San Joaquin County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



MAXWELL H. CUSICK.
 
        A successful stock-raiser, Maxwell H. Cusick owns and conducts a 
thirty-two acre ranch, where he breeds pure Holstein dairy cattle and 
Duroc-Jersey hogs. He was born near Rochester, Monroe County, N. Y., on May 9, 
1862, a son of James Maxwell and Mary E. (Wellman) Cusick, the former a native 
of Monroe County, N. Y., and the latter of Albany Co., N. Y. When Maxwell H. 
Cusick was a little over four years old, he was taken by his parents to 
Minnesota where they settled near Owatonna, Steele County, where he first 
attended school. The father, James Maxwell Cusick, bought school land in 
Minnesota and lived there until 1897, when he came to Southern California. There 
were eight children in the family: Morris resides at Fullerton, Cal.; Maxwell of 
this review; George lives at Byron, Cal.; Mary resides in Rochester, Minn.; Emma 
lives at Geneva, Minn.; Augusta lives in Mankato, Minn.; Henrietta, deceased; 
Jessie resides in Los Angeles, Cal. The father passed away at Whittier, Cal., at 
the age of ninety-five years. Mrs. Cusick lived to reach her ninety-first year. 
This worthy couple lived together for almost sixty-five years.
        When Maxwell H. Cusick was seventeen years of age, he left home and 
began teaching school in Minnesota and attended the Academy, teaching between 
times to support himself. In 1887 he attended Madison University (now Colgate 
University), Hamilton, N. Y., and in 1891 finished at the University of 
Rochester, N. Y. He then entered the ministry of the Baptist Church at St. 
Charles and Granite Falls, Minn.; and later was minister at Rose and Walworth, 
N. Y. Giving up the ministry, he engaged in farming near Rochester, N. Y., for 
seven years, and in 1903 sold his real estate there and came to California, 
settling at La Habra, where he continued his farming operations until 1908. 
Removing to Oregon, he homesteaded a ranch on the Rogue River, which he proved 
up on and later sold on account of his wife's health. The family then moved to 
Santa Rosa, Cal., and in 1914, Mrs. Cusick passed away. They were the parents of 
six children. Milton resides in Stockton. He served as second lieutenant of 
infantry during the World War, trained troops in the United States, then was 
sent to Europe and was there when the armistice was signed; he remained there 
during the winter and was sent to Edinburgh University at Edinburgh, where he 
took an agricultural course for four months, then returned to the United States. 
Mary lives at Stockton; James and Roy live at Ripon; James served as a sergeant 
in the air service, as a mechanic, spending two years in Europe, then returned 
to the United States and received his discharge; Henrietta lives in Stockton; 
and Ida is at home.
        After Mrs. Cusick's death, the family came to San Joaquin County to the 
present home about one mile east of Harmony Grove schoolhouse, where Mr. Cusick 
purchased thirty-two acres of land and where he maintains his herd of pure-bred 
Holstein cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs. In politics, he is a Republican, and 
while residing in Oregon was justice of the peace of his township.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p  1550        
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.