Person:Beverly Maxedon (1)

Bev lived at a rooming house in Chicago Illinois early in the 20th century. The rooming house was owned by Gamaliel and Cornelia Townsend who were from Cass County, Michigan. There daughter, Edna and her daughter Mary, moved from Cass County to Chicago after the death (in 1913 by lightening) of Edna's husband and Mary's father, Arthur James. Bev met Edna, they fell in love and married 11 Jan 1915. They had two son's, Marshall in Nov 1915 and Maurice in Feb 1917, plus he was a wonderful step-father to Mary who had been born Aug 1902. Bev was a cabinet maker, and a master violin craftsman. If it was made of wood, Bev could do it. He once made an alter for a church too. What I remember was the violins though...he had a single car garage behind the house in Niles Michigan that was converted into his shop. The smells of wood and varnish are still fresh in my mind. He was an easy going guy, soft spoken and I never saw him angry. He smoked a pipe and would tap it on his hand as he thought about something he was about to say. Edna on the other hand was a bit of a spit-fire, but when she would start in on him about something, he'd just saunter out to his wood shop for awhile, he never fought back. They owned a parakeet named "Billy" who was blue and white and talked his head off. Grandpa taught the bird to say "Billy's a pretty bird" and other assorted sayings, but my favorite was that he taught Billy to say "Oh shut up" when Edna started in on Grandpa, so he quietly got some revenge. Grandpa used to tell about his early life in Iowa and how he rode the stagecoach, something we only saw on TV in the westerns.