Notes for: Franklin Maxwell

Franklin Maxwell was "one of the State's most extensive landowners. He once represented the district of which the county of Doddridge was a part in the West Virginia Senate." [son's obituary]

Local news item, "The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer," Mar 29 1882, in its entirety:
"Senator Maxwell, of Doddridge county, left for his home on the Andes yesterday accompanied by his daughter, Miss Susie, who has been here with her father during the session, forming a valuable addition to Wheeling society."

He is said to have helped many poor laborers to homes of their own by permitting them to live on his lands and by giving them time to make payments, provided that they were honest and industrious. [Minnie Kendall Lowther's "History of Ritchie County," p. 601]

The 1860 Census showed the value of Franklin Maxwell's real estate to be $50,000, and the value of his personal estate to be $8,000. By the time of the 1870 Census, those values had increased to $80,000 and $40,000. According to his obituary, he left an estate worth about a half million dollars.