Descendants of Hugh Maxwell (1800-1860)
Hugh and Agnes (Graham) Maxwell married in 1820, came to America from County Down, Ireland, in 1830, and originally settled along the southern border of Patton Township. Hugh died in 1860 and his wife died ten years later. Hugh and Agnes are listed among the charter members of Monroeville’s Cross Roads Presbyterian Church and they are buried, along with several generations of Maxwell’s in the Cross Roads Cemetery.
The couple had eight children. Two of their sons died in the Civil War, James and John. James was killed in the battle of Fair Oaks, and John died while a prisoner of war from wounds he received at the battle of Sulphur Springs. In 1862, a third son, Robert (1840-1928), enlisted in Co. G., 136th Pennsylvania Volunteers and served for nine months with the Army of the Potomac taking part in the battle of Chancellorsville.
After completing his enlistment term, Robert (1840-1928) returned to the family farm near Stewarts Station. In 1864, Robert married Mary Daugherty and the couple had eight children: John, Moffett, Laura, David Hugh Henry, Birdie May, William, Jennie Elizabeth and George Park.
In 1872 Robert bought a larger farm a few miles north along the Northern Pike, and moved the family to settle there. Robert carried on with the family farm/orchard business until his death in 1928.
Upon Robert’s death, his daughter Birdie and her husband, Joe Woods continued to live in the family farmhouse. Her brothers, George Park Maxwell, and David High Henry Maxwell, continued to live and farm parts of the original Maxwell property, adjacent to the Graham farm, along Northern Pike near today’s (2006) Fire Station #4.
When the Pennsylvania Turnpike was extended into Monroeville in 1950, it split the original property into two parts. Today, (2006) the land is home to several tracts of suburban housing.
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Sources:
History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (1889) Chicago: A. Warner & Company.
The Maxwells and the Grahams, by Jack Nesbitt, November, 2005.
19th Century Genealogical and personal histories of the Greater Monroeville area, unpublished paper. Paul Damon, 1986. Archives of the Monroeville Historical Society.