San Diego County Biographies
  
CHESTER W. MAXSON

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


one of Oceanside's livliest and most reliable business men, was born in Cedar 
County, Iowa, September 12, 1853. His father, William Maxson, was a native of 
Pennsylvania and was born in 1805. He was a pioneer of Cedar County, having 
moved there at an early day, and was very highly esteemed by his neighbors and 
acquaintances. He was well informed upon general subjects and took a lively 
interest in the subject that then agitated the country, and had no sympathy for 
slavery in boasted free America. John Brown and his men often stopped with him, 
and Mr. C. W. Maxson has many valuable relics of John Brown: one, a hickory
sword, made by John Brown to drill with, and the other a life-size oil painting 
of John Brown. Mr. Maxson, Sr., had these portraits made and presented one of 
them to each of his children. Mr. William Maxson died in 1877. Mr. Maxson's 
mother, Hannah R. (Keisler) Maxson, was born in Ohio, January 4, 1827. She was 
the daughter of Mr. Josiah Keisler, and was married to Mr. Maxson September 9, 
1852. They had a family of four children, of which Mr. Maxson was the eldest. 
His father had had a former wife by whom he had five boys. Four of them served 
the country in the great war of the Rebellion and all of them returned at the 
close of the war. Mr. Maxson received his education in the public schools of 
West Liberty, Iowa. When through with school he became a clerk in a general 
merchandise store and continued in that business about eleven years. In 1878 he 
went to Leadville, where he prospected for gold for four years, until he had 
spent all the money he had. He then went to the southern part of Colorado, where 
he worked as a laborer for the Colorado Coal & Iron Company for awhile, but was 
soon made weighmaster. While here he became acquainted with Franklin McVeigh & 
Co., and they put him in charge of one of their stores with which they were not 
satisfied. He looked the situation over and decided that the store could not be 
run successfully at that place, so reported, and they consolidated the stock 
with one of their stores in a better locality. He remained with them until 1885, 
when he went to his old home, West Liberty, Iowa, for a short visit. In March, 
1866, he went to Chicago, and on March 19, 1886, he started for San Diego, where 
he arrived March 24. After looking the country over, he formed a partnership 
with C. F. Francisco and opened a general merchandise store in Oceanside, which 
he continued successfully for a year, when, desiring to engage in the 
real-estate business, he sold the store to C. S. Hamilton & Co., who are still 
running the business. He then formed a partnership with Mr. Griffin in the 
real-estate and insurance business, afterward bought Mr. Griffin's interest, and 
added money-lending to the business. He has the agency for the People's Home 
Savings Bank of San Francisco, and has done a large amount of business for them. 
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has taken the blue lodge, 
chapter and commandery degrees, and is Chancellor Commander of the Knights of 
Pythias. He was elected trustee of Oceanside, only lacking two votes of an 
unanimous vote.
        He was married October 15, 1877, to Miss Flora Cady, of Casey, Guthrie 
County, Iowa, daughter of Mr. Charles Cady, who was born January 12, 1862.. They 
have two children: Gertrude C., born in Colorado, December 30, 1882, and Roy 
Charles, born in Oceanside, October 17, 1886.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  263-264