Silas Whitford Maxson, son of Silas and Margaret E. (Whitford) Maxson, was born in the county of Jefferson and town of Rodman, N. Y., February 19, 1847, and died in Chicago, Ill., June 29, 1916, in the 70th year of his age.
Mr. Maxson was of a sturdy and rugged type of manhood, of firm faith, splendid integrity, and marked kindliness; and while his life was almost entirely spent in the work of education, he was in the usual sense of the term a self-made man, having enjoyed few even of the ordinary privileges of schooling.
In early life he confessed faith in Christ, was baptized, and united with the Seventh Day Baptist Church of Adams Center, N. Y., of which he remained a consistent and faithful member until a few years ago, when he united with the church of the same faith at Nortonville, Kan. He served one year as president of the conference.
At the age of nineteen he was married. His wife, Celestine A. Green, bore him two sons, William S. and Holly W., who have followed their father in the work of education. Both are graduates of Alfred University, and engaged in educational work in New York State.
Their mother died in 1902. Three years later, in January, 1905, Mr. Maxson married Miss Gertrude Griffin, of Nortonville, Kan., who has been a faithful and loving wife, and who gave him tender care in his last illness.
Mr. Maxson lived and taught in New York State until eight years ago. Since he ceased active educational work he has lived in Nortonville. He was an efficient principal, school commissioner, and inspector of training classes in the service of the State of New York, and his last work was in charge of teachers’ training classes at Alfred.
He was a Christian teacher of the older school. Novelties of doctrine never appealed to him. The Bible was his guide and the man of his counsel. His character was one of strict justice tempered with love. His pupils, save those who would do wrong, loved him. To the willful wrongdoer he was an avenging minister of wrath. But the largeness of his spirit and the greatness of his heart made him universally loved, and his death will be widely mourned.
Besides those mentioned he is survived by his brother, Mr. J. Murray Maxson, of Chicago, in whose home he died, and by his sister, Miss Inez Maxson, of Adams Center, N. Y.
A memorial service was held at the home where he died on the eve of the Sabbath, June 30, 1916, conducted by President William C. Daland, of Milton College, who spoke of the Christian’s view of death. Music was rendered by a quartet from the Chicago Seventh Day Baptist church. On Sunday July 2, funeral services were conducted in the Seventh Day Baptist church of Adams Center, N. Y., by A. Clyde Ehret, after which he was laid to rest in the Adams Center Union Cemetery. A. C. E.
