J. Maxwell

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        Date: 20 Jun 1998
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SOURCE:  Goodspeed Publishers, 1890.
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Rev. Andrew J. Maxwell, farmer, is a son of Ebenezer and Martha Jane (Griffin) Maxwell, and was
born in East Tennessee in 1840. [For parents' history see sketch of Michael Burkhalter Maxwell.]
Andrew J. is one of twelve children, six of whom are living: Michael B., Calvin, Oziras D., Irena
(widow of John Deason), Andrew J. and Jane (wife of R. S. Woods). Andrew J. was twelve years old
when he was brought to Benton County. His boyhood days were spent in following the plow and in
attending the common schools, and in September, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, Fifteenth
Regiment "North West" Infantry, participating in the following battles: Pea Ridge, Port Gibson,
Vicksburg, Baker's Creek, Shreveport and numerous skirmishes. He was captured at Pea Ridge, and
was kept a prisoner at Alton, Ill., for seven months. He was also taken prisoner at Vicksburg,
but after five days' captivity succeeded in effecting his escape. After the war he returned home,
and August 15, 1865, he was married to Miss Eliza Jane Woods, a daughter of Samuel P. and Eliza
G. (Dickson) Woods. Mrs. Maxwell was born in Benton County, Ark., in January, 1846, and became
the mother of nine children: Samuel Newton, Thomas Jeremiah, Margaret Emeline, John Smart. Laura
Belle, Letitia Ann, Stella Graves, Fred Lee and Charles Calvin. In 1866 Mr. Maxwell purchased his
present farm of 153 acres. He became a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1860, but
united with the Missionary Baptist Church in 1883, and was ordained a minister of that church in
the following year. In 1885 he was given charge of the Pea Ridge, Lowell and Pleasant Sight
Churches, but in 1887 he gave up preaching in the Lowell Church, retaining charge of the Pea
Ridge and Pleasant Sight Churches, and preaching twice a month in each.