Jack Maxwell, Adopted Son of William and Lucretia Maxwell

Part of the Maxwell family in 1883. William Bailey and Lucretia Charlotte Maxwell
are seated on the left, with adopted Native American son Jack at Lucretia's left.

My grandmother, Elizabeth Iola Maxwell Bay, came from a great family heritage. I was twelve years of age when she died in 1969. She had been an invalid for most of my life and I honestly didn't know her well. It was only after I reached manhood that I began to read about her family history and first understood the significance of her family background. At some point I intend to write number of posts about the unusual, sometimes-tragic and always-inspiring lives of my Maxwell ancestors, including:

• The early life of my grandmother, Elizabeth Iola Maxwell, her keen intellect and stellar academic career and her ill-fated attempts to obtain an education at the University of Utah; 
• The perpetual motion of my third great grandfather, William Bailey Maxwell (1821-1895), who lived in Nauvoo, served in the Mormon Battalion and then settled his large family in various settlements in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Chihuahua and Sonora Mexico;
• The great contrasts in the life of my third great grandmother, Lucretia Charlotte Bracken (1823-1893), who was born in Indiana, lived a beautiful life in Nauvoo, trekked across the continent, bore numerous children while pioneering in a series of remote settlements, and ultimately died in Colonia Oaxaca at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Sonora, Mexico; 
• The short tragic life of my great, great grandfather, James Bailey Maxwell (1843-1876), who was murdered in a dispute over cattle in Panguitch, Utah; and
• My great grandfather, Charles Bennett Maxwell (1875-1950), who lost his father at fifteen months, his mother at five years, and who essentially fended for himself from the age of seven or eight.

As I've been begun reading more about the Maxwell family, my interest is drawn to a most touching letter. It was written in 1929 by Charlotte Maxwell Webb, the youngest daughter of William and Lucretia Maxwell, to President Anthony W. Ivins, a counselor in the First Presidency. Charlotte told the story of how her late parents had adopted two native American children, a boy and girl, and requested permission to have the two children sealed to her parents.

254 E. 2nd Street, Mesa, Ariz., Feb. 5th, 1929

President  Anthony W. Ivins,

Dear Brother. 

I am advised by Prest. Udall to write you concerning the adoption of my Father and Mother of two Indian children. A squaw of the Pavan* tribe died, leaving a delicate girl baby of about three months old. Father and Mother took her and took care of her as if she were their own. She was blessed and given the name of Imogene Maxwell. The camp was moving on as usual after a death and the infant was to be abandoned. She died of whooping cough in her seventh year in Eagle Valley, Nevada. Father gave the Indians a horse in exchange for the child.

About two years after the death of the little girl, the same Indians of the Shoshone tribe came for a hunt and celebration to the part of Nevada where we lived. During the carousal of drinking, gambling, etc., a woman and two children changed ownership. The eldest child, a boy of about eight years, resented the change and refused to accompany the new father back to their home. The mother besought my father to take the little fellow, and he gave her a horse, flour and beef in exchange.

He lived with my mother until her death and then lived with other members of the family until his death in 1897. He was baptized and given the name of John Maxwell. He was always treated as one of the family. Mother loved him and he was devoted to her. If it will be right to all parties, I should like to have these two children adopted to my parents, William B. and Lucretia C. Maxwell.

I am working in the Temple this winter and can attend to it if I am allowed the privilege of having it done.

Yours very respectfully,

Charlotte Maxwell Webb

[Note at bottom in a different hand]

I see no reason why these children may not be sealed to your parents.

February 8^th1929                        A.W. Ivins

Most touching to me is Charlotte Maxwell Webb's description of the Indian boy, John Maxwell, and the statement, "Mother loved him and he was devoted to her." You can really see that love and devotion in this closeup of the 1883 family group photo at the top of this post. In the description of the photo, this adopted Indian son is referred to by his family nickname, "Jack." Lucretia Maxwell is sitting between her husband and Jack, who by his very posture has a respectful, almost protective demeanor. The statement is also made by Charlotte Webb that Jack "lived with my mother until her death." This would have taken the boy not only to some of the remotest desert locations in the west, in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, but also to Chihuahua, Mexico for several years, then following a harrowing journey over the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, Jack helped his adoptive parents settle Colonia Oaxaca in the Mexican State of Sonora. It was there that Lucretia Maxwell died and was buried.

* Note: Charlotte Maxwell Webb refers to the "Pavan tribe." She undoubtedly meant the "Pahvant" band. See Wikipedia article: "Pahvant was a band of Ute people that lived in present-day Utah. Called the “Water People,” they fished and hunted waterfowl. They were also farmers and hunter-gatherers. In the eighteenth century they encountered the Dominguez-Escalante expedition, and were known to be friendly, but after a chief’s father was killed by emigrating white settlers, a group of Pahvant Utes killed John Williams Gunnison and seven of his men during his exploration of the area. The bodies of water of their homeland were dried up after the Latter-day Saints diverted the water for irrigation. Having intermarried with the Paiutes, they were absorbed into the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and relocated to reservations."