Oscar Sidney Maxell was born in
Orient, Maine on June 1, 1879 on Maxell Settlement Road. He held the position
of deacon in the Orient Baptist church longer than anyone else. He
was a confectioner who had his own candy store on Congress Street in Portland, Maine.
Oscar was a staunch republican, who held the position of state representative for two terms. He was on the Temperance Committee. A fitting committee due to the fact he was against alcohol and managed to keep the state of Maine dry for years. He was also House Chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee.
Oscar vacationed in
Florida with his wife Susie and daughter Shirley every winter. He
became president of the Maine-Florida Society of more than 200 members. Here he
would promote the state of Maine and all that it offered.
On
March 3, 1931, Oscar sailed aboard the SS Governor Cobb out of Tampa, FL
for a five-day trip to Cuba. In his diary, he summed up his visit to the
island this way: "The Cubans are a friendly people and hold U.S. of
America, and its people, in high esteem. The Cubans its (sic) all
America, both North and South, but they always emphasize the United States of
America to which they belong. On every hand, the names of General Wood
and Teddy Roosevelt, and others, are, to them, sacred, and they avoid being
connected with Spain...even say 'we speak the Cuban and English language, and
not Spanish', where as a matter of fact, it is Spanish." Oscar, a
strong prohibitionist, firmly believed that "with the Cubans taking the
U.S. as their example, someday will adopt prohibition." He truly
believed in the "words of Gifford Gordon: 'Hold on, America! The son
follows in the footsteps of the father and one day Cuba will follow their
father in prohibition'."
Oscar
was well-known throughout the Aroostook County of Maine. New Newspapers would
often have stories of his him, and his family. Stories of his political career,
stories of his family in Florida and how his daughter Shirley was crowned Queen
in the Maine-Florida Society. They led a privileged life.
Oscar
was interviewed frequently by the news media. This newspaper article read,
"Grandson of Pioneers.”
Oscar’s
father, Sidney P Maxell was born in Orient, Maine on June 7, 1848 to Thomas
Jefferson Maxell and Elizabeth (Betty) Jane Colson. Oscar was one of six children.
The article went on to quote Oscar. “There were six in our family and we children
found plenty to do on father’s one hundred acre farm. My grandfather, Thomas,
was one of Orient’s earliest settlers. I
still possess the old family Bible that came from the old county. He took a
plot in the wilderness in Orient, built a log cabin, and cleared the forest and
brush for planting crops.”
“I heard my grandmother, Betty, tell
how often at night it was necessary for him to go forth with an axe and drive
away bears from the wheat patch. Grandmother said she was often awakened at
night by the howling of wolves, and when grandfather was away she would let the
fire go out because she was afraid to go to the wood pile because of prowling
Indians.”
“There were no roads in those days
and when grandfather had wheat to be found he carried it in a bag on his back
through the woods to the grist mill at Hodgdon. (The town borders the province
of New Brunswick, Canada to the east and Houlton to the north.) After living in
a log cabin for a considerable time grandfather put up a frame building which
burned. After that disaster, he built the old Maxell homestead in which I was
born”.
“When I was a boy all the famers for miles around engaged in mixed farming,
cattle, sheep and hog raising. Every
fall each farmer sold eight or ten head of yearlings and these cattle were
driven to Danforth and shipped to Bangor. Sometimes these herds included
several hundred head of cattle. Hundreds of sheep were also driven to Danforth.”
“When I was 15 years old, I joined three other boys in driving a large flock
of sheep to Danforth and I shall never forget the experience. We started at
6:00 a.m. and it was 3:00 p.m. before we pulled into Danforth. We were
exhausted from chasing those sheep. Often the leader would head for a noise in
a fence and the entire flock would follow him. Sometimes it would be an hour
before we got the flock back on the road and headed in the right direction.”
