Robert James Maxwell

by Robert James Maxwell

I was born August 31, 1902, at 423 West 48th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues in the Borough of Manhattan, NYC.

There were six children in our family, in this manner: William, Thomas, Harry, (myself) Robert J., Elmer, Alice. Elmer died at birth.

Our father's name was Thomas Maxwell and our mother's name was Caroline. They were a wonderful father and mother.

We lived a very happy life together while it lasted. Our father worked in a foundry. He was a brass molder and made good money, but it was very unhealthy work. He had worked there several years when he was stricken with tuberculosis.

He went to a doctor and he told our father to get our of the foundry and get some other work outdoors, which he did, but to no avail. He just got worse and the Good Lord took him.

Well, in those days, when something like this happened and the mother was left with a family of five children, it was a problem. There was no ADC (Aid to Dependent Children) or Relief (welfare) like they have now to help out until the children can get big enough to work and help out. So, they put Harry, myself, and Alice in an orphanage upstate in New York.

William and Thomas were old enough to make their own way, so they didn't have to go to the orphanage.

The Home was about 180 miles from New York City. It was five miles from a town called Millbrook and a small village called Verbank.

We were all baptized in Christ Church.

We went to the Home and were there for four years. We had good care, plenty to eat and drink, good clothes and all. We went to school and church. We helped work in the gardens and orchards in the summer. We all had jobs to do.

There were about 200 boys and girls there while we were there. There were six cottages for the children...so many to a cottage. They had men and women to run the institution and oversee the children.

The farm was called "Hope Farm." It consisted of 640 acres of land and all the buildings. It was self-supporting, most of the way. They had their own milk cows, beef cattle, hogs, chickens, eggs, and they raised their own vegetables and fruit. They canned their own fruit and vegetables. They had their own cannery.

We had lots of recreation areas. We had our own gymnasium, swimming pool, baseball diamond, and such. In the winter, we had plenty of good skiing hills, coasting hills, and ice skating places.

After we were there four years, Harry was 16 years old, I was 14, and Alice was 11. They told Harry and I [in 1916] that they would take us and some other boys and girls to Iowa and Arkansas and find us good homes. And, if we liked it out there, we could stay, and if we didn't, we could go back to New York City or wherever we wished to go.

They said our cousin, Edith Halbran, and her husband, Ames, wanted to take Alice and make a home for her...which they did. They had a girl named Ruth of their own and they would be companions for each other.

So, Harry and I went to Iowa. There were about fifty in the group that left New York City with our guardians. We went by trains.

When we got to Chicago, they split us up. Twenty-five went to Arkansas, and the other twenty-five went to Iowa. We went to Osage, Iowa. They took us to the Congregation Church in Osage.

They notified the people before we got there. There were a lot of people there who were interested in taking a boy or girl into their home and, if everything turned out O.K., they would either adopt them or just keep them and make a home for them.

Well, as it turned out, I made my home with a Mr. and Mrs. John Wright, nine miles east of Orchard, Iowa. That is six miles from Osage.

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From letter of Robert Lee Maxwell to OTHSA

"Dad [Robert James Maxwell] was a farmer for several years. He then went to Charles City, Iowa, and was a machinist for the rest of his life. He worked at the Oliver Tractor Corporation for several years, then moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the war to work.

"He retired and moved back to Charles City, Iowa. He passed away in May of 1977.

"Dad and Uncle Harry are buried beside each other in the Riverside Cemetery in Charles City, Iowa.

"Dad had 2 sons, 7 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great-grandchild.

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